Career Corner, by Christine Fruehwirth
For a majority of my coaching clients, the pursuit of finding a new career path or passion in life is challenged by the desire to find the time to do it. For families in communities such as River Falls, one of the biggest challenges today is being overscheduled and not feeling connected to one another.
Through research and even personal experience, being overscheduled typically comes down to one or both of these issues: (1) underestimating the time it takes to do activities/commitments or (2) overcommitting to too many activities, social engagements, etc. Many of us simply feel “stretched thin.”
The first step to finding more time and balancing your life is to figure out how you are currently spending your time. Then, you can start making adjustments. Here are just a few suggestions on becoming less overscheduled and more in control of your time.
1. Be realistic about what you can accomplish: People have different demands on their lives, number and ages of children, even personal energy levels so do not feel pressure to keep up with others. Setting realistic expectations for yourself to match those demands will help in the long run in terms of reducing stress and improving quality of life. You can always get more involved later.
2. Prioritize based on your personal and family values: Be selective about commitments for you and your family and say “no” to new commitments that don’t fit your value threshold or personal goals. We all want to please others and be helpful, but once you get in the habit of deciding what makes the “cut” and what doesn’t, the benefits are endless. One helpful tip is to do detailed research, through multiple sources, before you or your child joins something new to know exactly what you are committing to ahead of time. I know some families that establish rules for the children to not exceed an activity/season limit.
3. Delegate: Delegation does not just mean hired help. It also means getting children more involved in household chores. Studies show that children gain self-esteem and feel more involved in their families when they have household responsibilities.
4. Plan ahead: Almost everyone uses some sort of day planner these days. My recommendation is to try to spread appointments/activities/meetings out and avoid scheduling things so close together you find yourself stressed getting everywhere or always running behind. Build in this “buffer time” to deal with inevitable delays.
5. Get organized: Throw out things of no use to you and get rid of clutter. Give things away, sell on E-Bay, or garage sales. Try to only handle paperwork once and come up with an effective filing system. One tip I saw in the local paper last year was to sort mail in the garage so junk mail and unappealing catalogs go directly in the recycling bin.
6. Find ways to be efficient: These suggestions are little things that can add up to big time savers--
• Carpool as much as possible
• Automated bill pay
• Delivery services for food, dry cleaning
• Bulk shopping (Costco, Target, etc)
• Shop on-line and group or combine errands together (i.e. get cash and stamps at the grocery store)
• Birthday or hostess gift/card closets
• Check voicemail and email once a day instead of all day
• Turn off the TV unless it is one of your favorite shows/use TiVO or similar type products
• Maximize moments while you wait (i.e. return phone calls, pay bills, take reading, write thank you notes, make out shopping lists, books on tape).
Please contact me about any tools or techniques you have found helpful in managing your time as a parent for me to include in a future article. Also, please let me know if you have any particular career question you are interested in having me address.
Christine Fruehwirth has an MBA from the University of Virginia, Darden School of Business and is a certified career and life coach through the Life Purpose Institute in San Diego, CA. She has lived in River Falls for 18 months with her husband, John, and three young children.