Hey everyone! So glad you could join me again this week for my blog post. This week I thought I would discuss something that has made a tremendous impact on my life, and not always for the better: time management. With all of the opportunities and obligations you have in your life, it is impossible to make time for all of them. I repeat. Impossible. So I wanted to walk you through some steps that will make your life easier, will make you more efficient and will help you to know what is too much!
I start with a simple list. What needs to be done? What would you like to be done? This really should include everything. Work, play, volunteer, date nights, housekeeping, kid time, ME time, whatever you think needs to be accomplished. What are you doing now that sucks your life but you do anyway? Okay, feel free to add all of those last ones to a different list called “Not doing”. Get the idea? Next to all of your time wants and needs, put how much time you think you should be spending on them each week.
Now I add them to my agenda. Using a weekly agenda with daily hourly blocks, I add in each that needs to be done. Then I with what time I have left, I add in what I would like to be done. If it needs to be done, make sure its blocked in somewhere. Your hour of housework needs an hour in the day blocked off. This will encourage you to do the housework when it needs to be done! I also like to add a wake up time and a bedtime. I’m an early riser (as I sit here before 6 to write a blog post) and therefore need an early bedtime. I cannot and will not function on too little sleep.
At this point, I like to look everything over. Is anything missing? Does your schedule looked so jam packed that it makes your head dizzy? Remember, you deserve some down time as well. If you want to watch an hour of TV on a Wednesday afternoon that’s not Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, then you get your hour of TV on that agenda. As a mom of a almost 2-year old and another on the way, I understand that not everything that’s on the agenda will always get done every day. But it definitely won’t get done if I forget about it because I never wrote it down. I’m a very visual person, so this method works for me.
Over time, you will figure out which obligations need more time, which need less time and which ones need to be dropped. Make changes as you go and grow. I find it best to look over last week’s schedule on Sunday evening and implement changes then.
We’ve talked a little bit about stress management, but the best stress management you can have is time management. Know where your time goes and know if you have the time to contribute. It’s okay to say no when you are too busy. Trying to do everything doesn’t make you a superhero, it causes you a stress and stops you from being the best you can be.
Best wishes and good luck!!
-Michelle