susan earlam ~ horror author

Anyone who knows me well will know I love being organised.

A typical Virgo trait I’m afraid and one that has served me well throughout my life.

I’m not boasting about this, by the way, I too get overwhelmed by responsibilities and tasks that come along that sometimes I just don’t know where to start in order to make headway and carve out some time to do things I would like to do.

The issue of time management recently came up at a meeting recently, so I gave my two pennies worth and I thought I’d share it here too.

1. I write everything down that I need to do. When I say need I include things that I need for self-nourishment, this could be something as simple as a candlelit bath or a calling a good friend for that long overdue catchup.
2. In moments when I don’t know my head from my tail, more often than you’d think, I sit down with a cup of tea and I write it all down in no particular order. I then get three different coloured highlighters and assign each one a number 1, 2 or 3- I know genius so far ain’t it!
3. Go through the list with highlighter number 1- and highlight the jobs that must be done ASAP or the world as I know it ends, for example buying nappies can be extremely urgent when you have little ones or it could be to meet the deadline for work or study- or whatever is urgent in your life.
4. Then the second highlighter is for things that definitely need doing but aren’t life-changing if they don’t get done super fast, examples of jobs in this section could be; wash and style hair, compare insurance, create a meal plan for the week ahead, clean the bathroom- you get the picture.
5. The third highlighter, as you can probably guess is for the jobs that are nagging at you but aren’t really that important- they’ve not reached a higher priority yet- sometimes these jobs are always on your list and never get done. Let these go- if they were that important they’d be a different colour- right?
6. Now you’ve done this rewrite the list in colour order with the 1’s at the top and work through your list, knowing with confidence you’ve prioritised your time for getting the most pressing things done first! Enjoy your new found time management skills!