time management tip #4

Raise your hand if you recognize these pretty pages? Oh boy, do I. These are the "blooms" Franklin Planner Refill Pages. They bring back so much nostalgia from my days with a trusty planner. I absolutely loved my Franklin Day Planner. I got my first one when I was 10-years-old and used it faithfully until I was 28 years-old. Obviously, Franklin was doing something right if I could use the same planner for 18-years of my life. I always received my new inserts for Christmas and loved spending Christmas Day adding in all my information to my new planner. I loved the fresh clean pages. I loved using a nice fine point pen to write so neatly on those pages. Yes, I am already well aware that I'm a complete nerd! However, about 4 years ago my love for this planner started to change. I now had two kids I was hauling around with their toys, diapers, jackets, etc. I didn't have room to carry a bulky planner around anymore. I also didn't have time to spend all Christmas Day neatly filling in my pages. It was heartbreaking, but I had to say goodbye to my first planner. I was brokenhearted, but quickly rebounded with ical. The new planner love of my life. It's a Mac thing so if you don't have one you are totally missing out, but I'm sure you can find something similar with your PC {Entourage I believe}.

With that said, time management tip #4 is...Use A Time Planning Tool {aka a Planner}

*Choose a daily or weekly planning calendar that works best for you.
*Take time to learn how to use your new planning tool.
*Record ALL of your activities in your planner.
*Refer to your planner often to help you stay on task.

Here's all the tips...only one more to go! Is anyone still following this?

Tip #1: Define Your Goals
Tip #2: Examine Your Time Usage
Tip #3: Plan Your Time
Tip #4: Use a Time Planning Tool

time management tip #3

PLAN YOUR TIME

Seems pretty obvious, right? Well, I got seriously mocked for having "Tim Time" on my time budget. Mock me all you want, but this guy is a priority in my life. If I don't plan for him, than I may never be able to see him. Our lives are a bit chaotic and I want to make sure that he is always a priority. Therefore, I will continue to schedule time in my life for my main man. This week we have an appointment with the eye doctor {AGAIN} so Tim can say goodbye to these glasses.

Here are a few ideas that I've used to help me plan my time:

1. Let go of things that do not help you achieve your goals and priorities in life.

Only plan activities that will help you accomplish your goals. Obviously, this tip can't be completed if you haven't followed tip #1, which probably seemed pretty cheesy, huh? However, these are the guidelines you must use to determine how you will use your time.

One thing that I've learned to let go of in my life is ironing every single piece of clothing. I used to spend hours every single week ironing all of my boys jeans and t-shirts, just to do it again the next week. When I examined my time usage I realized that ironing was always taking much longer than I originally thought it would {3 hours vs. 1 hour}. I decided that I had much bigger priorities in my life than my kids having perfectly pressed jeans that would just be wrinkled within minutes of them putting them on.

2. Plan your time!

Take one day each week to sit down and incorporate all of your weekly tasks into your schedule.

I usually write down all the things that I need or want to do during the week and then plan out which days I will do them. This helps me be realistic about how much I can actually accomplish in one week. I also sit down every evening and plan out the next day (by scribbling it down in a notebook). It's nice to have a guideline when I wake up in the morning instead of wasting half the day trying to decide which task I should start first.

3. Schedule as many tasks and activities as possible, but don't be devastated if you can't accomplish everything.

Learn that it's okay to let things go and just add them in your schedule for another time.

My list of things I would like to do during the week is often fairly long. Many, many, times I will end up having the same exact list for two weeks in a row because I wasn't able to accomplish ANYTHING one week. That's okay. {It never feels okay, but I'm trying to tell myself that it's okay}.

4. Understand your energy levels and plan your time accordingly.

This one tip has been so helpful for me. It's so easy to start plugging things into your schedule, but when the time comes to actually do that activity you may just not feel up to it. I've noticed that I have more energy in the mornings to do physical activities like cleaning. In the afternoon, I like doing my office work because I am little more tired. It's nice to sit at a desk and get some things accomplished. Also, I've noticed that I NEVER have energy to do any office work in the evenings. So, I plan my time accordingly.

This is also a great tip when planning exercise, reading and anything that requires more energy than others. This often takes time to figure out and get just right. I often find myself trying to clean and I just don't feel like it. That's when I realize it's best to walk away and do it another time. I'll go start another project that I actually feel like doing.

