Improve Stress and Time Management Skills: How to Create Time For What Matters Most and Reduce Your Stress

How do you improve your stress and time management skills? By changing your mindset about the way you value your time. It’s important to recognize the difference between standard time as well as quality time and prioritize your time appropriately.

Time management techniques that involve creating more time for what matters most to you can reduce your stress. Effective time and stress management can help you avoid stress-associated health problems.

Stress management is usually not the main focus of time management. The most popular time management tips involve multi-tasking. The goal of most time management techniques is to work faster and smarter in order to get more done -- this can lead to a lot of stress.

Of course, getting a lot more done can help you accomplish more in life. Achievements are valued highly in our society. High-achievers are rewarded with power, status and wealth. Sadly, the price of material success can be too high for most people. Some sacrifice their health in order to achieve more and more things in life. The resulting stress can lead to chronic illness and health issues.

The problem is that many people have become too achievement-oriented. This has created a sense of time sickness for a lot of people.

Many people are not just time-starved — they’re desperate for time because they’re always trying to achieve more and more. They’re fast-forwarding themselves through life. They’re anxious about not doing enough in the future and they’re remorseful about not having done enough in the past.

Instead of being truly present, some people are always out of synch with life. They’re always out of breath… they’re often stressed out. They’re always trying to get ahead — thinking of what they’re going to accomplish next.

What’s wrong with this picture?

There’s too much preoccupation with productivity and achievement. Although it’s important to achieve your goals, too much preoccupation with this can create too much stress in your life. This can lead to emotional burnout. Being too achievement-oriented can bring some rewards, but it can be at the expense of enjoying your life. Preoccupation with success can keep you from living your life to the fullest.

What’s the solution?

Re-evaluate your ideas about time. In today’s stressful world, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if you can only have more time, you can accomplish more. And if you can accomplish more, you can be successful — and you can finally be happy!

Sadly, happiness just doesn’t work that way. You need to allow yourself to enjoy your life now — not later. You need to make time and take the time to be happy now.

If you're like most people, you probably need to change the way you value your time.

Do you think time is money? Many people value time based on how much money could be made for that amount of time. The huge problem with this mindset is that it can make you feel really guilty about spending time on any activity that doesn’t bring in money.

Activities that can bring more happiness into your life are far more valuable than those that bring you money alone. Money can buy you a lot of things, but it can never buy true happiness.

Are you spending quality time or standard time?

It’s easy to be time-starved in today’s stressful world. There are too many things competing for your time and attention. What makes matters worse is that most people do not prioritize their time appropriately.

When people prioritize their tasks, they often focus on prioritizing them based on productivity or achievement. This is not necessarily a bad thing. But, there’s a better way.

It’s important to recognize the difference between standard time and quality time. So, you can spend your time accordingly.

Standard time is any time that you spend working on a task that doesn’t require your best skills or your concentration. You can usually delegate this task to someone else or you can pay someone to do it. To maximize your productivity, you can multi-task while spending standard time. For example, you can wash dishes while listening to the radio and doing your laundry. At work, you can file and organize your paperwork while talking on the phone.

What is quality time? How can you tell when you're spending quality time?

If you’re spending your time in such a way that it maximizes use of your talents and skills, you’re spending quality time at work. This can maximize your efficiency and effectiveness. This can lead to excellent performance and excellent pay. For example, teaching employees to improve their skills and empowering them to perform their best at work is quality time for employers.

Quality time in your personal life involves spending time in such a way that it maximizes your satisfaction and happiness. For example, spending quality time with your loved ones may involve doing things that make them happy. This can bring you closer and also bring you more happiness.

Spending quality time in your personal and professional life can bring you emotional and financial rewards.

Spending your time multi-tasking doesn’t necessarily decrease your time hunger. The opposite is true. It can make you acutely aware of how little time you really have. Too much focus on multi-tasking and productivity can lead to a joyless existence.

If you’re not spending quality time with what matters most to you — even if you accomplish a lot of things, you can lose something far more valuable — you can lose your zest for life.

The paradoxical thing is that when you focus on spending quality time on what matters most to you — time opens up! When you take the time to savor life — and really experience simple pleasures in life — time seems to expand.

Time management techniques that involve creating more time for what matters most to you can reduce your stress. Effective time and stress management can help you avoid stress-associated health problems.

When you focus on spending quality time with what matters most to you, you’re no longer fast-forwarding through life. Instead, you can be still long enough to allow happiness and joy to come into your life — you can live life to the fullest.