How Good Time Management Can Improve Your Relationships

A post from our Time Management blog

Poor time management is something we should all avoid like the plague.

When you're not managing time effectively, you're not only wasting excess energy to rush and complete tasks, but you also spend too much time procrastinating, wondering what you should do next, just to ‘win back' some of the time you've wasted. It's a vicious circle.

As if that wasn't bad enough, poor time management can lead to a number of other issues such as low energy levels, impatience, poor performance at work and poorly defined goals -- not just at work, but also in life.

And one of the biggest impacts bad time management can have is on your personal relationships, which can suffer tremendously when you let people down, inadvertently hurt them and often see them lose faith in you. When was the last time you showed up late to pick your kids up from school? Or didn't come home at six in the evening like you said you would, to take your other half out to dinner?



It's no exaggeration to say that poor time management can have devastating life-long consequences, not just for yourself, but -- maybe more important -- these who are close to you.

The Connection between Good Time Management and Thriving Relationships

Let's put it all into context:

Let's say you have a very important client appointment at three in the afternoon. But you get a call from home, reminding you that your son's basketball semi-finals are starting around the same time. What do you do? How good are you at resolving scheduling conflicts?

This will largely depend on your ‘time management history' with both parties. For now, let's imagine that you decide to approach the client first to resolve this conflict. But if this is the second or third time you're having to reschedule an appointment in the same week, then your credibility is probably quite low.



The moment you bring up the idea of rescheduling the appointment, chances are that your client will respond with inflexibility, perhaps accompanied by a little irritability as well (and quite rightly so, we'd say).

So let's think about this for a moment. To you, it's a situation that certainly deserves careful consideration. But to your client, it could be something along the lines of "same ol' story, different day". And no matter how the situation is resolved, you're bound to lose ground with the client.

Now, let's turn this around: if you have been consistently reliable, upfront and available as far as client appointments go, then your client will actively acknowledge that you have their interest at heart – and they may be happy to reschedule the appointment. Why, they may even offer to suggest an alternate time that works for you. Added bonus: you won't be spending time in future, trying to make up for lost ground...

If you're buried with too much to do in a team environment, there are lots of tools that can help. One we've seen is from Ayanza, which is designed to help you develop good time management in situations like this.



Likewise at home. If your game-attendance track record has generally been poor, full of broken promises and no-shows, you can forget about getting any slack from your son, even if you try your best to honestly explain the situation.

But if he knows for sure that you're his number one fan, always following up with "How was the game, son, did you get em'?" or "Hope the coach didn't give you a tough time like before", even when you can't attend – then he knows that you care about what's going on in his life. And, you'll likely be met with "It's cool dad, I understand how things happen".

Added bonus #2: you won't be spending any time or energy trying to mend ties with your son, dealing with all the expected behavioral fallout young ones exhibit when they're upset because they feel neglected by their parent.

Take a Step in the Right Direction Today

Lucky for you, good time management isn't just a critical life skill but a choice you can make today. It can be said that the most obvious time saver is, in fact, the benefit we gain when our words, commitments and actions are always kind, congruent and honest.

For one, it helps us avoid all those time-consuming, mentally and emotionally draining arguments and plethora of misunderstandings, when time is managed poorly.

For another, the ones we interact with on a daily basis, particularly those close to us, will be more understanding and accommodating.

Benefits of Effective Time Management

So here are a few of the main benefits of managing your time effectively:

• Managing your time efficiently means lower stress levels. Fewer stiff deadlines, fewer surprises, and significantly fewer stressful situations where you're scurrying around trying to find a last-minute solution.
• By being organized and time-savvy, you're always aware of what you need to do, which will keep you productive not just at work but also in your personal relationships.
• Since we can't create more time out of thin air, we can certainly play our part to make better use of it. Even simple initiatives like changing your wakeup/sleeping hours can have a positive effect on relationships.
• You'll always be known as the ‘reliable, go-to guy' because, guess what? You like to get stuff done on time. This will help not only family relationships, but your friends and coworkers will appreciate this too.
• Managing time effectively means you're spending it where it matters the most – namely, the people who matter the most to you.

A common misconception often talked about is that time management requires extra energy and time. This is crazy! Good time management makes things a lot easier and essentially, you're spending less time to get more done.

When you always have a plan and know what you must do (ahead of time), you end up wasting little or no time in idle activities – rather than wondering what you should do next, you can stay a step ahead of your daily priorities – and you can see that this is a key factor that determines the success of your relationships.

In its basic form, good time management comes down to knowing where to spend your time and how to spend it – and also about obligations, priorities and smart and savvy scheduling.

When you manage your time this way, you are essentially benefiting all areas of your life, and your relationships will prosper.