Mornings, especially Monday’s, can be incredibly challenging. Even this morning I had a hard time not snoozing my alarm clock for the third time. I made a big mistake with my weekend and it is already affecting my veggie time on this important morning: I pulled out my laptop at nine last night to just quickly check some appointments. Before I knew it, it was 1 am and I was replying to emails, doing a little research and generally being all too awake.

I know I have been exhorting you guys to leave work at work, keep the mental separation and keep a healthy work/life balance. I am the first to admit that it is incredibly difficult at times to maintain. Luckily, time management is not a one-shot kind of deal. It is a daily process; with every day that you consciously try to better manage your time, you will get better at it and make each part of it more of a habit.

Keep on trying my hints and don’t give up hope!

I am a big believer in honesty. In every facet of your life, it is incredibly important to do what you say AND to say what you do. It does not matter if it is in regards to your family, your friends, your co-workers or your bosses: honesty is the best policy.

When agreeing to help co-workers, to be home for dinner or to head a new project, it is vital to communicate openly your expectations, your limitations and your vision. Your significant other will be much happier to hear “Honey, I don’t think I can be home until 8:30 tonight” than to hear platitudes and then have wasted an evening cooking you a dinner that is ruined. In the same way, if you promise your client or boss that you can have these three deliverables by COB Friday, you better be able to deliver them by that time. It is acceptable (in most cases) to communicate to your boss or client if you absolutely cannot make your deadline, provided that you do it early on in the process (noon on Friday is NOT acceptable) and that you have a good reason for missing the deadline. Otherwise, you’re violating their trust and undermining their opinion of you. Next time your client is looking to book a job or your boss is looking to staff a new project, they will both hesitate to pick you again.

View all of your promises as “veggies”. Abiding by them will significantly increase your employment/home life health.

How often do you get ambushed in your office? For example, your co-worker pops his/her head in and asks “Hey, can you please help me with this thing?”. You, out of habit or kindness, reply “Of course I can”. Whether or not you think about it in this way, you have just given your word to help out your co-worker.

Now I know that telling people “no” can be difficult and can seem harsh. I am not suggesting that in your new way of time management, you reject everyone every time they need help–that will destroy any sort of team atmosphere and build serious hostility in the workplace. Instead, defer.

Deferring is a great technique that is relatively simple to execute. In the above conversation when your co-worker pops his/her head in and says “Hey, can you please help me with this thing”, you can reply with a deferring comment such as “Let me finish this project and then I can see if I can help you out”. Or, “I am really swamped today, could we talk about it tomorrow?”.

Deferring ambushes will help your time management in three ways. First, it will allow you to complete your veggies or tasks without having to divide your brain in the dreaded multi-tasking. Secondly, it will allow team to not resent you. Lastly, it effectively communicates your needs and attempts to pair them with your co-worker’s need in the most efficient way possible.