Time mgmt tip: 15 min or over an hour?

“I love deadlines; I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

~Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Time management tip.

Though not specifically about career coaching, I found this tip so helpful I wanted to share (from the book Switchers by Dawn Graham.)

15 minutes or over an hour?

Graham says: Most of the items on our to-do lists either take under 15 minutes or over an hour to do. Similarly, most blocks of time we have available are either less than 15 minutes or over an hour. It’s important to think how long tasks will take and schedule accordingly.

Trap

The trap that most of us fall into (myself included!) is:

When we have a chunk of time, we jump to do all those quick projects because we feel a surge of relief when we can check a bunch of stuff off our lists all at once.

But that sense of productivity actually works against us. We keep putting off those projects that take more time to do.

What I’m learning

I’ve started paying attention to this and have realized that I’m not only getting more of the longer tasks done, I’m getting more of the quicker ones done, too. When I only have 15 minutes, and I try doing one of my quick tasks, I seem to get it done even faster because I know I have only a short period of time.

What time-consuming tasks are you putting off?

• Current career tasks, like writing up a proposal?
• Career exploration tasks, like networking to learn about new opportunities?
• Personal tasks, like cleaning up clutter?

Try seeing how “15 minutes vs an hour” works for you!

If you’d like specific career exploration tips, please check out some of my previous blogs:

A is for Anxiety.
B is for Backwards.

And of course, if you’re thinking about how to make your work a more enriched, positive part of your life, please reach out!

Best,