Reduce Your Commitments

If you have too much work to do, then consider to reduce your commitments. Choose to do the obligations you really want to do, and get rid of the others. You'll ensure that you get done with your work, you'll be more motivated, and you'll have more time to play.

Why not get extra commitments?

If you want to be good at time management and get all your tasks done in a certain time period. Then you have to make sure that you don't have too many tasks to do. Even a time management guru can't use effective time management if he has too much stuff to do. No matter how many lists you make, how hard you work. Too much work is too much work.

Too many commitments also means that you have less time for each commitment. You can't give yourself a 100% for each commitment if you have too many of them. Eventually, you'll have to drop some tasks or deliver them with a lack of quality. Which results in demotivation, angry people and a bad self-esteem.

Therefore, you have to reduce your commitments in order to reduce the amount of work that is coming to you. You can only give your top performance and produce top quality work if you have enough time to do so.

How do we get unwanted commitments?

Often, in the heat of a meeting, you take on extra commitments. At that moment, you think you have enough time or you need to look more capable for a promotion at work or ... It's quick to say 'yes' when someone asks you to do something.

Most of the time, it's much more work than you first thought. It is often not in line with your goals and as a result, you won't be motivated to do them. Which quickly results in more work than you can handle. Procrastination isn't far away at this point.

How to reduce your commitments?

• Sort out which commitments are helping you accomplish your goals, and which ones aren't helping you.</br>
• Be honest, tell the other person or group that you can't continue with your commitment. Explain why not and they'll understand. They might not like it. But because you have been honest, they can not blame you (just don't do this at the latest moment, do it early in your commitment for other people to make new arrangements.)</br>
• If you're deeply committed to a project, going cold-turkey might not be an option. Make a plan to delegate tasks to other people, or make it a priority not to take on new tasks until you've found a workload that is acceptable.

How to prevent extra commitments?

Say 'no, I'll have to think about it first.' when people ask you to do something. In general, say 'no' more often.

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