New Year, Fresh Start #5: Time Management

The final installment of my New Year, Fresh Start series is about Time Management and Planning.  And what better timing that a Friday to kick it off…I’m just kidding…Friday is probably the worst day to talk about Time Management as all you want to do is hope that time stands still in order to make the weekend last a little longer.  But, I will still post this, as hopefully I can help you find some extra hours this weekend to enjoy yourself 🙂

I don’t know about you, but by the end of the year, with the holidays, the preparation, the parties and everything else, it seems like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. By the time December rolled around, I hadn’t worked out regularly in months, my home was a disaster, and we were eating less healthy more often. My blog had fallen to the wayside and all I could think about was sleep. What had happened to my great routines that I had at the beginning of the year?

Well, luckily a new year brings another chance to get back on track. For me, this was needed, especially in the health department. After getting a major stomach virus after Christmas, I was shocked when the one plus to getting it – losing weight – didn’t really happen for me. Why was that? Well, I’m no expert, but probably the lack of regular exercise had slowed my metabolism to a near halt. No wonder I had noticed my jeans fitting a bit tighter.

So while I didn’t need to set a weight goal or anything, I just needed to get back to a schedule that allowed me time to exercise, plan healthy meals for the family and also blog.

In doing so – I got some time planning tips that I realized as I was doing my own and figured my readers could benefit from these as well.

1. Figure out your “booked” time. Obviously, the two things that come to mind are sleep and work. I find everything else variable time because even a meal can be done different ways to fit in the other things that need to be done.
2. Figure out how much time you need for the other things that you need and want to do. For example, I want to work our 3-4 times per week for 30-45 minutes. I want to see my friends once per month, and I want 2 hours per week to write and 8 hours a week to work on Interior Design projects for clients.
3. Plan these for the month, along with any other appointments, activities, etc. Make sure you have flexibility in case something comes up. For example, my daughter has an unexpected game on Wednesday, which is when I had planned to blog – but I left empty spaces for these types of “surprises” so that I could move things around.
4. Keep a list of priorities, so that when choices need to be made, you know how to make them. For me, my kids/family will always come first, however taking care of myself is a close second so if blogging has to fall of the plan for the week because of things coming up, then that’s ok, because its lower on my list. When you know your priorities, then decisions are easy.
5. Avoid making excuses using your priorities. Its so easy to say, that your kids need you so you can’t work out as planned. Or easy for me to avoid blogging while I’m having writer’s block by saying that I need to focus on me. Make sure you know when your making an excuse, rather than really priortizing. This will be an important one for me…as I can often do this in my home life.

Whatever tool that works for you is good.  For me, I mostly use the calendar on my iPhone – which is connected to my computers.  I make sure to invite my husband to anything for the family/kids so that he has it in his calendar too.  It makes it very easy to check my schedule at any time before making any plans or appointments.  I even schedule my planned blog posts here to help keep me motivated to write and ensure I keep it a priority.

We also have a whiteboard calendar in the kitchen so we can easily plan during dinners and discuss without constantly being on our phones.  But making sure you have space to be flexible is key as well.  Just scheduling things doesn’t help if you can’t be flexible and move things around if needed.  Live dangerously, and have some unplanned time to do nothing…just in case 😉

So that concludes the New Year, Fresh Start series.  To summarize, I gave you tips on…

1. Purging your home in the new year
2. Organizing your home to have a tidy space
3. Setting Goals the right way
4. Budget Planning & Management to help reach your goals
5. Time Management to help you not get overwhelmed

I hope this series has been beneficial for you.  I’m looking forward to also getting back to some design posts in the near future.  I’ve been doing some small home projects along the way and I hope to complete them soon and show you the results.