Show Notes
I’m presenting one of my favorite topics, just for you. Because it’s my tenth episode and I think we should celebrate by doing something special!
The topic today is a bit of a twist on time management, called time satisfaction.
While time management can be an important skill, for me it is tedious and sometimes even pointless. It’s not enough just to manage your time. You need to get some satisfaction out of it.
We need to find ways to make time more meaningful. So that’s how we’re celebrating today. You’ll learn about time satisfaction and some specific techniques for increasing it.
Changing your view from time management to time satisfaction is a perspective change. It’s a shift from optimizing time to optimizing energy and fulfillment. It will take the struggle out of it, lower your stress, and raise your level of contentment.
To help explain what I mean by time satisfaction, let me start with some background. First, there’s what I call The Fundamental Axiom of Time Management:
There’s always more to do.
And the corollary to that is:
You will never get everything done. Ever.
If you can accept that axiom, then time satisfaction becomes an easier concept. Now you can more easily shift from optimizing time to optimizing energy and fulfillment.
Time satisfaction refers to how satisfied you are with how you’ve spent your time. It’s how satisfied you are with how you’ve invested your efforts against time and how you’ve benefited from that investment.
Because if your level of satisfaction is high, then whether or not you got everything done doesn’t matter. Because your satisfaction with how you’ve spent your time is more meaningful than simply the quantity of tasks you accomplished within that time.
And since (going back to the axiom’s corollary) you will never get everything done anyway, then you may as well prioritize those things that allow you to get maximum satisfaction.
4 Ways Women Engineers Can Increase Their Time Satisfaction
Now that you have some background and an idea of what I mean by time satisfaction, let’s explore 4 ways to increase it.
- Your Energetic Center.
Your energetic center is that place where your values, skills, strengths, and passion meet. It’s a very, powerful, place. It should be your goal to work at your energetic center because you’ll be highly motivated and have the greatest probability of reaching your career potential.
Someday we’ll spend a whole episode on your energetic center. But today I’m introducing the concept to you in the context of time satisfaction. Because time spent at your energetic center results in a significant amount of satisfaction.
So one way to maximize time satisfaction is to work – to the extent that you can – at your energetic center. Be in that place where your values, skills, strengths, and passion meet.
- The Essence at the Moment
When you are overwhelmed with things to do, and it’s difficult to decide where to start, you can do a quick check-in to determine the essence at the moment. The way you do this is to ask yourself the simple question: “What is the one most important thing to me right now?”
Focus your attention there and ignore the rest.
This practice works because efforts that are more important have higher impact. It’s quality over quantity. In other words accomplishing the most important thing has more impact than barreling through a list of less-important tasks.
The simple question – What is the one most important thing to me right now? – has two very important phrases: “to me” and “right now.”
You must assess what’s most important to you – not to anybody else. And you must assess it in the current timeframe – right now – because importance changes over time.
If you’re wondering, “what about all the other tasks?” That’s a great question, and here’s the answer: Whether or not the remaining tasks ever get done is of no concern.
Remember you’ll never get everything done, so focus on those tasks that are more important to you for higher impact and increased time satisfaction.
- What if I don’t (do this task)?
This technique is especially good for people who have trouble saying No. Ask yourself “What happens if I don’t do this task?” And consider the consequences.
The truth is that much of the time there are no consequences of taking a task out of your job jar. If there are no consequences, it’s a low-impact task. And if it’s a low impact task, it is not contributing to your time satisfaction.
Right away you can take out of your job jar the tasks that linger on your to-do list, like:
- the tasks that are not that important to you,
- the tasks that never get top priority, and
- the tasks that no one even notices when they don’t get done.
These are the kinds of things that rob you of time satisfaction.
Also you should ignore tasks that are not serving you. For example, if you answer yes to any of the following three questions, take the task out of your job jar:
- Are you only doing this task out of loyalty?
- Are you only doing this task out of a need to do for others?
- Are you only doing this task out of a need to show competence?
You can easily get trapped by these kinds of tasks. Instead focus on the tasks that also have a benefit for you – those that keep you at your energetic center.
- The Ta-da List
Making a ta-da list is the practice of writing down at the end of the day the tasks you actually completed. Then become aware of the positive effects of that work and congratulate yourself. I love this practice, and I use it a lot!
As opposed to a to-do list, a ta-da list celebrates what you have accomplished, rather than lamenting what you haven’t.
It works because, by reinforcing what you have not completed, the to-do list results in a feeling of inadequacy. In contrast, the ta-da list reinforces that the work you do is worthwhile and productive, leaving you feeling accomplished and satisfied.
Ultimately, what is on your ta-da list is more powerful than what’s on your to-do list because it increases your time satisfaction.
Remember, when it comes to time, it’s your levels of energy and fulfillment that are important. Make time management more meaningful by practicing time satisfaction.
Recap: On our very special 10th episode today we learned all about time satisfaction, starting with the idea of shifting from time management to time satisfaction. We covered some basic concepts about both terms.
Then we reviewed ways to increase your time satisfaction by applying 4 concepts: Your Energetic Center, The Essence at the Moment, What if I Don’t?, and The Ta-da List.
Finally, I want to remind you to check out my free guide:
4 Steps to Start Commanding Greater Influence and Impact as a Woman Engineer.
It’s my gift to you on this very special 10th episode!
Next time on Her Engineering Career Podcast we’ll talk about workload management. Interestingly, enhancing your time satisfaction includes managing your workload. Tune in for Episode 11 so you can learn and strengthen this important skill for women engineers.
References: Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Dan Pink, When - The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. Gretchen Rubin’s Happier Podcast, The Ta-Da List, episode 134.