Realistic Time Management Goals

Creating realistic time management goals may be difficult when you begin to try to better balance your life. You may try to "fix" everything at once because you are so enthusiastic to make positive changes. Although your enthusiasm may help motivate you in taking back control of your life, it could also cause you more stress in the end.

Here are three common ways you might sabotage your own efforts at creating better time management goals, and how to avoid them:

1. Expecting too much from others. Okay, so you feel an overwhelming need to make some changes in your life…good for you! Just remember that not everyone will feel the same way. The way you approach the people in your life that you need help from can make all the difference. Being unreasonably demanding and using pressure tactics to coerce them into changing will more than likely just cause more problems.

Instead of making unrealistic demands, first try explaining why and what you are unhappy with in your life. Share your image of how you would like things to be and be clear about the changes they would have to make so that your vision could work. Be upfront and ask them outright if they would be willing to help you achieve it.

For example, if your spouse is not in the habit of helping out around the house, ask if he or she would be willing to take on a few very specific chores (spell out what they would be) and how doing so would help you. If he or she agrees, confirm that such and such tasks are now his/hers, and confirm that he or she is going to do them from now on. Don't be surprised if you have to issue a few gentle reminders before the new habits kick in for good - but try not to get upset or frustrated about it. That will only cause more resistance.

2. Demanding too much from yourself. Be gentle with yourself when creating your time management goals. Making changes in your habits and goals is a good thing but placing undue stress and expectations on yourself is not!

Vow to yourself to take it one day at a time. Promise yourself that you'll give it your best effort every day to keep your time management goals running on-time. If events don't quite live up to what you planned, just dust yourself off and start again the next day with the same intention.

Avoid putting yourself down at all costs because you haven't achieved "perfection" when managing all the tasks and events in your life. You will never be perfect at it and neither will anyone else!

3. Unrealistic idea of what a balanced life really is. You may be interested in creating time management goals because you dream of a completely serene, peaceful life where no upheavals occur . . . ever. Unfortunately, such a dream is unlikely to become reality. Perhaps it could if you moved to a secluded island and lived like a hermit in your rustic cabin on the beach. But you've got a full life that inevitably comes with the need to juggle and prioritize constantly.

Rather than wishing for the impossible, remember that creating time management goals and doing your best to live up to them is an ongoing process of planning, preparation and readjustment. There will never be a time when you get it perfect. Instead look at it as an ever-evolving process of growth and mastery. Over time you'll find yourself getting better and stronger at time management, and it will seem like less effort is needed to keep everything balanced.

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