Wendy's typical day goes something like this: Get the kids ready for school. Wait for her elderly mother's in-home care provider. Drop her three-year-old son at day care. Rush to her work as a bank manager. Off to the dry cleaners and maybe the grocery store. Pick up her three-year-old son. Rush home for a debriefing by her mother's care provider. Start on dinner. Help the kids with their homework. Storybook time. Bed.

Sound exhausting? Sound familiar? Sound like Wendy needs five personal assistants?

Unfortunately, most of us can't afford even one personal assistant. Instead, we run around trying to get everything done and often fail to get anything done well.

The problem has worsened with corporate down-sizing. Employers are running leaner and meaner organizations in which three people are being asked to do what six used to do. As a result, more employees and employers are beginning to turn to time management training in hopes that time management skills can help keep fast-paced, multi-taskers like Wendy on track, and even improve the quality of their lives and work.

"Good time management skills focus as much on achieving quality as they do on the time saved," said Lifecare ®, Inc. CEO Peter Burki. "Otherwise, you'd have to ask yourself, 'What good is getting everything done if it gets done in a mediocre way?'"

In a recent poll of employees from its 1,000 client companies, LifeCare, a Westport, Connecticut-based national employee benefits organization, found that 47 per cent of the employees ranked a lack of effective time management as the No. 1 source of stress in their lives. That was an increase of 25 per cent over the previous year.

"Many burned-out employees - at least 40% according to some recent studies - are going to jump ship when the opportunity presents itself," said Laura Stack, president of the Productivity PRO ®, a time management and employee productivity consulting firm based in Denver, Colo. "Employees are going to leave their companies in droves if companies don't help them figure out how to balance their lives."

"But by teaching employees to be more productive, you can achieve the same work result in less time and have a happier, satisfied employee who will also be loyal," said Stack, author of Leave the Office Earlier (Random House, 2004). "It also sends a powerful message to your best employees, the eagles of your company, whom you don't want to lose. It says: 'I value you. I don't want you working 60 hours per week. Let's see how we can help you can get a life back.'"

Given the huge numbers of employees caring for children or aging parents, the idea of time management has expanded beyond managing just workplace tasks.

"It's no longer just a matter of making a to-do list every day," said Burki, whose company provides time management training as well as counseling, education and referral services for employees. "Good time management skills help people establish goals and objectives, prioritize effectively, avoid procrastination and really plan ahead proactively." (See Side Story.)

Those skills can also help people balance all the vital areas of their lives, such as health, family, finances as well as their professional, intellectual, social and spiritual dimensions.

"We tend to get top heavy in a couple of areas of our lives and neglect the others," said Don Wetmore, president of The Productivity Institute, a time management training firm in Stratford, Conn. "As a society, we put in more hours than anyone on the planet, but what good does it do us? Most of us go to an early grave because we're not tending to our health. Half of our marriages end in divorce because we're not paying attention to our families.

"When I conduct a seminar, I ask people where they want to be in each area of life on the last day of their life. You work backwards from there to each year, each month and each day. Then the choices you need to make in life become a no-brainer," added Wetmore, who has worked with more than 100,000 employees and conducted more than 2,000 programs.

For the employer, that more holistic approach to better time management can increase productivity, reduce turnover and even save money.

Another recent LifeCare poll, for example, showed that 43% of employees didn't have enough time for exercise and healthy meal planning.

"With all the recent media coverage about increasing levels of obesity, that trend should be of real concern to employers," Burki said. "Higher levels of obesity translate into more spending on employee health benefit claims." But healthier employees mean fewer claims.

"The bottom line is that in any business today, your human capital is the most important asset you have and the people you're dealing with are either making or breaking your company," he added. "If you can help them manage all of the aspects of their lives, they are going to be able to maximize their contribution."

Sources:

Peter Burki, CEO of LifeCare, Inc., a Westport, Connecticut-based national employee benefits organization that provides Life Event Management Services, including work/life, EAP, legal/financial assistance, time management training and other supportive workplace services.

Laura Stack, MBA and CSP, President of the Productivity PRO ®, a time management and employee productivity consulting firm in Denver, Colo. Ms. Stack is also the author of Leave the Office Earlier (Random House, 2004).

Don Wetmore, President of The Productivity Institute, a time management training firm in Stratford, Conn.