When I tell people about my organizing specialties, their eyes widen when I mention Time Management. Everyone feels like there is too much to do and not enough time. Clients who hire me to help clear up clutter often ask me to come back for an extra session to work on time management. Many have said that our 90-minute time management session changed their lives.
There are a lot of books out there on managing time, but let’s face it — it you are already feeling overwhelmed, are you really going to read a 300-page book on time management?
That’s why I was so impressed with “The Skinny on Time Management” by Jim Randel. It is part of his series The Skinny On™, which is described on their web site as “aimed at disseminating information to an audience increasingly used to consuming content on the internet and cell phones . . . The books are a quick read. About 1/3 the length of a traditional non-fiction book, The Skinny On™ books are a syntheses of all that has been written and studied on a subject.”
“The Skinny On Time Management”, like all books in the series, uses stick figures — including a stand-in for Randel himself — to present ideas in an entertaining and easy-to-understand way. (There is plenty of goofy stick-figure humor thrown in to keep it light!) It can be read in less than an hour. Despite the easy format and short length, the book is incredibly content rich.
The book offers many of the same Time Management concepts that I myself teach – goals, procrastination, to-do lists, prioritizing. One area that I don’t usually touch on, but which really impressed me, is Awareness. Randel makes two important points about why being aware of how you use time can help you to better manage it:
- What activities do you engage in that lead you to lose track of time? (For Randel, it was watching sports on TV. For me, it’s doing crossword puzzles and others of that ilk.) These activities are danger zones for you unless they are moving you closer to your goals. Keep particular track of the time you are spending on these activities.
- On the flip side, paying attention to what those activities are may be a clue for you of where your passions lie. As the books says, “A gravitational draw on your time toward an activity that you are not presently feeding may be a sign that you are not in sync with your passions.”
If you are looking for some insight into better managing your time, I highly recommend “The Skinny on Time Management”. You can purchase it from Amazon.com by clicking here. To see the other titles in the series, go to The Skinny On™ web site.
