Monday's Mission: Scheduling

This a follow-up post to the one last Monday on time management. I know at least of few of you have kept time logs for the past week, or at least for a few days. By this time you know where your time is being spent, you can identify those time 'wasters' easily enough and you can also recognize the sections of time you spend on necessary tasks and chores. From here the hard part begins, sorting out what needs to be done from what you want to accomplish and fitting it into a schedule on a daily basis. Pictured here is a daily schedule format sheet, this is the exact page that I use; every day! You can download this page here, or find one elsewhere that will work for you. The page itself isn't as important as writing the schedule and making it happen! This is where a habit starts to form. I begin my schedule the night before, with broad strokes; I add details in the morning and take great delight in crossing them out, each and every one, when they're done. For me, the cross-outs symbolize accomplishment. I keep the sheets stacked on a clipboard and at the end of every day the top sheet is crumpled up and tossed away. Is every sheet completely crossed off every day? No. Sometimes a task or two might remain, they're the first things that go on tomorrow's sheet! I follow my task plan according to the times assigned down the left side of the sheet. Since you've done time logs, you have a good idea how many hours to assign to a given task. Once and a while I will miscalculate how long it's going to take me to get a specific chore accomplished and that will throw the schedule off. That's when tasks may accumulate and have to be moved to the next day. Either that, or, more than likely, it's an unexpected event that will occur and disrupt what you have scheduled; that happens too. Be kind to yourself with flexibility, don't stress over moving chores from one day to the next, or even the day after that. Life happens! Now, those places where you spent wasted hours last week with little or nothing to show for it, perhaps it was on the computer, maybe it was watching TV; remove them, not only from your schedule but also from your line of vision! These are the distractions that will be your undoing, they're your personal time gobblers. Fight back! Lock up your laptop or unplug your cable, this is the toughest part of all; but, it's not forever, and it will help you establish productive structure to your day. You'll be able to reintroduce these things again soon, in moderation, just try as hard as you can to stick to your schedule and don't honor the enemy by giving them a place in your line-up. If you really want to get organized it takes discipline; this distraction eliminating step will jump start your engine and you'll be on the road to all those places you've wanted to go in no time, with fuel to spare! Next week we'll take a look prioritizing and realistic goal setting (remember your stated objective?), but for now your goal is to schedule your days, one at a time; allow yourself some flexible breathing space too. You're doing great... you're on your way!

Life is Good!

"Planning is bringing the future into the present

so that you can do something about it now." ~Alan Lakein

Monday's Mission: Time

I've had a couple of friends ask me for help, they're looking for assistance with getting their lives organized. Me? Really?? I'm not keeping any secrets nor do I possess special skills in the organizational arena, there aren't any easy answers to getting it all together and keeping it that way. At least there aren't any that I have found; I am dogged by the same distractions and struggle to keep up just like everyone else. I explained that, and yet, they persisted; they begged for an intervention. "Please, think about it" my friend looked me in the eye and implored the other day. I did think about it and have decided to do the only thing I can, share what works for me. I know how to beat those "time wasters" into submission, maybe I could offer some help, at least I will try.

Getting started will be a two-fold approach:

#1. Where do you want to go?

#2. How can you best get there?

Number one will involve a written objective. Do you seek more organization because you want to restructure your days so that you can finish more quilts? Do you simply feel like you're running in circles and you need a clearer focus? Whatever your objective is, either specific or more generalized, it needs to be written down so that you understand what your destination is. Over time that may change, and that's OK. Number two requires note book and a pen. For the next week write down everything that you do; all day, every day, and how much time you spend doing it. Mark down the activity on the left side of the sheet and the elapsed time beside it, on the right. Start a new page each day. In a few short days you'll easily identify time 'wasters'; some you'll be able to eliminate and others (your job, children, household chores) can't be eliminated but can be streamlined into a framework for time management. This 'keeping track' task will be one of the most important tools to organizing your days, don't worry about how it looks or what it says about how you spend your days; no one will see it except you. We all get the same number of hours every day, we can't 'bank' hours not used, we have to spend all of them every day. If you're ready to get started, grab a notebook, write down your objective and begin; right now, keeping track of where the minutes, hours and days go. Understanding how to best use the time we have comes down to stewardship, we don't want to squander God's gift to us! Next Monday we'll sort through the data and begin to put together some sample schedules (your road map) that will, perhaps, lighten your load and provide a more efficient approach to finding time to arrive at your stated objective (the destination). Let's go, time's a wastin'...

Life is Good!

“Nothing changes until something moves.” ~Unknown