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www.i-am-magazine.com39It is Not Meant to Be AboutCramming More Things Into Your Day!Before agreeing to things others askof you, check to see what you will begiving up if you say yes to it. (Youare always giving something upwhen you say yes!)Set boundaries for yourself and holdothers to stay within them.Ask yourself:Are you a time Realist or a timeOptimist?Time Optimists think they can do it alland say yes to everything, resulting veryoften in finding themselves juggling toomany balls and falling short ofcompleting day-to-day tasks or achievinglife and work goals.Time Realists look at goals and tasks,breaking them into smaller chunks andallocating reasonable time to achieveeach chunk, step by step - whilst keepingthe focus on the bigger goal and on thesteps to achieving it.In order to be a time realist, you shouldconsider these things:Plan the next day at the end of eachday. The plans may change, but itmeans you begin each day with afresh start, knowing what you havechosen to do and why - this helpsreduce procrastination.Tackle the big or difficult tasks asearly as possible in the day, whichreduces procrastination.Group tasks/activities intocategories - for example checkingemails twice (yes, I said twice!) orthree times a day. You may checkemails in the morning, deal withwhat is both urgent and importantto your goals and leave the rest.Later, you could check them againabout an hour before ending yourwork day (if you need to, checkagain right before or after lunch, butdon%u2019t get derailed from what servesyou best). The beauty of this habit isthat you not only spend less timeand get less distracted by emails,but you also manage others%u2019expectations of how quickly theycan expect a response. You couldhave an auto-reply saying the timesyou check your emails in the day(helping to hold you moreaccountable for sticking to this), andwhat to do or whom to contact if itis urgent and cannot wait.