At the core of productivity is focus. Fewer commitments mean greater impact.
Do you regularly overcommit yourself to different appointments, meetings, and tasks? Is your calendar or schedule at the breaking point?
We often fall into “biting more than we can chew”. And especially for moms, we find ourselves overcommitting to things.
In this post, I offer a few tips to help you avoid overcommitment and get your time back in your control.
What is overcommitment?
It’s that you find yourself committed to so many things at the same time, you want to achieve a lot.
At home, for example, committing to do the laundry, cooking, taking care of your kids.
We overcommit to our jobs. A colleague calls for a favor, you do it even if you don’t have the time. The boss asks you to accept a new assignment, you accept it even if you have no time in your schedule to devote to a new project.
Overcommitment is actually self-sabotaging.
Why? Because overcoming being overcommitted, means there are things that you cannot achieve. And that creates a feeling of failure.
Being hard on yourself is like being hard on yourself for being human, so quit it. Know that self-criticism won’t help. Part of conquering overcommitment is being kind to yourself about it.
With this in mind, here’s a look at some strategies that can help you to avoid over-committing
1. Shift yourself from seeing it as a failure to learning
Learn from the things that you can’t achieve. Try to learn what pattern you are living by.
Once you know what are the things that you can’t achieve, you can set your priorities and you will know where to focus your energy. And If something you’re working on is not working, you’re best off letting someone else take it on.
2. Know your limits
This means setting boundaries. Once you’ve committed to this capacity, you either need to say no to new work or renegotiate previous commitments to free up space.
If you don’t know your effective capacity and how much you’ve already committed to, then you’ll never be able to manage your time effectively. Therefore, decide what’s important to you and your family, and then work to make it a priority, carving out boundaries to help keep you on track.
3. Stick to your calendar
It’s better to fix a specific time for each task. From there, you will have a clear vision of how you will spend every minute or hour of your time.
It will stop offering your time blindly without confirming whether or not you’ve already got something scheduled!
To sum it up!
It’s no secret that overcommitment can be a big source of stress!
Effective time management begins with accepting the reality that time is a finite resource. This acknowledgment frees you to make choices about what you will and won’t do so you can invest more in what’s most important.
So before you put it in your schedule, ask yourself if it lines up with the boundaries you have set or if it will help to enrich you or your family’s lives. If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it.
And take it easy on yourself. Not doing everything doesn’t mean failure, you are just stepping back to focus more on your priorities.
You can learn to prevent overwork and overcommitment in your life. It is not easy, but you can do it. And it is well worth it.
As you stop from being overcommitted, you might also want to read how to overcome your inner critic to stop self-sabotage. Read it here.
