Dear PR Matters,
I do freelance work for some PR agencies, and am finding it very challenging to balance my time between the assignments I have to do for the different people I work with.
While I feel very blessed as additional work comes in, giving my best becomes more difficult as I face the traffic that seems to become heavier as the days go by, the speed of technology, global trends and the expectations of my clients.
Can you give me some tips on how I can better manage my time in 2018?
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Patricia A.
Dear Patricia,
You are correct in saying that managing one’s time is important. In fact, for many, time is a currency, and it is so precious as we go through our daily tasks.
There have been many things written about time management, some of these coming from very professional points of view. At a time, however, when much is said about the importance of life/work balance, it will also be good to take it from another point of view. That is, professional time management should be tied up personal time management. You become a better professional as you become a better person. In an article, “don’t want to waste your life? Quit doing these 5 things today” in Inc.com by Jessica Stillma, it becomes clear that wasting one’s time is also wasting one’s life.
“Each of us, on average, has around, 27,000 days to live,” she begins in her article. She is not saying this, however, to depress you, as great philosophers have reminded us that remembering the shortness of life is what spurs us to live authentically. When you are cognizant that time is short, you value it appropriately.”
And when you value your time, you certainly don’t want to waste it. Here, she shares with us six things which we may not immediately spot and therefore are more dangerous. Nevertheless, we should quit doing there immediately so we don’t fritter away our hours and years.
- Surrounding yourself with the wrong people. It is said that you are the average of the five people you spend most of the time is. In short, who you spend the time with is “one of the most important productivity, happiness and simply life decisions you make every day.”
Stillma says that we can go wrong by “spending energy dealing with manipulators and narcissists, but one of the most disastrous is also the easiest to fall into because it’s based on kindness and optimism—sticking with a relationship of any sort because you think the party will change.”
And that’s a sure recipe for tons of wasted time. When you’re fundamentally incompatible with someone (in business or romance), cut your losses or risk wasted too much of your limited time.
- Complaining. According to science, “complaining rewires your brain to more quickly and easily see negativity. Pessimism, in other words, gets easier with practice.”
Stillman says that “all that moaning and complaining isn’t just eating into your time; it’s also making it harder for you to be productive and happy. And what better way to waste your time than to miss out on opportunities—and joy—because you were busy complaining?”
- Not asking for help. You can waste an incredible amount of life fretting about whether to ask for assistance. “There are a handful of reasons we don’t ask for help,” Lifehacker’s Kristin Wong says, “but it’s usually because we are too proud or too scared, and that’s a huge waste of time, because it keeps you from moving forward.”
- Letting other people tell you how to live. According to Bronnie Ware, a hospice nurse who’s listened to thousands of patients reckon with the inevitable end of life, there’s one regret that comes up more than any other. Surprisingly, it’s not a lost love of missed career opportunity, but “a struggle most of us face every day—living your life according to others’ expectations rather than your own true desires.” That leads to dreams unfulfilled.
For writer Ivan Chan, he warns us on Self Stairway that letting others tell you how to live is a definite sign you’re wasting your life. While plenty of people, well intentioned or not, will try to tell you how to live your life, he cautions us that “it’s your life and you get only one chance to live, so don’t waste it by living dependently on the commands of others.”
- Chasing momentary happiness rather than meaning. According to science, Inc. com’s Abigail Tracy says that there are two types of happiness. “the first time, known as eudaimonic well-being is happiness associated with a sense of purpose or meaning in life,” she notes. The second is hedonistic well-being, which is just that nice glow when you satisfy a desire.
While the first time has challenges and hard work that comes with it, always chasing hedonic happiness can mean that you’re wasting your full potential. Studies show that you will just make yourself “anxious rather than happy.” In the end, true satisfaction and joy come from meaning, not empty pleasures.
- Walling yourself off from your feelings. Life is a roller-coaster, Stillma says, so walling yourself off from your emotions might seem like a sensible way to modulate the pain. But “it’s also a tremendously good way to waste your time on Earth.”
“You can ruin your life by desensitizing yourself,” cautions Bianca Sparacino on Thought Catalog. “We are all afraid to say too much, to feel too deeply, to let people know what they mean to us. Caring is not synonymous with crazy.”
While the impulse to protect yourself by muting your feelings is understandable, the alternative is also so much richer. “There is something breathtakingly beautiful in the moments of smaller magic that occur when you are honest with those important to you,” Sparacino says. “Let that girl know she inspires you. Tell your mother you love her in front of your friends. Open yourself up, do not harden yourself to the world.”
Are there any other ways you see people wasting their lives without even realizing it? Hope these tips will give you a better way of handling your time in 2018.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association, the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for marketing and communications of SM, is the former local chairman.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.