Struggling with Time Management? Listen to this.
So let’s dive into this week’s content which is all about time management!
Maybe this is a hot take, but when it comes to time management, or trying to get better at time management, I think a lot of people rush to get a new planner, or a new calendar system, or something external that you think is going to cure your time management issues. I mean, I know that was me a few years ago and honestly sometimes still can be!
OR if I am not doing that, I am just saying “Ugh I wish I had more hours in the day” or “I need more time”. This can feel so true when you are overwhelmed and trying to get all the things done right?! But it’s usually not realistic, and not always possible.
So instead of going out and buying a new planner, or feeling defeated that you just don’t have more time, let’s talk about a really simple way you can manage your time in a way that is in total alignment with your season of life!
Now, what I am going to share is NOT an original concept or idea, but it is something I learned maybe a year or two ago that has helped me tremendously when I put it into practice and it is the Four D’s of Time Management! As I said, I didn’t come up with this, and Google tells me that it’s an idea from Daniel Johnson who wrote the book Career Comback: Taking Charge of Your Career which I haven’t read personally but might be a good resource if this is something you want to dive into more!
But today I just want to share the idea with you and then how I put it into practice in my life so you can do the same! I also think I use different language than he does for the 4Ds but they mean the same!
So let’s dive in!
The Four D’s are Do, Delay, Delegate, and Drop. Each of these should be read as a verb (feeling a bit like my former classroom teacher self saying that) but these are ACTIONS you are going to do when it comes to things on your to-do list.
First I want to go over each “D” and what they mean, then tell you how you can put it into practice for your business and life!
Okay the first D is Do.
DO means “this is urgent and important”. The tasks on this list will be anything that you have to get done right away. Think of things that have deadlines, or phone calls you need to make, or even things that maybe you have been putting off and now you’re like, “Okay I REALLY have to get this done now.”
And maybe you are thinking “Kate, everything on my list is important and urgent” I want to challenge you on that. Yes, it might be important, but can it wait a day? Two days? A week? If so, it’s not urgent.
Delay
Next is DELAY – this is where you put the important things, but things that can wait. Okay, so you need to do your social media posts for next week, but is it really THAT urgent? Can you move that to tomorrow? You have to pick up your kid’s teacher appreciation gifts but you still have a couple of weeks so can you push that to the end of the week or over the weekend?
Between “do” and “delay” you have to get really honest with yourself and make sure you’re not labeling things as urgent if they aren’t, or delaying things that can’t be delayed! On the flip side, make sure you aren’t delaying things to procrastinate them. This is where a lot of self-awareness has to come in and you have to get real with yourself.
Delegate
This is exactly what it sounds like. Time to ask for help, which if I know anything about female entrepreneurs, which I know most of this audience is, generally speaking… is where we struggle the most. Delegation doesn’t always mean growing your team or hiring either. This can look like delegating within your household: can your partner take the kids to practice or pick them up from school, and your kids help out with the dog or make their lunches, can you order a meal service to help you with cooking?
But delegating also can look like hiring within your business and typically, people’s first hire is a contractor, so not a full-time employee, and this could look like a virtual assistant who can take over some of the day-to-day and admin tasks (and yes, even VA’s can have VA’s), it could also be a website designer so you stop spending so much time DIYing your website, or a social media manager so that you can have support when it comes to content creation. When you look at the things in the “delegate” bucket, you will be able to see okay what kind of delegation do I need right now AND what makes sense financially?
Drop
This is a big one: what things can you get rid of? And maybe not forever, but maybe - for now.
A couple of months ago I realized I had said “yes” to way too many things. All GOOD things, like more clients and more opportunities, and volunteering for things with my kids while also running my businesses and putting on mom’s day out events… but I had gotten to a point where I was spread so thin I couldn’t see straight. So I had to take a hard look at everything I was doing and ask myself what are my priorities, what is my capacity, and what can I drop to make sure I get back into alignment. So some things had to go. I had to start saying no to things, EVEN THINGS that were bringing in money which can be hard, at least for me, because I am the breadwinner in my family so I want to make sure my family is taken care of at all times, so saying no to paid opportunities can be difficult.
But if those things are hindering my ability to show up in the ways that are MOST important to me, then I have to choose. And that means dropping some things, no matter how good they are.
I think it’s important to remember too that if you “drop” something, that doesn’t mean you have to drop it forever! You can always pick it back up in a different season of life. I personally had to drop my Mom’s Day Out events I was hosting because of a variety of reasons but I would love to eventually start hosting them again because I really did love doing it. It’s just not a priority where I am right now, right?
Now how can you put the 4D’s into practice?
I haven’t read the book Daniel Johnson wrote, so this might not be how he teaches it, or it might be… But what I like to do is take a piece of paper and draw four quadrants: two on top and two on the bottom. Then I label each square do, delay, delegate, and drop.
I take another piece of paper and brain dump EVERYTHING I have in my brain onto that paper. No filter, I include work things, business and project ideas, and even personal tasks too like calling the plumber to get a water softener installed in the house (something I need to do like today) or rescheduling Luke’s swim lesson (can you tell where my head is at today?).
Getting all of these tasks and to-do’s out on paper helps me get more space in my brain and also catch everything floating around. I don’t know about you – but if I am constantly trying to remember things, I am going to forget to do something, and/or I am going to constantly feel very overwhelmed.
So I honestly do this practice every month or a couple of months if we are being real! There are even some seasons of life that I do this every few weeks!
After I braindump everything, I start to work through that list and sort each task into one of the 4D’s.
Line by line I add tasks to each category and then after I have gone through the entire list, I start putting things on my calendar, delegating where needed, canceling things I am dropping, and then actually DOING the things I put under DO!
We cannot do EVERYTHING. AT LEAST not without help, which goes back to that delegate bucket.
But there is not one person in the world that is doing “everything”... they are having to choose what they do and where they spend their time and energy. And even then, they or we likely have help in some way shape, or form, and speaking for myself here, if I don’t, I am drowning and dropping balls left and right. So it’s time to get back into alignment and figure out where my time and energy need to be focused.
If you guys do this practice or if this was helpful, I would love it so much if you shared about it on your stories and tagged me on Instagram! This blog is a labor of love, but is one of my most favorite things I do in my business, so knowing you love it too, keeps me going!
If you enjoyed reading this blog post, check out our podcast!
We release new episodes every week to help you grow and scale your business! 🎧👩🏻💻
