As we enter into 2020, I join the endless legions of people looking to smooth out the rough edges of their lives. While I often feel I careen wildly from one-too-many projects, I think I’m well qualified to talk about time management.
My biggest issue has (and no matter how hard I try likely will continue to be!) overcommitment.
This post is a bit of a reminder for myself, but I hope people find it helpful. At this time of year, a lot of people are looking for assistance figuring their s*** out.
It may not be exactly the time management you’re used to hearing about, and that’s okay. I don’t have any amazing, unique tips no one has ever mentioned (or sold a course on lol), but what I can tell you is how I do it, when things are working well and I haven’t overcommitted.
(My real goal this year)
I’ve tried many things over the years, ranging from a plain old agenda, like what you get for free in high school, all the way to the super regimented quarterly planning, somewhat similar to what I’m attempting right now with the course from Sara Cannon. I can see Trello lists staying, not sure yet if I have the time to actually plan as well as she does, but I can aspire to genius!
My real issues with scheduling likely began when I went to university. As friends, jobs, exams, family, life happened, life got full and a little confusing at times. I thought life was busy until I finished school, and then
the wheels fell off my organizational system, such as it was.
I began to covet organizational products.
Each time I saw something new I found myself inevitably drawn to it, only to find pretty much the same thing I’d seen before in varying forms.
During this time, I bought a few, turned many more down, and discovered that the one thing any good organizer or system has in common is at the end of the day
In order for it to work, you need to use it.
(which again may be where I’m sitting again, but I’m trying!)
I discovered that when I use a good old-fashioned paper and pen organizer, my brain remembers it better.
(Which sucks, cause some of those organizers are so pretty!)
I do have backup systems with calendars on my phone and share all important events with my husband in the hope that if I forget, perhaps he’ll remember.
But that is my system for trying to not forget events.
What this post is about is how do we decide what actually needs to get done, and how do we do it?
This is what I do when I can sit down and chill long enough to get my head on straight. Hopefully this will be a good review for both of us, and if you walk away learning something valuable that’s even better!
Are you ready? Here it is!
1. Consistency and routine
Start each day the same way. A routine saves so much time that once you begin one, you’ll feel wrong all day if you don’t keep to it.
I start my day at 430. Set an alarm, and journal, plan and get my most important things done before going to work.
2. Find your best time
If you’re a night owl, that could mean your best work happens at midnight. I’m an extremely early bird, and I often wake up at least 15 minutes before my alarm goes off. (And yes, that means senior citizen/preschool bedtimes. Let’s face it- most of the evening is netflix anyway amirite?)
3. Remember, change happens slowly!
My children used to wake up around 330 when they were babies to feed and as I went back to work while they were infants, I began using not time to exercise. I fed them I put them back to bed and then I’d begin my day.
Gradually, my bedtimes became earlier to compensate for my early starts, and I noticed that I became more and more productive with very little effort. Over the last eight years I’ve found a system that works well for me. As you may gather from the fact I said the last eight years, it has taken me a lot of time to get into a rhythm.
4. Exercise daily whenever you can
Daily exercise makes the mental exertion required in writing, thinking, and even going about an average day so much easier. A healthy mind in a healthy body is not a new concept. Pretty sure Mr. Franklin recommended this back in the colonial days.
I still exercise in the morning, although it depends on what I have going on.
These days, my morning exercise is more for general fitness than any record breaking. I’m not as rigid about “improving myself” as I was once upon a time. Mostly, I want to move which is done with gentle walking and yoga. The older I get, the more creaky my joints are in the am, so another benefit of morning exercise is getting some of the kinks worked out prior to having my joints groan in front of strangers when I get out of a chair.
Super embarrassing when that happens lol
I find morning exercise also keeps me more alert throughout the day and for some reason helps me snack less and sleep better at night. Maybe it’s that whole mind-body connection, but there’s a lot to be said about a healthy body when both your job and your passion involve thinking.
5. Don’t get so caught up in a project you neglect everything else.
A common trap many of us fall into is casting aside exercise and nutrition in favor of spending long hours in front of a computer or a notepad and promising ourselves “once we’re done this one thing we’ll exercise/eat better/meditate/add item here.
Sitting has been recently deemed by the World Health Organization as almost as deadly as obesity and smoking. Even if you can only spare five minutes a day, movement will help you focus.
I’m lucky because I’ve organized my days so that I usually move around a lot at work, but when I spend a weekend editing for eight hours straight, I feel it in my neck and back, and my brain gets sluggish as well.
And don’t even get me started on the heartburn when I get lazy with my diet!
6. Do the hardest things when your brain is fresh and build in your downtime for when you are less productive.
After work is my not-thinking time. Preparing supper and spending time reading or watching tv with my children is my main priority. After the kids are in bed, my husband and I will sit down and either watch a show or read together.
(theoretically. We have a needy youngest at the moment, so he often tags along.)
7. Go to Bed!!!!
This is a huge issue for more than half of the adults in the world. Basically, anyone who doesn’t have a parental figure scolding them into bed can have a proplem staying up too late. This is a huge productivity suck. While I consider time watching the shows with family an important togetherness thing in moderation, we usually turn the tv off after an hour or two. (Most of the time my eyelids are drooping by then anyway.)
In a nutshell, that’s it.
Seven short, practical, common-sense tips for getting through the day. My regular weekday is eight or nine hours a day at my day job, around three hours a day during the week with my family, (more on weekends) and usually up to two hours a day for something writing related. (blog, edits, writing, etc)
Many people say they don’t have enough time but I want to challenge you to sit down and see how you’re using the time you have this year. After all, we all have the same 24 hours every day, 7 days a week, 366 days this year.
When we say we don’t have time what we are actually saying is that we don’t want to make time for something different than what we’re already doing with our time.
That’s it.
I want to emphasize there’s nothing wrong with that. But, if there is something you’re yearning to do, look at your daily life and count your minutes. Find space to do that one thing, even if it’s only a few minutes a day.
You’ll be amazed how much you can accomplish if you dedicate even a little room to your dreams. And never knock Dreams! They are crucial to keeping life full of purpose and drive.
I want everyone to find or try to find something they are passionate about this year and strive to grow it into a larger part of your everyday. Too many of us go through the motions of life without feeling connected, creative, or inspired and that’s a tragedy.
In 2020, the year of clairvoyance, I believe we can all manage our lives so we can grow our creative sides, even if it’s only in 10 minute increments.
Can you imagine how much more beautiful the world would be?