So, are we the only ones who notice that time and stress are almost always closely tied together?
For many of us, stress often comes from being worried about not finishing work on time. The irony is that this same stress has a way of even further delaying getting things done. Can you say PROCRASTINATION? All of which ends up becoming a vicious cycle that leaves us stressed out and without much work getting done.
Not Managing Your Time Can Stress You, And Others, Out
So, these procrastination delays can cause a whole domino effect of frustration. The problem is that it starts with you and can end with your customer. And that’s the last feeling you want to pass on as a customer experience.
But, the good news is we can avoid all of this!
Mastering Time Management Skills
The answer lies in mastering some proper time management skills to give yourself enough time to get your projects done easily and avoid a scenario in which you’re overly stressed out.
Distraction is the Enemy
When you’re stressed out because you don’t feel like you have enough time to complete a project, the logical thing to do would be to get to work. However, that rarely ends up being the case.
Chances are, if you’re stressed out about work, you’ll find ways to distract yourself so that you feel better in the short term. The problem is that in the long term, you’re going to be making things much worse for yourself!
There are all kinds of excuses that you’ll see yourself come up with. You might claim that you’re distracting yourself to be more creative for a bit or to get yourself feeling better so that you can then work more efficiently.
Even if that’s true, the chances are high that you will be spending more time than you’re saving, leading to you having even less time actually to complete your project. With time management skills, you can avoid this situation altogether because it’s challenging to get out of once you’re in it.
Here are our top two two tips to reduce stress, remove distraction and get your stuff done!
1. Plan Your Project (And Be REAL About It!)
First, you can carefully plan out your project’s schedule and how long it will take you to do it. Don’t cut corners at this stage – you need to be completely honest. If you claim that a part of your work will only take 30 minutes, because that’s the fastest you can do it, don’t count on that.
If there’s a chance it’ll take you two hours, budget for that to take you two hours. If you end up taking less time, that’s great. However, if you do take up that much time, you’ll have already accounted for it so that you won’t be playing catch-up.
2. Cut the Distractions
You also need to cut out any time distractions to see how much of your time is being spent on things that aren’t work.
You’d be surprised how quickly time can fly when you’re watching shows online or scrolling through social media or reading awesome blog posts. Apart from Handmade Life content, let’s all agree that your time could be better spent getting ahead in your work or catching up if that’s what you need to do!
Thanks for dropping by Handmade Life. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
