Five Steps to Overcoming Overcommitment

I teach people how to manage their time, and one of the biggest culprits to mismanaged time is overextending or overcommitting.

This is the definition: Trying to get more done than there are hours in a day to do. Here's my simple test to help you determine if you are overcommitted: "no" does not exist in your vocabulary! If that's you, help has arrived as long as you will commit to following these five simple steps:

1. Write down everything you have committed to, both personal and professional.
2. Write down everything you should be doing, but -- because of overcommittment -- cannot do.
3. Go over your first list realistically and decide, based on your available time and your priorities, what should you really be doing.
4. Come up with a way to get out of all the things you identified in step #3.
5. Commit to a specific time to begin each of the items you identified in step #2.

Remember this: "Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing."

Two great resources to help you manage your time:

• Prioritize, Organize - The Art of Getting It Done by National Seminars Group (National Press Publications.
• Work Less, Do More - The 14-Day Productivity Makeover by Dr. Jan Yager

The key to managing your time begins with a decision to do just that!

Until next blog,

Dr. Angela

"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"