I am so thrilled to post this. I have to say, being a part of LitSisters has changed my life in the most amazing way. And we are starting 2010 off with a bang! Not only did our boutique publishing house, LitSisters Publishing, launch today, but we also were featured on the home page of [...]
This is the last of four installments in the most important aspect of Time Management 1.0: Prioritizing what’s Important in Your Life
Time Management 1.4: Creating Your Plan
Now that you know what’s important and what’s not, we can look at how to create a plan that works for you. We’re not yet at the color coded Excel spreadsheet yet (though you can make one at this point if you want!). Right now we’re just creating a basic plan.
Okay, take out your happy list, your categories list, and your “what to get rid of” list.
We’re going to make a weekly chart.
Take out a clean sheet of paper. You can do this in Excel, too, if you like. Turn it side-ways and across the top, write the days of the week. Leave a column to write times on the right side and one to write notes on the left side. I write out Monday through Sunday, because I like to see my weekend days together. Do what works best for you.
Now, down the right side write the time (I recommend ½ hour to 1 hour increments) from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep. Consider how much sleep you need. If you need 10 hours, make sure that’s included in your chart. You can’t function with high energy if you’re too tired. If you have to be up by 7am so that you can get to work on time, count backwards to determine what time you need to be in bed.
Once you’re done with that, write in the most important obligations, tasks, appointments, etc. For instance, if you must be at work by 8am, put that in. If you take your kids to school at 8:45 or must pick them up at 3:15, put that in, too. If you write every day between 5am and 7am, put that in! Now, based on the work we did last week, you should have gotten rid of any obligations that aren’t serving you or making you happy. So, they shouldn’t go in your chart.
If you do have obligations that you’re not happy with, but can’t seem to get rid of, like scrambling to pick the kids up or rushing to get them to school, consider other options.
For instance, I was scrambling to drop off the kids and pick them up after working a 9 hour day. Often, I was running late in both directions. My husband and I had decided I would perform these tasks because my job was closer to the day care. However, I was running ragged and never had a moment to breathe. So, we considered other possibilities. He decided he could start work later and take the kids in the morning. This meant that I could go to work earlier and pick up the kids earlier, too. Our children ended up in daycare less time, I felt less harried, and my husband and I shared the burden of pick up and drop off, making our family more relaxed and less rushed on either end of the work day.
What types of tasks are you performing that someone else can manage? This can be work or home tasks. What chores at home can be passed off to your kids? Even a four year old can dust and help set the table. And an intern make copies, schedule meetings and file.
Once you get in all of your obligations (make sure all daily items are repeated throughout the week), consider your happy list and your categories. What hasn’t been in your schedule that you would like to have there? It may not seem like you have the time, so consider items that can be done simultaneously, from tasks like talking to family and unloading the dishwasher to riding your bike with a friend or listening to music while you clean.
When I started looking at categories and themes in my happy list, I found that exercising was something I wanted to do, but not something I ever seemed to fit into my life. I started pairing it with things I always included – like socializing with friends and reading. I started going to the gym to ride an incumbent bike and read a book. I spent an hour there relaxing and reading AND getting my exercise. I felt refreshed and ready to take on the world when I was done – I also brought my kids to the kid’s place at the gym. They loved it because they got to play with other children right after spending all day in school. It really worked for all of us and I did four days a week.
Add in those things that you want to be a priority in your life, whether it’s a weekly date night or a daily walk. It’s important; schedule it into your day. This goes for writing time, too. Also, it is okay if you’re only putting in 15 minutes a day to start. Put it in! It makes you happy and that means it’s essential to your well-being.
Okay, do you have everything in? If you have monthly obligations, add that to your notes column, and be sure to add those into what ever calendar/organization system you use.
How does your weekly chart look? Does it depict a better balance of work and play? Does it include things that make you happy as well as things that make you feel productive?
As you schedule each week (I recommend you pick one day a week to do your scheduling) use your chart and be sure that the things on this chart get into the appropriate days first — before you plan anything else. This will help you keep writing time sacred and date night important, and it will alert you not to schedule another appointment during that very precious time. And keep in mind…it’s okay to slip up. Don’t give up. It takes practice to live by your priorities, but if you keep coming back to your chart for guidance, you’ll start to see a shift in the way you live.
I hope this helps you get started with managing your time!
Time Management 1.3: Getting Rid of the Other Stuff
The first week we talked about what makes you happy. Last week we talked about discovering what’s most important to you. This week, we’re getting rid of the other stuff.
Many of us are juggling a number of roles – spouse, partner, parent, friend, co-worker, employee, business owner, hobbyist and volunteer. Managing the various aspects of our lives successfully requires a high level of organization (did I mention we probably want clean living space and time to relax and pursue personal projects). It also, to some extent, requires a level of acceptance that each thing might not be done perfectly – but, that’s another post.
The most important thing: We agreed to take on each project or role because we wanted to. We made an active choice to accept the task and all of its responsibilities and we’re committed to the success of each endeavor. Plus, our involvement makes us happy and fulfilled, right. Right?
