HEALTH CORNER
Time Management Expert
to Offer Tips at Free Event
Join author Laura Vanderkam 6 to 8 p.m. March 12 at The Olmsted
for Norton Healthcare’s upcoming Go Confidently speaker event
BY ERICA COGHILL
Laura Vanderkam
Photo by Michael Falco
Have you ever uttered the words,
“If only I had more time?” Of course,
we all have.
No matter your lifestyle, family
unit, professional or personal
demands, you’ve no doubt been
overwhelmed by feeling like there
aren’t enough hours in the day.
We c a u g h t u p w i t h t i m e
management expert and bestselling
author Laura Vanderkam for some
quick tips on how to make the most
of the time we have. She’ll be dishing
out a lot more during the March 12
installment of Norton Healthcare’s
free Go Confidently speaker series.
Mastering the Balancing Act
Time management is something
most of us have struggled with.
Even Vanderkam is no stranger
to the struggle. About 10 years ago,
the then-new-mom was faced with
an uncharted challenge: How do I
master the balancing act of parent
and professional?
“I knew I wanted to do both
things,” Vanderkam said. “I was
drawn to people who were doing
both — succeeding personally and
professionally.”
She set out on a mission to slow
the proverbial flying of time, or at
least better manipulate it. What she
found is that people who seem to
have it all don’t have more time than
the rest of us — they’re just using it
in ways that are helping them build
the lives they want.
“There’s no perfect hack to free
up all kinds of time in your life; no
special trick with email or special
thing around the house to make
chores magically take less time,”
Vanderkam said.
No one particular thing will change
your life completely, but Vanderkam
suggests a number of strategies you
can implement to make the most of
your time.
Identify What’s Important to You
“What will change your life is
deciding, ‘Even though the house
is messy, I want to read this book,’ ”
Vanderkam said.
Many people wait until everything
else is taken care of before doing
14 EXTOL SPORTS / MARCH 2018
the things they want to do. Ringing
phones and overflowing inboxes are
just a couple things that demand our
attention.
“If you spend all of your time on
those things, the day can get away
from you – the week, month, year –
and then you never spend time on
the things that are important but not
necessarily clamoring for attention,”
Vanderkam said.
Think about what you want to
spend more time doing – and do it.
“That unread email will still
be there, but you will have made
progress on the thing that is important
to you,” Vanderkam said.
Journal Your Time
Vanderkam says one of the best
ways to get a sense of where your
time is going is to write it down in a
journal. People generally think they
have a good idea of where their time
is going, but until they journal it, they
don’t have a realistic sense of how
it’s being used.
Once she started tracking her time,
she learned that even though she
works from home, she was spending
a lot more time on the road than she
thought.
“I realized I was spending about
an hour a day in the car for various
things that weren’t a daily commute,
and I wasn’t doing anything with that
time that was meaningful to me,”
Vanderkam said.
She decided to make better use
of her time in the car by listening
to audiobooks and podcasts while
behind the wheel.
Build Space in Your Schedule
Saying that you don’t have enough
time is an excuse. If something is a
priority, you will make time for it. If
it’s not a priority, Vanderkam reminds
us that it is OK to say no. You are in
control of your time.
“Time is a choice,” she said.
“Of course, there will be terrible
consequences if you don’t make
certain choices, but in the long run
it is a choice.”
Many successful people
Vanderkam has studied have a
surprising amount of open space in
their schedules.
“Being busy is not a badge of
honor,” she said.
Open space invites opportunity in
a way that a cluttered calendar just
can’t do. It’s about realizing that we
don’t have to do everything.
Plan, Plan, Plan
Planning is key. It’s something
Vanderkam didn’t do earlier in her life.
“I realized that people who were
having fun weekends, as opposed to
weekends that were all chores, were
thinking ahead to make sure they
had time for things that were fun
and rejuvenating,” she said.