Unconventional Time Strategies That Work

This is a guest post from Julie Gray, a holistic time coach and author of Guilt-Free Time: How to Add 10 Peaceful and Productive Hours in Your Week. I’ve asked her to share her best tips on how to make time work for you. Download chapter one of her workbook for free here.

I don’t believe in let-me-tell-you-what-to-do-time-management.

Why? It doesn’t work.

What does work is the perfect-for-you time system just waiting to be fully discovered and put into practice – that’s buried inside of you.

It’s been covered up by the endless stream of conventional time management advice that everyone is regurgitating these days. Your best system has been stymied by a fear of doing it wrong or being different. Somewhere along the way, you stopped trusting yourself.

Isn’t it time to stop forcing yourself to live according to rules someone else set?

You can tell when you finally land on your best approach to time management – because it fits you. It isn’t hard. It feels natural and aligned with how you want to operate in the world. Managing your time (and your life) becomes far less overwhelming and complicated.

Your System Is Unique

How you manage your time and organize your life might not be the way your husband, friend, or co-worker does it.

They might not understand your approach.

This is really OK. In fact, this is the way it’s supposed to be.

Everyone thinks differently. People process information differently. They respond to their environment differently.

Doesn’t it make sense that your systems would look different too?

Here are some examples of really good – if unconventional – time systems:

  • Writing a reminder to yourself on your bathroom mirror in lipstick
  • Using an index card to track the “extra” items you need to do this month
  • Creating a mind map to breakdown your projects
  • Sticking a list of errands on the front door handle
  • Working from 10 pm – 2 am, sleeping from 2 am – 6 am, working from 6 am – 10 am, sleeping from 10 am – 2 pm, etc.
  • Using 3 separate calendars for 3 separate purposes
  • Recording your daily to-do’s into a voice recording app

Do you see how awesomely creative and effective these systems could be for different people?

Can you see how trying to fit yourself into a “conventional time system” could leave you frustrated and discouraged if this isn’t how your brain operates?

Part of fully embracing your own approach to managing life is to let it be OK that you are walking your own path. You get to decide how your life flows. It’s time to buck the conventional rules to time management, productivity, and work-life balance, and discover what actually works for you.

Unconventional time strategies. Isn't it time to stop forcing yourself to live according to rules someone else set? Click To Tweet

How To Find Your Best Time System

First off, cut yourself some slack. It IS possible to find the solutions and strategies that work for you.

It takes some experimentation and a willingness to trust yourself to come up with your best solutions.

Over the next few weeks notice what pieces of your system fit you well. What works? And what doesn’t work? What are you tolerating? Don’t feel boxed in by conventional wisdom.

Apply the strategies that are working to the systems that aren’t.

Experiment. Collect data. Be curious. Leverage your creativity.

This is how you uncover the best systems that fit your world.

To learn more about how to create your own approach to time management – and add more guilt-free time in the process click here.

For more unconventional time strategies, I’d like to share the Top 10 Time Management Strategies for Successful Mompreneurs.

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Janet Schiesl

Janet Schiesl

Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.

She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.

Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.

Janet Schiesl

Janet Schiesl

Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.

She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.

Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.

16 Comments

  1. Seana Turner on August 2, 2021 at 9:51 am

    My mother-in-law, who had 6 children, used to fall asleep on the couch around 8pm. Then she would wake around midnight, get up and do the dishes and other chores when no children were underfoot, and then go back and finish out the night. I totally agree that it is finding what works for each individual’s life, personality, biorhythm, and situation.

    • Janet Schiesl on August 2, 2021 at 8:18 pm

      That’s interesting. My guess is that she was just tired at 8 pm. But I bet she was much more efficient at midnight with no one to be in her way.

  2. Sabrina Quairoli on August 2, 2021 at 11:00 am

    When my kids were little, and my husband was traveling a lot, I experimented on different time slots to fit my startup business into my taking care of kids’ tasks. It took some time, but eventually, I got it down to a science. Although my kids are in college now, I stick with some of those time slots because they are the most productive time in the day for me. I remind my clients that no time management system is bad if it works for you.

    • Janet Schiesl on August 2, 2021 at 8:16 pm

      Your comment makes me wonder how many people have been able to work more efficiently at home over the last year, by working at a time when they are most productive instead of trying to fit into a 9 to 5 timeframe.

  3. Sara Skillen on August 2, 2021 at 1:38 pm

    Such great suggestions (love Julie Gray!) – the best thing I ever did was give in to my natural tendency to do admin-type work at 6 am. Most people think I’m nuts but it’s always been my best time for knocking small tasks off my lists, writing, responding to emails, etc. If it ain’t broke…

    • Janet Schiesl on August 2, 2021 at 8:00 pm

      I love that Sarah. I am an early riser and like getting things off my list before my day really gets started. But I also know that I’m not very productive after noon and forget me trying to achieve anything important in the evening.

  4. Julie Bestry on August 3, 2021 at 1:34 am

    So true! When I was in college, I worked according to my body’s natural clock, and it was very efficient. In my first career, I had to be up far too early for my liking, and it meant that my mornings were far less efficient than they could have been if I’d started my day later. In the last 20 years I’ve run my own business, my number one rule has been not to bend my schedule to society’s rules, and it means I deliver better, sharper, more incisive expertise to my clients — because I’m not doing it when my brain is begging to be unconscious. I’m with you and Julie Gray; the key to any system is that it’s one that fits you, because that’s a system to which you will commit!

    • Janet Schiesl on August 3, 2021 at 7:22 am

      I commented to Sabrina that I’ve been wondering whether people are taking advantage of their personal preferences in managing their time while working from home. I wonder if they are more productive.

  5. Diane N Quintana on August 3, 2021 at 7:08 am

    Love this! It is so important to listen to yourself and not to follow any organizing strategy just because it works for someone else. Such great and creative advice.

    • Janet Schiesl on August 3, 2021 at 7:18 am

      Thanks Diane. Finding what works for you is important. I find that our clients need our experience to create/find what works for them.

  6. Linda Samuels on August 3, 2021 at 4:02 pm

    Julie Gray is awesome, and so are her ideas around time management. Recognizing that we think, process, and live differently is a perfect reason to craft unique systems…even unconventional ones. Even something as basic as running things with an electronic or paper planner can be a starting point. But the main idea here is leaning into what works for you, even if it isn’t in any of the books. So if lipstick reminders on the mirror, putting sticky note reminders in visible places, or working at the times that work for you make sense, GO FOR IT! And as Julie encourages, remain curious, experiment, and be creative. Your time will thank you because it will be time managed on your terms.

    • Janet Schiesl on August 4, 2021 at 5:01 pm

      I love helping clients “craft unique systems” as you said. It’s always interesting when people come up with unique ideas.

  7. Amy Slenker-Smith on August 4, 2021 at 1:05 pm

    Great read! I try to offer multiple options to clients because one size does not fit all.

    • Janet Schiesl on August 4, 2021 at 4:59 pm

      I just alluded to that same thought in a comment to Jill. We think alike.

  8. Jill Katz on August 4, 2021 at 2:12 pm

    I love this strength-based approach to time management! How frustrating it can be to try mainstream time management tools only to meet with failure. Trusting yourself means wielding curiosity over shame. This is empowering and spot-on.

    • Janet Schiesl on August 4, 2021 at 4:58 pm

      Thanks Jill. I try new time systems all the time. They don’t always work and I like to tweak them to fit my needs. Then try to teach clients to do the same.

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