3 Steps To Effective Time Management For Moms (Or Anyone Else)

A Short Introduction

I would like to introduce you to someone whom the Lord has used greatly in our lives lately. His name is Hugh Liddle, and he is a coach in sales and time management.

This post may take you a few minutes to read, but your efficiency and effectiveness could change forever as a result of it!

Look out for Hugh’s great FREE OFFER at the end of the post 🙂

Photo credit: Krissy.Venosdale via photopin cc

There’s an old saying that man may work from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.  There’s more than a grain of truth in that.  Being a mom and seeing to your children’s welfare, happiness, and holiness is pretty much a full time job in and of itself. When you add all the other aspects of life; spiritual, physical, social, mental, relational, job or business, it’s easy to become quite overwhelmed and frustrated.

So here are three steps that can put you on the road to effectively managing your time and your tasks and making your life easier, more organised, more productive and more fulfilling.

Determine and Prioritise Your Values

What are the most important things in life to you?

• God?
• Your family?
• Your personal development?
• Physical fitness and health?
• Your job?
• Money?
• Travel? 3 Steps To Effective Time Management For Moms (Or Anyone Else)

Your values, the things you treasure most, are the basis for organizing and planning your life. <– Click to Tweet

That’s why it’s so important to prioritize.  First things first.  When your life is in harmony with your values, you can have peace of mind, knowing that you are taking care of the most important things.

So take some time to sit down and write a list of the things you value most in life.  When your list is complete, put each value in priority order.

Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Once you have your prioritized list of values, you can set some goals for yourself.  You can use the S.M.A.R.T. goal system.

Your goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.  As you’re setting your goals, set them for each prioritized value you’ve identified.  This gives you a target to shoot for in each area.

An example of how to use this method is if health is one of your major values, and you’re overweight, you can set a goal to be at your desirable weight.

Specific.  State your goal in present tense.  “I weigh 125 pounds on June 1, 2014.”

Measurable.  “I can get on the scale and see what progress I made toward the goal this month.”

Achievable (125 pounds isn’t, for me).  If I said, I want to lose 75 pounds in the next three weeks, that would be impossible to achieve.

Relevant. Should health be one of your major values, it’s important to you and you will feel emotion and desire around it.

Time-bound.  It says that you weigh 125 pounds on a specific date.

Write your list of goals every day, so they stay firmly in your consciousness.

Engage in Daily Planning

This is the step that takes your goals and makes them reality.  Dedicate 15 to 20 minutes every evening to planning your day.  Here’s what you do:

1)  Every night, write down the things you would like to accomplish the next day.

2)  Prioritise each item as either:

A = Essential – must be done today
B = Important – must be done, but not necessarily today
C = Neither Vital nor Important: would be nice to do if you get everything else done
D – Delete or delegate – this doesn’t need to be on your list

3)  Now go through all your A’s and prioritise each ‘A’ as 1, 2, 3 etc. So if you have three A’s, you’ll have an A1, A2, and A3. Do the same with your B’s, C’s and D’s.

4)  Work on your A1 priority until it is finished.  Then go to A2 and A3. When you finish the A’s go on to B1, B2 and so on.

5)  When you look back at the end of the day, you may not have accomplished everything on your list, but you will have accomplished the most important things.

6)  Move the unfinished items to tomorrow’s list.  Then add other things that you need to get done, and re-prioritise using the A, B, C, D, and numbering method I’ve just shared.

If you’ll take action and follow the three steps above to the letter, you’ll find yourself accomplishing your most important tasks every day and you’ll be more fulfilled, more peaceful, and more in control of the events of your life! <– Click to Tweet

If you’d like to learn to manage your tasks in your business and your sales, so you get the most out of every day, I’d like to help.  Just complete my 5-minute survey, and then I’ll contact you to make a time to chat about it. Pro bono (Yep, that means FREE)!

What do you find to be the most difficult aspect of managing your time and what is keeping you trying a new system?

Hugh Liddle is a sales coach, author, speaker and radio talk  show host in Sebring, Florida, USA.  He teaches salespeople and business owners to be great at sales, coaches clients in time/task management and helps people understand, relate to, communicate with and sell to others who have different personality styles.  He resides in Sebring with his wife, Priscilla, Mooch and Minnie the cats and Snappy the Alligator!  He has 6 children, 12 grandchildren and a brand new great-grandson.

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