Everything you agreed to do, you’re doing because you want to, right? Because you chose to, not because you were guilted, manipulated, coerced or think you have to, right?
Everything?
Are you sure?
For a very long time, so many of the things on my list carried with it all of the heaviness that the word OBLIGATION implies. I did it because I HAD to, not because I wanted to. I felt bad saying, “No.” And so, I never did. I took on the troubles and tasks of others, and put mine aside, wondering the entire time why I was always stressed, worried and empty. But, about three years ago, I began to realize that the life I was living and the one I wanted to live were thousands of miles apart. I wasn’t sure how to get to where I wanted to go; I only knew I wasn’t there.
After I made the happy list, I started looking at what made me unhappy. There were lots of things, like cooking, cleaning, sitting in a cubicle, working for someone else; to name a few.
Start thinking about those things in your life that you don’t like or want there – they may no longer make you happy or fulfilled (maybe they never did), they may be busy work that you can pass off or pay someone else to do. Consider your to-do list and ask yourself if there is anything on it that now your children (or spouse) can now handle? For instance, my husband and oldest son now do the laundry. Both children feed the animals and my youngest son now dusts. Are there obligations that no longer work? Are you volunteering in the areas that please you most? I was stacking books for the school library for two hours a week; I stopped doing it and instead volunteered my time as the president of the pre-school advisory board. I spend less time each week and it’s more in alignment with my goals.
Think about all you delete, delegate, delay or diminish. Now we’re getting into the meat of time management, but it takes some serious introspection. And some willingness to ditch what’s not working so that you can embrace the good stuff.
If there are things on your list that you’re unhappy about, but know that you won’t or can’t get rid of them, we’ll focus on them next week when we discuss Creating Your Plan.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at christine@litsisters.com. Check back regularly for more LitSisters™ writing tips and resources.
Next Week: Time Management 1.4: Creating Your Plan
This is the first of four installments in the Time Management 1.0 Series: Prioritizing what’s Important in Your Life
Time Management 1.1: What Makes You Happy?
Dear Writer: If you want to get organized and manage your time effectively, the first step is knowing what’s most important to you. Chances are you may feel so overwhelmed with everything in your life that you don’t even know where to begin. I know. I’ve been there. The next four blogs are designed to help you discover what’s essential to your happiness and success, and how to make it first and foremost in your life (like writing!) Before the rest of the unimportant, and often very insistent, things overrun your day.
The first step is to make a list. Stop! Don’t run away! Yes, I know. If you’re struggling with managing your time and organizing your life, then there’s a good possibility you hate lists. But, trust me. This is a good list.
Drum roll please. Write down a list of things that make you happy. Really happy; joyfully, blissfully happy.
There’s no right or wrong answer. Put your censor/editor in a padlocked box for this exercise. The only criteria is it makes you happy – don’t worry if it makes anyone else happy (or sad). Use a pen, pencil, crayon, typewriter or computer. Write it on a napkin, in your journal or on your eight-year-old’s report card. I don’t care, just get it down on something you can find again later.
Take note, you may not know what makes you happy. Not right away.
I didn’t. I really had to think about it…for awhile. I was stunned: How could I not know what made me happy? I thought for days about my list and slowly I began thinking of things and writing them down. Once I started, I made a very long list. I still have it saved to my computer. It has things on it like, listening to the sound of thunder, working on a story, and playing with my kids. It may sound goofy to make such a list. However, if you want to manage your time, it helps to know what you’d like to be doing with it.
You don’t need to do any of the things on your list (unless you want too!), just write them down. It might take a while, but they’ll come to you. Add to your list throughout the week, and next Monday, I’ll share the next step.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at christine@litsisters.com. Check back regularly for more LitSisters™ writing tips and resources.
Next Week: Time Management 1.2: Determining the Important Stuff
Finally, I’ve made it to the LitSister’s page so that I can add my two cents. I thought I would reply to Audrey’s blog on time management. Fitting, since I haven’t found enough time until today!
There are more than a few people I know who tell me that I’m organized. I politely say, “thank you” and then go home and wonder what in heck do they mean. How can I be organized when I always feel like I’m ten steps behind and running to catch up?
After much deliberation, I’ve discovered that my problem is not that I don’t know how to manage my time. I do…I know that I have about sixteen to seventeen hours a day, more if I need them. I can fit a million things on my list and I love to check them off, and many days I do. Other days, I want to hide under my covers and sleep because Busy Me gave Other Me too much to do, and “I just don’t wanna!” Aye, she’s a slave-driving bitch.
So…the real problem at hand is not managing my time. It’s managing the workaholic part of me that doesn’t know how to be still; the one that shouts, “Now, faster, better!” at the top of her lungs with a whip in her hand. She has her place in my life. She knows how to stay up all night writing furiously to meet an 8am deadline. But, she also doesn’t know how to relax or to play.
My challenge is to find balance in my life; time to write and run and laugh and be so that writing stays fun and life doesn’t become a chore. So, that my children know who I am. Not because my name is on a book cover, but because I spent time with them.
