Finding Your Work-Life Balance

Do you find yourself working 60 or more hours a week and know it’s got to stop? In this interview, Don Wetmore, productivity and time management expert, tells us how to how to work smarter, not harder.

TLAC: Why did you start the Productivity Institute?
Don: I created the Productivity Institute to address the specific Time Management needs of all who want more out of life. In our time management and speed reading seminars, coaching, keynotes, and consulting, we teach participants how to significantly increase their personal productivity, both on and off the job, and accomplish more in less time with less stress with greater work/life balance.

TLAC: What do you mean by ‘productivity’ and how does this relate to Time Management?
Don: Productivity and management do not mean doing the wrong things quicker, because that just gets us nowhere faster. Productivity and time management are doing the right things in all of our Seven Vital Areas of Life: health, family, financial, intellectual, social, professional and spiritual.

TLAC: Of all the productivity killers, Email seems to slow us down immensely. How can we take control of our Inbox?
Don: I have four suggestions to help you to become better at “Easing E-mail.”

1. Get off the lists. The best way to deal with a problem is to never have it. If you are receiving a lot of unwanted e-mails, ask to be removed from the various lists.
2. Get an unlisted address. Just like getting an “unlisted” telephone number that you share only with those whom you want to give direct access, you might want to get a separate e-mail address that you use only for the important communications you wish to receive.
3. Check it once or twice per day. Many people I speak with are chained to their email server, monitoring incoming email on a continuous basis. Maybe this is because e-mail creates its own sense of urgency, but most of the communications are not all that urgent. I let my “incoming” batch up and I respond to them a couple of times per day.
4. Deal with it. Like handling paper, you don’t want to get into the “shuffling blues” where you read e-mail, postpone action, save it, re-read it later, and allow things to slip through the cracks. As you open each e-mail do one of the following: a) If it requires a quick response, (it will only take a minute or two), respond to it and delete it. b) If it requires a response but is not the best use of your time, try to delegate it. c) If it is going to take more than a minute or two to respond, schedule it for action in your Day Planner.

TLAC: Consultants often work 6 or 7 days a week. They often have to juggle multiple tasks. Is there any way out of this cycle?
Don: Parkinson’s Law says, in part, that a project tends to expand with the time allocated for it. Those who are working 6/7 days a week have their thermostat set too high. If you make it a rule that you will only allow X days to get your consulting work done, you will figure out a way to do it.

TLAC: What’s your opinion of all the commercial time management systems that are out there? Do you think one approach is better than another?
Don: There are hundreds and I’ve reviewed many. I suggest three criteria:

1. Get a holistic single system. The average person uses nearly a dozen different ways to manage their time with Outlook, BlackBerry, wall calendars, pick message slips, DayTimers and on and on. I use a single DayTimer system to manage both my business and personal time.
2. Get a simple, user friendly system. We crave simplicity. That’s why they invented automatic transmissions.
3. Get a system that is small enough and compact enough that it can be with you at all times so that you can act when opportunity comes to you.

How do you work smarter? Add your tips below.