Video Professor

Last week, I started discussing and recapping an article I read on www.alltipsandtricks.com called “All For Time and Time For All: The 10 Commandments of Time Management”. This week I will continue sharing the lessons from this inspiring article about how you can manage your time stress and guilt free.

4. Don’t point blame, look for solutions.

When things get out of control, don’t blame anybody (including yourself), but look for solutions. No matter how much we like to think that we are in control, there are times in life when things take an unexpected course. It is very easy to screw up a project, or a marriage or a trip. A lot of people try to seek out the guilty, wasting time to collect evidence, to playback the failure over and over, to match the punishment with the guilt. If you recognize yourself in these words, at least for once in your life, please try to leave behind all this guilt-punishment mechanism, and focus your energy on what to do next. Seek for solutions. Think for the future, not for the past. Think “how?” instead of “why?” Don’t you see how much more constructive this approach can be? It can save you a lot of time. Not to mention that your peers will love you for that. 

5. Know when to quit.

Don’t continue doing something just because you started it. Life is not a competition. If you don’t find a reason anymore, just quit and start something new, be it a career or a hobby. Lengthening your misery will not benefit anyone. In fact, it will only leave you with more regret and resentfulness.

6. Don’t look back in anger.

We all know someone who spends way too much of their time thinking of the past, re-playing all the sad moments over and over. This is truly the ultimate waste of time. Time is much too valuable to let it all slip and waste away digging up the defeats of the past.

7. If you delegate things, assume the outcome may not be what you imagined.

There aren’t two identical people in the world. Then, why would you pretend that somebody thinks and acts exactly your way? If we are partners and you ask me to redecorate the office by myself because you are busy, please don’t come later to tell me that you hate the outcome. If redecoration was so important to you, you should have come with me and had your say then. Why do you come now and ask me to call the plumber again because you would have liked the sink to be mounted two inches lower? Of course I won’t move a finger, so you’ll have to do it by yourself, and you’ll waste your time doing again things for which I’ve also spent my time on. If you are a detailed person, at least look more closely at who you delegate for what task.

To be continued …

Maya S