Time management with purpose. Be true to yourself and manage your time to reflect it.

Recently I participated in a three-week webinar series by Dr. Spencer “Skip” Niles called “Reclaim your soul from work: Making choices that honour your authentic self.” This was very thought-provoking.

Skip describes your “soul” as your highest, best, and truest self. Your authentic self. He presented how by getting in touch with your “soul” you pay more attention to intuition, imagination, relationships, hope, and compassion at work.

As I reflect on the webinar it really got me thinking about how so many people are frustrated with the tsunami of information that overwhelms them at work and home. It is so easy to get caught up with just being busy every day at work, focused on the routines of work, achievement, control, and the rationality of work. As you think about your own time management, make sure you stay true to the ‘authentic you’, your ‘true self’ so that you get the things done that are your priorities…not someone else’s. Do your time management with purpose.

Start now

For many people, September is the beginning of the work year. Many people work at a school or college, have children who are going back to school, or they have taken all their summer vacations are getting back into the swing of work again. So why not try something new right now? Try time management with purpose.

How do I do this?

One thing I do is make a ‘To Do’ list with only three things written on it that I want to accomplish each day.

Yep, three things on my ‘To Do’ list.

These are my priority each day. When and if I get them done, I can move on to others.

I choose the most important projects each day based on what my “true self” feels is important. I am going to do things that fulfill my purpose and goals and make them a priority. I keep my long-term goals posted so I don’t lose track of them and make sure my daily “to do’s”are helping me get to the long-term goals.

With only three things to look at, it is easy to determine if they indeed “feed my soul” and help me to stay focused on what is important as I “reclaim my soul at work”.

Do you manage your time daily to reflect your ‘true self’?
Are you reflecting the ‘authentic you’ in your daily work?
If so, how do you do it?

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

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Over the years I have watched my colleagues in many different fields and realized there are those people who attend conferences, present at conferences, network with others, read journals, and work at their own growth and knowledge base to improve services to their clients. And then there are others who work as if they have “reached their professional pinnacle”.

It has always been important to me to be the former and maybe it is because I am a huge extrovert and I process information out loud, but I do know it has always been critical for me to learn more so I can do my job better. This has meant reading professional journals (hard to find the time), attending conferences (hard to find the money), taking classes (hard to find the time and money), and networking with other like-minded professionals (sometimes hard in a rural state like Maine).

What I’ve found over the years is that most of the people who really WANT to do some of these activities are busy people, very busy people. So how do you find the time?

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