Self-Inflicted Time Management

Are you guilty of self-inflicting time management problems on yourself?

Are you always running late? Do you miss deadlines? Do you create your own crises?

Are you your own worst enemy when it comes to time management?

Making Your Own Life Friction

Life friction is the self-inflicted stress, problems, and issues that people create for themselves due to lack of organization and poor time management.

Here is a quick story of a coworker that habitually created their own problems…

This particular colleague was always late to the airport. In fact, their coworkers would bet on whether he would even make a particular flight. In the course of a few weeks, he managed to miss two flights and made several others by sprinting through the airport.

One business trip, I found myself returning with this individual. We shared a rental car, so we had to set a time in the morning to depart for the airport. We had an early morning flight back home, so I suggested we leave for the airport at 545AM. To my surprise, this colleague proposed we leave 630AM. It was a little bit of a hike to the airport, so I stood my ground. 545AM it was.

The next morning my colleague managed to show up at 550AM and we left for the airport.

When we arrived the airport, the scene was chaotic. The lines to use the self-serve ticket kiosks were almost a dozen people deep. As we rounded the bend to the security checkpoint, we were greeted with a line that appeared to be several hundred people long.

“Oh no! We are never going to make it!” my panicked coworker blurted out.

“We have plenty of time. We still have an hour and a half before our flight,” I calmly stated.

“Oh… I didn’t realize it was so early yet. I thought we only had a few minutes,” looking at his watch.

It took us over half an hour to get through the security checkpoint. Looking like he was about to take off on a race, my coworker announced, “I am going to run and see if I can grab some food real quick.”

“We have time to get some breakfast. Would you like to sit at that cafe over there?”

“Oh… that would be good.”

After our breakfast, as we approached the gate, the first boarding pre-announcement was made.

My coworker’s final statement before we got on the plane?

“Wow. This was much different than how I normally get to the airport.”

Are You Your Own Worst Enemy?

We can be responsible for causing much of our daily stress and troubles.

Here are some prime examples of self-inflicted problems:

• Missed Deadlines – Missing deadlines causes lots of unnecessary stress. It can jeopardize your job or career. It can also also cause you to miss opportunities that you may never know existed. Do you finish things on time?
• Late Fees – Do you pay late fees or incur higher costs because you do not pay things on time? This is a tough penalty if it was just because you were not organized enough to take care of things on time.
• More Work Due to Undone Tasks – Tasks that are left sitting can actually create more work for you. That simple task that you left undone will now take much more time and effort to complete. This is particularly true of tasks left in mid-completion.
• Lateness – Lateness almost inevitably adds stress to our lives. If you are constantly running from one thing to another, the pace eventually catches up with you.
• Disorganization – Do you ever find yourself wasting inordinate amounts of time searching for things? Whether it is a piece of paper or the extra set of car keys?

Do you self-inflict time management issues? What areas can you examine to avoid creating problems for yourself?