Never Suffer With Time Management Again - Practical Guide
When we learn to manage our time we can get more done as well as have more time to do more of the things that we enjoy.
But the opposite is also true, when we mismanage our time we feel as if we are always running to catch up with the day. There is hardly any time for family and definitely no time to relax and work on some of those new hobbies we have been trying to pick up.
Here are some practical time management tips you can use starting today:
Prioritize- What must get done throughout our day, week, month or year? Let’s list all our to-dos and break them up along the day or week. Depending on how many tasks we have to get done, select the most urgent or important task first. However, do not select more than three tasks because if everything is priority, then nothing is.
Hard tasks first - Out of your prioritized list, which is the most difficult task to do? Let’s start with that! Let’s get the hardest thing out of the way so that the rest of the day is smooth sailing. And even if something unexpected happens our most difficult task is already accomplished, so we can now put our attention on the new, unexpected thing.
Start the night before - If there is something we need for the next day, let’s get it done the night before. Doing this, will free up a lot of valuable time. Do everything from picking out clothes to wear, to thinking/prepping breakfast. Whatever we can get done, let’s! It will free up so much time in the morning and we will be so glad we did!
Don’t procrastinate - Let’s not leave things for the last minute. If we got something to do, let’s do it now! Yes, we feel tired and yes it's important to rest. But let’s think of how good it feels once we are fully done and we don’t have that task hovering us any more. Not to mention, the faster we do it, the more time we get to rest.
Fill your cup first - Wake up early and fill your cup. When we get up before our families, and take care of ourselves, we will feel much more fulfilled and satisfied the whole entire day. Spend time with God if you are a believer, exercise, dress to shoes, drink a warm and soothing beverage, do a puzzle, journal what ever relaxes, you centers you and gets you ready for the day do that. Pick one or two activities that you can do. The earlier we rise the more of these activities we get to do. For those of us who are early birds and have more energy in the morning, we can begin to do some light work if time allows. After, we have done these cup filling activities first.
Anchor your days - Have different things you are to do throughout the day to help anchor your day. Separate your day into morning, afternoon and night. Have some tasks during each period to anchor your day. That way, if something derails, we know what we have to do to get back on track during the next anchor and we don’t have to throw the whole day away.
Try Time blocking - This is very crucial for anyone but especially if you suffer from too-much-to-do-itis like I do. If we are the type to overbook ourselves and trying to get it all done at once, Time blocking helps keep us on track, focused as well as accountable. We can get a lot more done this way. Also, for the things that did not get finished time blocking also helps us know we can always come back to it during the next time block, if God allows.
Make a schedule (or routine) and stick to it - Making a schedule (or routine) is so important. Whether or not we choose to do time blocking we should still implement a schedule. We still need to know what tasks are getting done and what is the best time for said tasks to get completed by. We can make schedules based on our anchors for the day, our children’s schedule (if we have). Or anything else we may have going on. It’s not just making a schedule that is important, but also sticking to it as well! Let’s be sure we are sticking to it by checking in on it daily. We can do this with a binder or notebook, planner or wall calendar. If you are interested I do have some affordable and fun planners to help you do that and more. Check them out here: https://www.buildsherhome.com/planners
Set daily intentions - Have an intention, for every single day. These intentions (or daily focus as the fly lady calls them) will help to set up our day for success because each day we will have something to strive for. Something to focus on, if you will. Have them be based on things you need to focus on already. For example, if you are a homeschooling mama, maybe you have a day to plan the curriculum for the next week or two. Maybe one day is to make appointment, while another you dust. Whatever works for you and your family, just let each day have it’s own focus. If you wish to know the Flylady’s classic daily focus I have a video on this right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbz7GFmTOAg&t=17s
Practice discipline - If we said we will do something, Let’s do it! As tempting as it may be to lounge around or scroll on the internet all day. Hit the pause and get to work, the quicker we do it the more down time we have for the people and the things that we love. Oh yea, and scrolling there will be time for scrolling as well.
These are some of the tips that I have applied to go from undisciplined and lacking so much time in the day. To now (by God’s grace) being able to get so much done even as a mom of two boys ages two and under. Use these practical to get the same or better results!
