Let’s face it, women are born multi-taskers.  Ask a man to throw in a load of laundry and start dinner and he’ll probably respond, “And you want me to start dinner too?”  That’s because men’s brains are compartmentalized and women’s brains are not.  All the wiring is connected in a woman’s brain and this can be a blessing and a curse.  The curse is that we try to do too much (i.e., multi-tasking), but can often end up spinning our wheels and burning out. Time Management strategies for women is the answer.

I love what Timothy Ferris, the author of one of my favorite books, “The 4-Hour Workweek” says about being busy:

“Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.  The options are almost limitless for creating “busyness”:  You could call a few hundred unqualified sales leads, reorganize your Outlook contacts, walk across the office to request documents you don’t really need, or fuss with your Blackberry for a few hours when you should be prioritizing.”

So the big question is:  Are you busy or are you productive?

Peter Drucker, who has written more than 30 books including, “The Practice of Management”, in which Drucker developed “Management by Objectives” (MbO), a management concept based on objective-setting and self-supervision, saids:  “What gets measured gets managed.”

Unfortunately, most people believe being busy means they are getting things done, but this is often not the case.  I’ll use myself as an example.  I’ve run an online business part-time for about a decade now, however, this year, I made the leap to running my online business full-time and eliminating my outside sales job.  It was a difficult transition and it seemed like I got more done when I had less time.

The reason I got more done when I had less time was two-fold and had to do with my lack of time management strategies:

1. I was busy, but not effective. Being effective is doing the things that will bring you closer to your goals.  Busy for me was checking emails 10 times a day, answering my phone regardless of whether it was personal or business, playing my favorite game on my phone “Words with Friends” and meeting my girlfriends for lunch.  No wonder I wasn’t getting anything done.  I had too much time, no specific goals and no accountability.  Bad combination.  So what I did to fix this problem was hire a life coach who worked with me “gently” to solidify my business goals, eliminate the busy-ness (unimportant tasks) and be accountable to.  My goal daily is to have 4 productive hours a day and to be effective.  So the tasks I work on now are those that bring me closer to my goals.  Things I had to eliminate:  the cell phone goes in the other room on vibrate while I am working in my office, no “Words with Friends”, I meet girlfriends at the end of the day for happy hour instead of lunch which disrupts my work flow, and I no longer check emails 10 times a day; instead I check them 4 times a day and that works for me. *Note: I strive for progress, not perfection.
2. I had too much time and no deadlines. This is a very important concept:  “A task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.”  It’s the magic of the imminent deadline.  It’s called “Parkinson’s Law” and it’s true that when you have a shorter deadline, the pressure force you to focus on execution.

So here are my Time Management Tips for Women who do too much:

• Sit down and write out very specific business and personal goals for the next 6 months and read this daily;
• Specify exactly how many productive hours of work you want to achieve per day and commit to that;
• Identify those unimportant “busy” tasks that prevent you from being productive and efficient and ELIMINATE them!
• Find an “Accountability” partner; I highly recommend my Life Coaching program, however, if money is an issue right now then simply enlist a friend or colleague to keep each other accountable for your weekly goals;
• Set deadlines for your goals and write them down;
• Create your “to do” list the night before and read it before you go to bed so you have a action plan when you get up and are not subject to the whims of the day;
• Always have 2 items on your to do list that you absolutely, positively must get done no matter what comes up.

Here are a few questions Timothy Ferris suggests you ask yourself daily:

1. If you had a heart attack and had to work two hours per day, what would you do?
2. If you had a second heart attack and had to work two hours per week, what would you do?
3. If you had a gun to your head and had to stop doing 4/5 of different time consuming activities, what would you remove?
4. What are the top 3 activities that I use to fill my time to feel as though I’ve been productive?
5. Learn to ask, “If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?”
6. Put a post-it note on your computer screen or set an Outlook reminder to alert you at least 3 times daily with the question, “Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important?”
7. DO NOT MULTITASK!
8. Use Parkinson’s Law on a Macro and Micro Level.

So to sum it up, multitasking may be your curse.  If you prioritize properly, however, there will be no need to multi-task.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that you have been productive just because you are busy 10 hours a day.  Choose your 2 primary goals for the day and do not stop until you get them completed.

Take it from me, divided attention and distractions (even the self-imposed distractions) lead to lapses in concentration, poor results and less fulfillment.

So stop being a woman who does too much, and start being a Woman who knows what she wants, gets the “right” things done, and achieves her goals!