Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all that you need to do given the time constraints that you face?  I was recently going over my 2011 goals with Elaine, the owner of Pinnacle, and I mentioned to her that I seem to have so much to do, and I always feel that I never have enough time and am racing against the clock.  I have three children, work full-time, am on the board of the Weston PTO, play on a tennis team, have to take care of the house – this includes laundry which often feels like a full-time job in and of itself – am coaching my daughter’s lacrosse team this Spring; life is crazy.  So as we were talking about this, she asked me whether I had ever heard of the W.I.N. concept – “What’s Important Now.”  I hadn’t heard of the approach, but it makes total sense….You make a list with three columns, “Have to do,” “Should do,” and “Could do,” and then you write your “to do” list with the W.I.N. lens on. 

As I thought about W.I.N. some more, I realized that at times I tend to do the “Should do” or “Could do” items in place of the “Have to do” ones.  Often these less mandatory matters are easier to achieve and cross off the list than the more mandatory matters, and so I gravitate toward doing them.  This is probably just human nature, but it also results in a less than optimal use of time, which then heightens your stress level because you still have the mandatory tasks to get done and you now have less time in which to do so.  This comes into play even more when the “Have to do” task is challenging.  So for example, instead of having a difficult conversation with a client about reducing the price of his/her house (something I “Have to do”), I might find myself writing MLS (Multiple Listing Service) copy for a listing which is not due for another week (something I “Could do”).  Very interesting….

The bottom line is that I’m excited about using W.I.N.   It seems to be such a simple, logical concept, and I think it will make a world of difference in terms of increasing time efficiency, which should then result in lower stress levels.  Do you have any time management tips that work for you?  I can’t wait to hear…..