You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day

by Stephanie Culp

Time management expert Stephanie Culp, author of How to Get Organized When You Don't Have Time, presents 12 easy ways to find more time in the day to accomplish what needs to get done. Quizzes, charts, and examples show readers how to get the most out of each minute. People too busy for the details can turn to the section "100 Quick Time-Saving Tips."

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Laura Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worthless. Skimmed. Got no ideas.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 1: Finding the Time (The Plan)
What is Your Time Worth?
Time Wasters by the Dozen
Facing Up to Change
Find Balance: Friends and Family, Health and Fitness, Home, Personal Self-Development,
Profession/Career, Spiritual

Part 2: Find What Your Want and Go For It (The Power of Purpose)
Personal Mission Statements
Goal Setting
Strategies for Success: Be Consistent, Be Specific, Commit Yourself, Always Give Yourself a Timeline, Divide and Conquer, Look for Roadblocks, Give Your Goals Top Priority, Be Enthusiastic, Share Your Goals with Others, Have Long Range Goals AND Short-Term Ones, Avoid Setting Too Many Goals at Once, Avoid Making All of your Goals Materialistic, Be Careful What you Wish For, Affirm the Positive, Visualize Success, Look for the Silver Lining, Give It Time, Flock with Birds of a Feather, Keep Your Eye on the Prize

Part 3: Prioritize and Plan Regularly
Deciding What to Do
Always Write Your Priorities Down
Use a Grading System
Stay focused on your top priorities
Continually evaluate your priorities
Learn to work smarter rather than harder
Don't stoop to doing busy work just to seem active and productive
Stop letting information anxiety draw you away
Don't let others sidetrack you
Know the Difference between urgent and important
Priortizing Relationships
Learn to Say No
Techniques That Work
Make your plans specific and realistic
Set deadlines both for starting and finishing what to do
Plan to do someething every day that moves closer to achieving your goal
Take Maximum Advantage of your Personal Energetic Time
Set Aside Some Time Every Week for Important Priorities that requires Creative time
Accept Responsibility for Your Plans and Plan Responsibility
Plan Balance Four Your Life
Efficient vs. Effective
Part 4: Organize Projects and Manage Your Schedule Effectively/Converting To-Do to Projects
The Master List
Turning Unfinished Things Into Projects
Project Planning From Start to Finish
Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
Whats In It For Me?
Focus your energies on one thing at a time
Go into Seclusion
Be innovative
Organize Your To-Do List
Use One List
Consolidate Information
Don't Number the List
Date the Entries
Out of sight , out of mind
Refer to your list regularly
Don't rely on your memory
Review and prioritize your list daily
What's the worst that can happen
Always set deadlines
Avoid nitpicking
Finish Strong
Know When to Quit
Part 5: Managing Your Schedule Successfully
Use a calendar or planner book
Plan your schedule by scheduling your plan
Get out the door on time
Get ready the night before
Straighten and pick up the house the night before
Don't stay up past your bedtime
Get up early
Make Coffee in Advance
Cut fussing time
Allocate bathroom time appropriatley
Organize kids gear in advance
Don't Rush
Put Things Near Door

Chapter 6: Working on Everyday Obstacles/Pushing Past Procrastination
Overcoming Procrastination
Admit it
Accept the challenge
List your excuses
Catch and correct yourself
Make deadlines a way of life
Inch by inch, it's a cince
Delegate or dump it
Get organized
Don't overprepare
Be Decisisive
Work your plan by setting priorities
Tell others what you plan to do
Just start
Deal with one problem at a time
Don't allow distractions
Reward yourself
Don't start what you can't finish, and finish what you start
The Price of Procrastination
Waste of the present
An unfulfilled life
Boredom
The anxiety of working under pressure
Impotent goals
The constant plague of unsolved problems
Continuous frustration
Poor Health
A mediocre career
A life of indecision
Poor interpersonal relationships
Fatigue
Chapter 7: Eliminating Perfection
Letting Go of Perfectionism
Make a List
Lower your expectations
Focus on your results
Just say no
Recognize enough is enough
Consider a worst case scenario
Accentuate the positive
Results the count
Divide and conquer
Learn to delgate
Don't let mistakes devastate you
Chapter 8: Making Decisions
Are you indecisive?
The Thinker
The Researcher
The Worrywart
The Escapist

Why We Avoid Making Decisions
The decision will break in routine or habit--change is always difficult to embrace
You'll have to do something you dislike
You'll believe your unjudged adverseley
Your afraid your decision will be wrong or have poor results
Your paralyzed by fear or failure or wish someone else did it for you
You think you dont have enough time

Overcoming Indecision
Be proactive
Take the long view
Don't let others wear your down
Stop postponing decisions about small problems
Know when to stop
Set deadlines for assemlbing facts and making a decision
Don't agonize over minor decisions
Understand the rewards of risk-taking
Don't fight change
Never lost sight of your overall objective
Use a tally sheet
Do It Now
Don't worry, be happy
Stop overanalyzing everything
Maintain Your Resolve
Decide to Decide
Chapter 9: Learning to Delegate
Ten Good Reasons to Delegate
Delegating Dos
Delegating Don'ts
Delegating at Work
If you are delegating
Match the job to the person
Start early
Don't confuse delegating with dumping
Don't pass the buck
No ego trips allowed
Don't delegate responsibility
Focus on what needs to be done rather than how
Be honest
Promote a spirit of teamwork
If you are be delegated to
Don't be afraid to ask questions
Be a troubleshooter
Get a second opinion
Always write things down
Repeat instructions allowed
Ask for Deadlines
Be courageous
Suggest improvements
When in doubt, ask
Get and stay organized
Share Information
Chapter 10: Eliminating Interruptions
Chapter 11: Making Meetings Count
Chapter 12: Working Wisely
Part 6/Chapter 13: Simplify and Streamlife Your Life by Getting Organized
Getting Organized Where to Start
Don't allow dstractions
Work one area at a time
Allow enough time to make a dent in the clutter accumulation
Don't try to keep everything!
Decide to Dump
Is it a duplicate?
Is it broken beyond a simple repair?
How much will it cost to store it?
Do I use this?
Is quantity more important than quality?
A Place for Everything
Make a comittment to organize the clutter in one area without stopping
Set up large cardboard cartons labeled Charity, Toss, and Elsewhere
Empty the target area of all clutter
If youre not sure where something belongs, think about keeping items as close to
their first point of use as possible
Group like items together and store them in containers
When you are finished, take the toss box out to the trash
Reward yourself when you are done
-Lunch at an expensive restaurant
-An ice cream sundae
-An afternoon movie
-a manicure or a pedicure
-a day at the beach or park with a good book
-a massage
-a facial
-A round of golf
-an evening out

Get Organized In Eight Weeks
Week 1: Closets
Week 2: Cabinets and Drawers
Week 3: Basement or Attic
Week 4: Garage
Week 5: Fix Everything
Week 6: Paper
Week 7: Read
Week 8: Correspondence

Don't Let Clutter in the Door
Let it go
Buy what you need, not what you want
Ask yourself where you are going to put the item before you buy it
Forget the Jonseses
Don't buy things just because they are on sale
Use the in-and-out inventory rule

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

Older book. Still valuable. Wish it were on Kindle.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

There really wasn't anything new in the book--the same old things we always here about organization. Because of this, I only skimmed the book cover to cover rather than spending time on an in-depth reading.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. Mostly geared towards professional working moms.