For me, the best way to manage my time is to be really clear about what my priorities are. I have written many times here about how my priorities have changed over the years. For example when I first started this business, I had only 2 priorities, family and work. I enjoyed other things, such as friends or exercise or food, but none of those things were particularly important to me.
Over the past year my priorities have evolved. A lot. Now, I have a top 4 rather than 2. Here they are: 1. family, 2. work, 3. friends, 4. exercise. Other than family coming first, these are in no particular order.
When you are clear on your priorities, decision making is actually really easy. For example, I have a close friend from college who lives in Milan, Italy. She has lived there for about 15 years yet I have never gone to visit her. I considered it, but always felt guilty about leaving the kids behind.
Well this summer I am going to visit my friend in Italy. Without my kids. Oh and did I mention I CAN’T WAIT TO GET TO ITALY!!!! Can you tell I am not feeling even the slightest bit guilty?
Rather than agonizing over every little decision, I recommend you spend some time setting your priorities, then write them down and refer to them often. When you need to make a choice on how to spend your time, refer to that list. Will making that choice help you with one of your priorities? If so, do it and feel no guilt about it. And if not, forget it, and feel no guilt about that either.
What about you? What are your priorities?