Five Minutes a Day: Time Management for People Who Love to Put Things Off

By Jean Reynolds

Meet a procrastinator: Me! After years of struggling to live with schedules and to-do lists, I began discovering how to get things done without forcing myself into a structure I couldn't live with. This book is the result.
People like me (and perhaps you) who thrive on flexibility and spontaneity sometimes give up on time management because all that structure simply doesn't work for us. Dreams go unfulfilled, chaos takes over, and we resign ourselves to a life that is less than we hoped for.
The new approach presented in this book begins with just five minutes a day spent focusing on what you want most from life. You'll learn how to simplify tasks that seem overwhelming, balance your life and make time for the people who are important to you. There are practical tips to manage your home and daily routine better, links to useful websites, and a host of other information to guide you on your way to the life you've dreamed of.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jean Reynolds
• Release date: Jul 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476056913

Jean Reynolds

Dr. Jean Reynolds is Professor Emerita at Polk State College in Winter Haven, Florida, where she taught English for over 30 years. She is the author of eleven books, including three books about writing, and she is co-author (with the late Mary Mariani) of "Police Talk" (Pearson). She has taught basic education to inmates and served as a consultant on communications and problem-solving skills to staff in Florida's Department of Corrections. At Polk State College she has taught report writing classes for recruits and advanced report writing and FTO classes for police and correctional officers. Jean Reynolds holds a doctorate in English from the University of South Florida and is an internationally recognized Shaw scholar. She is the author of "Pygmalion's Wordplay: The Postmodern Shaw," and the co-editor of "Shaw and Feminisms: Onstage and Off," both published by the University Press of Florida. She is an accomplished ballroom dancer. She and her husband, garden writer Charles J. Reynolds, live in Florida, where they enjoy reading and traveling.

Book preview

Five Minutes a Day

Time Management for People Who Love to Put Things Off

Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

www.TakeaMinute.blog.com

Copyright 2012 Jean Reynolds

The Maple Leaf Press

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Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Meet a Procrastinator (Me!)

Part I: Myths of Time Management

Chapter One: All-or-Nothing

Chapter Two: Plan or Prepare?

Chapter Three: Effective or Efficient?

Chapter Four: Management by Crisis

Chapter Five: Perfectionism

Part II: Tools for Success

Chapter Six: Quick Fixes

Chapter Seven: The 80/20 Rule

Chapter Eight: Five Minutes a Day

Chapter Nine: Systems

Chapter Ten: One Extra Thing

Chapter Eleven: A, B, and C Time

Chapter Twelve: Reduce Clutter

Chapter Thirteen: Escapes and Excuses

Part III: How to Change Your Life

Chapter Fourteen: The $25,000 Idea

Chapter Fifteen: Ask Covey’s Questions

Chapter Sixteen: Keep a Time Log

Chapter Seventeen: What Works for Me

Chapter Eighteen: Beyond Time Management

Appendix: Time Management Resources

Introduction

Meet a Procrastinator (Me!)

There are two kinds of people in the world: Get-it-done types (my husband is one), and put-it-off types like me, who can blissfully let hours, days, even weeks go by without getting important stuff done.

This book is for the second group.

It is amazing to watch my husband tackle a to-do list. Recently we moved to a condo in a restored 1926 hotel that we absolutely love. My moving style involved drifting from one carton to another, from one task to another, vacuuming here and unpacking there.

Meanwhile my husband removed, packed, transported, unpacked, and re-hung every picture we own. They’re perfectly positioned and absolutely straight, and there are at least 15 of them, with some presenting special challenges because of their size and weight.

If you’re familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), you’ve already figured out that my husband is a judging, or closure type, programmed from birth to want to get things done. He has never read a time management book in his life.

I, on the other hand, am an MBTI perceiving, or open-ended type. Decision-making takes forever, I’m never in a hurry to get things done, and I’m always looking for new ways to manage my time effectively.

When I took an MBTI introductory workshop years ago, our facilitator asked us to design a t-shirt for ourselves and another one for someone we knew. I came up with Mañana for my t-shirt and Let’s Get It Over With for my husband’s.

Which probably means, you would think, that I don’t get much done.

Which would not be true. I’m a Ph.D. with seven books and numerous articles under my belt. Although I’m retired now (I was a college professor for almost 30 years), I still keep busy with ballroom dancing and community service, and I’m a Shaw scholar and an editor for a Shaw journal.

How did mañana become achievement? It was a gradual process. When I was getting my doctorate and the time pressures in my life were absolutely impossible, I started asking questions about conventional approaches to time management. To-Do lists and schedules—standard tools for time management—have never worked well for me. In fact structure doesn’t work well for me.

When I was teaching, I sometimes had to write my lesson plan on the chalkboard before class started so that my students could help keep me on task. It was—and still is—all too easy to wander away from whatever I’ve planned to do and venture into some fascinating detour that appears out of nowhere. (I should add that there are benefits to being an MBTI perceiving type like me: I’m more flexible and spontaneous than MBTI judging types like my husband.)

It was obvious that my open-ended personality was creating more chaos and less satisfaction than I wanted out of life. The alternative, though, was just as unappealing: Letting a To-Do list and a schedule run my life.

Luckily I gradually discovered other strategies for getting things done. This book lays out everything I’ve learned about managing my time my way, with a minimum of structure and a maximum of freedom and enjoyment.

How Do You Define Effective Time Management?

Over the years I’ve conducted many workshops for people who want to manage their time better. I always begin by asking what participants want to accomplish. Here are the answers that people offer again and again:

· be more efficient

· get more done in less time

· stop wasting time

· be more productive

· stick to my to-do list

· do priorities first

· get off my butt

These are good answers if you’re a closure type like my husband. But for an open-ended type like me (and probably you, since you’re reading this book), these nose-to-the-grindstone goals don’t work very well. For some people, in fact, they’re positively depressing.

So let’s start over with a new definition: Good time management means using your time to do the things you want to do.

But that can’t be true! Wouldn’t we all end up lying on the beach sipping piña coladas?

No. If that was really the only thing you wanted from life, you wouldn’t be reading this book.

Life is complicated, and all of us sometimes wish we could escape the hustle and bustle of daily life. The reality, though, is that what most of us really want is a less rushed and chaotic version of the life we’re living now, with time to do some really special things.

We all struggle to keep up with routine paperwork and home maintenance, and we don’t have enough time for family and friends. Worse, we may not be able to pursue special interests like reading, gardening, sports, community service, and hobbies. And forget about a special dream like writing a book, starting a business, taking piano lessons, getting another degree, or running for a local political office: There’s not enough time.

So let’s define effective time management as being able to do whatever is important to you. Right away you’re going to notice that you’re liberated