5. Re-evaluate your schedule often.

I re-evaluate every single minute of the day. My schedule is constantly changing and is RARELY the way I've planned it. That may not be ideal, but that's how it has to be right now. I know it's because of my current phase of life. Having three young children at home requires me to be flexible.

Here's what we've covered so far:

Tip #1: Define Your Goals
Tip #2: Examine Your Time Usage
Tip #3: Plan Your Time

Only two more tips to go!

time management tip #2

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting another time management tip. {Okay, I know most of you are not, but one person did e-mail me.} So, this is for you:

Tip #1: Define Your Goals
Tip #2: Examine Your Time Usage

My favorite time management exercise is to get a blank "time budget" {excel spreadsheet} and fill it out, at the end of the day, every day for a week. This exercise shows how you actually use your time. So often, it is much different than how you believe you use your time. Every time I've done this I find that I'm wasting a lot of time. I also usually find that I have much more "self" time than I think I do. I usually discover that my life is out of balance. I've done this for my kids too and they are amazed to see how much time they actually get to play everyday. If you are a visual learner, like me, the color coding is a must. You can glance at your time budget and see where your priorities are.

How often do we say that our families are a priority, but then spend more time cleaning than playing with our children?

How often do we say that spirituality is a priority, but spend more time watching tv than reading our scriptures?

These are just examples that I came up with {definitely not from my life!!} The point of examining your time usage is to ask your self these questions:

1. Is your current life consistent with your goals and priorities? {Which you should have established with tip #1.} If not, where has your schedule been compromised and how might you incorporate your goals, values and priorities in your life?

2. Evaluate your time investments - are they paying off?

3. How much enjoyment or benefit are you getting from each activity?

4. Develop your CURRENT time budget {like I suggested above} and IDEAL time budget {like the one I previously posted}.

These tips have helped me {try} to stop being a hypocrite and start doing the things that are actually giving me a better return on my investment.

Here's proof:

time management tip #1

Well, Well, Well...
I can't believe how much
feedback {positive and negative}
I got from my time budget post.

I'm not complaining.
As you know from my, no comment post,
I'll take any feedback I can get.

I knew that by posting my time budget
I was just asking for harassment from a select few of you.
And, acceptance from others.
Once again, I appreciate both!

Let me just make a few clarifications:

Myth #1:
As I previously said, my time budget is just a wish list for an ideal week.
A guideline.
A resource.
It is not what I do everyday.

Myth #2:
I do not wake up at 5:00 am every morning
and exercise for 2 hours after only sleeping for 6 hours.
I usually go to the gym at 5:45 am three days a week.
The other three days I usually sleep in and
go running in the evenings or later morning.
I do my time budget in one hour increments
because 30 minutes is too rigid,
which means that I will be doing that particular
activity during that hour {usually not the entire time}.

I was sharing my time budget with all of you because some of you had asked what specific things I was doing with my new CEO job. I realized that I probably need to back up and start with some basic time management tips {but only for those who are interested}. I will offer you some tips to get started before you get all fancy and start making a color-coded time budget {because I know SOO many of you are dying to make one!}

Tip #1
DEFINE YOUR GOALS
What is important to you?
What are your goals and priorities in life?
Decide what brings you joy and satisfaction?
What are your values?

Start there.
Think about it for a few days.
Write down your thoughts and I'll
share tip #2 after you chew on tip #1 for a bit.
Good luck!

time budget

Today is my first day at the new job {CEO of the Jones Household}. The first thing I did was make myself a time budget to stay organized. I've always tried to have a time budget, but recently I had not been good about using one. I'm getting back into a routine and schedule in order to turn this company around. This is just a little excel spreadsheet that I've made up. I like things color coded because I know what they represent just by looking at them. On my chart, pink is personal time, blue is family time, orange is household time, yellow is Tim time and red is church time. I like to be as planned out as possible, but also vague so that I can be flexible. For example, I have office time for two hours every day. This time includes e-mails, blogging, balancing the checkbook and basically anything I need to do in my office. Don't look too closely at this time budget or think that I actually follow this perfectly. This is just a guideline or a wish list!

If you're interested in learning {a lot} more about time management or creating a time budget I would recommend reading Julie Morgenstern's Time Management from the Inside Out. I have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it.