Does the idea of Time Management Scare you? Me Too!!! Here are a few thoughts on time

• MANAGING TIME seems impossible. It doesn’t stop for anything. It just keeps ticking away no matter what happens. 
• Time has no feelings.  Someone is born, someone dies… time marches on. Even when the King of the world was born and when He died, time just kept moving forward.
• Humans are stuck in time.  We are only in the present.  Though affected by the past with the ability to anticipate the future we still can only operate in the current time

So the idea of managing time is terrifying, and it should be.  It is an unstoppable train that just keeps going and going.

But there has to be a way to get more accomplished in the time we have. I wonder, why are some people so productive and other people can’t seem to keep up or get things done.  What is it?

As I started asking these questions I started reading and watching TED talks on this subject.   I realized that I had to learn to manage the gift of 24 hours in a day… how was I going to make the most of these hours.

Here is one of my favorite videos, it is only 18 minutes long and an easy listen.

With all this in mind I sat down and made myself a daily plan.  To be honest, this was not easy for me.  I was nervous that I would no longer be able to do what I wanted, or be available when inspiration struck. I would be managed by a clock! Not my idea of a good time!

I sat down and planned out a week.  I wrote down all the things I had to do.  All the work, homeschool, cleaning, bible study, social media, eating, meal prep, personal growth and more.  Then, I started putting them in my calendar.  Not gonna lie, I was freaking out.  All these what-if’s were flying though my head. But I put some Into The Future Essential Oils blend on my forehead and forged ahead.

To my great surprise, creating a daily agenda delivered the complete opposite.  I am no longer managed by a clock, and yet I still don’t manage time… but rather I embraced the fact that time is a steady train moving forward and I had to learn to work with it. Really I leaned to manage myself (and I am a little easier to manage then time)

No Kidding, I was amazed at how much I loved it already on day one.  Oh, the freedom!  I knew what I was supposed to be doing and when. As a result, when I am reading to the children at night and I think of something that I am supposed to do comes to me, I know that I have already allotted time to do that task, and that time is not right now. So in and out of my mind that thought goes, and I am able to focus of the task at hand.  Play, listening and interacting with my babies! I WIN!!!!

Now coming into the New Year it is a time when we are getting back into it and we need to refocus.  If managing your 24 hours is a challenge for you, I want to encourage you.  Take a deep breath, know that you are not managing that, you are managing yourself, and make a schedule for yourself.

Here are some tips that I found helpful

• Just do 3 months to start with
• Block off time for Lunch and Dinner
• Think out what you would like
• Schedule in visiting time and reading time
• Be realistic
• Start with what is already on your agenda and fill in the rest from there
• Have your goals in mind when creating your schedule
• Set reminders
• Google Calendar ROCKS!

Remember

• You can always readjust
• it is your schedule, make something you like
• Just Try it.

 

Here is a snap shot of mine

With most calendar apps you can colour code everything.  There are 3 calendars overlapped here.  So to make it super simple, here is how I did it.

1. Family (Yellow) all meals, family events and kids activities
2. Focus time (light Green) those are the hours I blocked off for work.
3. Focus Schedule (Dark Green) What I needed to do within those time blocks.  A monthly schedule of what needed to be done.

You can see that I blocked time for Self Growth always after lunch. Then at 3 it was reading or visiting with friends.  That is a time when I am not up for much of anything.  So I made it a time where I could relax.

So you see, it is really not that scary, just a little change in perspective and a little self managemnt. If part of your goal this year is to get more organized and take control of the hours you have been given, you have to make a daily schedule.

You’ve got this!

Keep Well, Donna