Watch out for negative effects of time management

Too much of anything can be bad. The same applies to Time Management also.

In any organization if you don't have processes to improve efficiency you have chaos. But the moment you start enforcing process you turn into bureaucracy. The challenge is to have a balance. Have a good enough system that prevents going to the extremes that sustain values by which the business is guided. 

Time Management efforts are to improve efficiency and effectiveness of how you manage your work and personal life. It should help you alleviate stress.

If you feel that trying to follow time management is causing you stress instead of eliminating the same, watch what you are doing. This can happen when you take the practice to extremes.

I have felt these negative effects sometimes.

For Example, you might one particular task you have been planning to do is long overdue and you start getting worrying that you are loosing touch on your time management practice.

This is when it comes to personal values and self introspection. When it is not easy to think whether to give up a particular task or not that is when the you start questioning basis for doing the same.

A few negative effects you may want to watch for are:

- Regret that you are not able to achieve goals (your goals to reach are too many)
- Overload of work to do too many things (you start taking things you don't have to do)
- Stress due to backlog ( you are slipping on lot of tasks on your to do list)

We also need to develop lot of patience and long term thinking to achieve your goals. People take years to develop the discipline. Don't expect to master this skill in few months and expect miracles to happen.

You also don't have to spend lot of money in getting organized. A simple and plain method that suits your needs is good enough. You don't have to go wireless devices if you don't have a need to access e-mail all the time.

Also make sure you read other tips I have written previously. You can read around 50 tips written so far here so that you retain the right perspective on time management.