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​Many of us look back at the end of the day and wonder where our time went. Best-laid plans vanish with the first emergency of the day, and the remaining hours unravel from there.
 
Scheduling your time effectively can be challenging, but it's crucial for achieving your goals, being productive, and reducing stress. Below are some tips to help you start getting a handle on your day.

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In today's fast-paced, hustle-and-bustle world, we often find ourselves caught in a relentless cycle of more. More activity. More achievement. More commitment. 
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In pursuing more, we often overlook a fundamental aspect of human existence: the necessity of rest and recovery. Just like a machine cannot function at peak performance without regular maintenance, our bodies and minds also need periods of rejuvenation to perform at their best.

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​I was listening to a podcast recently, and the guest, a personal trainer, made a statement that really struck me. He said so many people he works with approach exercise with a mindset of self-loathing and punishment because they feel inadequate or unattractive. While the subject was exercise, I realized it's true on a much broader scale.

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How often do you hang your head in frustration because 24 hours a day just isn't enough?
 
Time is one of the most valuable resources you have. You can never get it back once it's gone, so using time wisely is critical. If you feel you're constantly rushing from one task to another and never have a moment to breathe, it's time to explore opportunities to reclaim your time.
 

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Have you ever built up the difficulty of a task in your mind to the point you continually put off doing it? Human nature can lead you to overestimate the challenges of an unfamiliar or perceived unpleasant task. It's a bias that can also cause you to underestimate your capabilities.

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Spring has sprung in my small dot on the world. What does the onset of Spring evoke for you? Some are ready to shake off abandoned new year resolutions and tackle new challenges. Others find a refreshed sense of purpose around the goals they're currently striving to achieve.
 
No matter what spring signals for you, it is a perfect opportunity to plan your next steps. I love all the seasons we experience in the Midwest. Summer is intense with nature's various shades of green against a gorgeous blue sky. Fall feels cozy with the added attraction of the trees' brilliant color change. After leaves drift to the ground, Winter reveals the beauty of nature's underlying architecture, and the gently falling snow feels magical.

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What happens when your productivity increases? You're probably thinking, seriously? What a silly question; you'll get more done.
 
While it is accurate that you will get more done, there is so much more to it. Like most people, you probably feel overwhelmed. Your to-do list won't stop growing. Your email inboxes keep filling up, not to mention your packed calendar and general information overload.

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​We often spend much of our time and energy dwelling in the past and waiting for the perfect future while the present moment slips away.
 
Writing this on National Carpe Diem Day is a beautiful reminder to live in the present, as Carpe Diem means Seize the Day. We often place happiness on hold for 'someday,' delaying using new or treasured items or perhaps postponing action on resolutions until next January.

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How often do you think about systematically removing information from your physical and digital files?
 
Several years ago, I worked with a local manufacturing company after a new HR Director came in. She hired me to conduct an Office Renewal Event. During this event, a team has the time, permission, and resources to eliminate anything from the workspace that can be tossed, recycled, shredded, or deleted.

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Getting organized is consistently among the top five most common new year resolutions. So, it's no accident that January is Get Organized month.

But I want you to look beyond being 'organized.' January is the big exhale for many businesses after a (hopefully) busy holiday season. You should invest this time, or whenever it's off-peak for your business, to focus on improvements that will pay dividends long into the future. One of those improvements is systems.

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My holiday season officially starts only after watching the Walt Disney Pictures TV short, Prep and Landing, with my husband.
 
It tells the delightful story of an elite team of elves, known as Prep and Landing, that helps Santa get in and out of millions of homes worldwide in one night. By preparing each site and guiding Santa and his reindeer in for landing, the team saves the Big Guy an incredible amount of time, allowing him to accomplish this monumental task.

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As we hurtle down the runway toward the most hectic time of year for many of us, both personally and professionally, let's take a moment to keep things in perspective.

Recently, as I attempted to set my priorities for the day, I became acutely aware of my sense of overwhelm regarding what the next 8 - 10 weeks would bring. That's right. I felt profoundly overwhelmed even with my fancy-schmancy task management system and my weekly review.

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Let's listen in on a quick conversation between a man and a woman. As the woman pulls items from their bedroom closet, the man lies on the bed looking at a magazine.

 Woman - "..., I cannot do this job without you. Most of these things are yours."
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 Man - "Well, honey, why don't you leave all that junk in the closet?"

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How often do you say to yourself (or others), "there aren’t enough hours in the day?"
 
Time management is a popular term. It conjures visions of stopping clocks and herculean feats of efficiency, squeezing in one more task or commitment. In reality, it's less about managing time and more about managing ourselves and our decisions. We know that ineffective time management results in stress, anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, burnout, low self-esteem, and low confidence. Arguably, nothing we want.

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​What does this quote say to you? It tells me in our quest for growth, the best time to act is now. So, what holds us back as we try to improve ourselves? Usually, fear and mistaken beliefs.

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I know this about myself and suspect many can relate - sometimes, I have an all-or-nothing mindset. If I can't complete something from start to finish in one shot, I procrastinate starting at all.
 

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A quick Google search of life's top stressors returns arguably positive events such as getting married, starting a new job, retirement, and moving to a new residence.
 
One might expect the positive nature of these events would negate their stressfulness. However, their persistent appearance on stressor lists contradicts this theory. At first glance, one explanation may be these life events create fear or concern about the unknown. A few of these events also involve daunting project management.

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I had a Zoom video meeting scheduled on my calendar. These days, who doesn't, right? Shortly before start time, the person messaged me saying their computer had gone into an unexpected update, they couldn't access the Zoom link, and they would have to reschedule.

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What do you think and feel when you hear the word "routine"? For some, it brings thoughts of rigidity and mind-numbing boredom. For others, it evokes calm and a sense of accomplishment. 
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No matter your reaction to the word, I promise you - you have routines. You may not have intentionally crafted them, but you have them. When we allow detrimental habits to play out on auto-pilot, these routines can work against us. When we use our routines for good, they create consistency and intention around positive behaviors.

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Many of us are facing a new clutter trap.

In the not-so-distant past, working in the office typically provided us access to a printer, making it quick and easy to print notes, meeting agendas, contracts, and more. Many of these documents landed permanently on our desks.

After being thrust into work-from-home, another clutter trap emerged. The cluttered computer desktop replaced our cluttered physical desktop.

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Leadership First recently posted a quote on LinkedIn, attributed to Tim McClure: "When passionate employees become quiet, it usually sends a signal that the work environment has become very dysfunctional."

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Before you even get started, do you hang your head in defeat when you look at your to-do list? I've been there, and no doubt many can relate to that feeling. 
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To-do lists are fantastic for capturing random tasks you think you'll remember, but let's be honest, if you don't write them down, you forget them 10 seconds later. To-do lists help map out the individual steps and the necessary order of those steps for projects. They're a great tool, whether paper or digital, but they can get overwhelming.

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No doubt, you've heard the statistic that humans have a shorter attention span than goldfish. Human attention wanes between 6 and 8.25 seconds depending on whose statistics you read, while the goldfish hangs in there for 9 seconds. The commonly held belief is that technology has eroded our ability to concentrate with continuous notifications and never-ending scrolling.

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Have you ever been so lost in the weeds you lost sight of the bigger picture? At some point, I think we all have. And while attention to detail is important, too narrow a focus often comes at the expense of the greater goal.

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When you hear the word clutter, what comes to mind? If you're like most people, you envision stacks of unfiled paper, old take-out menus, and closets full of clothes that no longer fit.
 
But clutter goes beyond the physical. It can also accumulate in the form of digital and emotional clutter.