(Photo taken from Pexels: Photo by EVG Kowalievska)
Time, such a fleeting thing. Why is it that whenever we have something we love doing, it seems to fly by; but when we have so much we need to accomplish there never seems to be enough hours in the day? It is such a funny thing time, something that is so often wasted without anyone even realizing it. It can be so confusing when you see so many people becoming successful and you think to yourself, "how? " They have the same 24 hours in the day so how do they get so much more done?
That is where the excuses can easily slide in. It's because their job is less demanding. It is because they don't have children. It is because they are okay with giving up fun, well I am not. Excuses like these along with thousands of others, immediately pop into our minds as a defensive attack against the blatant truth; we all have the same time in day, it is up to us how we manage it.
Now that is not to discredit things that do take up a lot of time, such as children, a family, working two jobs or one demanding one, health issues, family responsibilities, school etc. This is just to point out that everyone has something right? Something important that takes their time, or something they would rather being doing. But if you are serious about your goals you need to make the time for them. How do you do that? Well that is what I aim to help you with today.
In this blog post I will provide what I have found, through my experience, to be the best tips for managing my time. I hope to save you some of the struggle that I went through to figure this out. Disclaimer, these are tips that worked for me, every person is different; but if you are serious and you want them to work for you, you are responsible for putting in the effort. So without further or do, here are my time management tips !
Recognize Where you Spend the Most Time
In order to better manage your time, you first need to know where you are spending it all. For example, I used to think I had no time, but then when this conversation was brought to my attention I began to realize that I didn't lack time, I lacked time management. I had no time but I was able to play on my phone for a total of 4 hours a day. I had no time, but I always had time to play my SIMS for at least an hour a night. I had no time, but I was always able to squeeze in a Netflix show or two before bed; which then lead me to stay up too late, so then I slept in so then I lost time in the morning. You can see where I am going with this right?
First thing you need to do is track your habits. What do you do in a typical day in your life. Write it down! Keep track of it for a couple weeks. Then look back, where are you spending the most time. Now assess those areas. Are they productive? Is the majority of your day taken up by things that matter, or are you like me and blissfully unaware of how much time you spend on mind numbing activities?
Plan out your Goals & Their Time-frame
Once you know how you are currently spending your time, you need to then focus on what you would rather be doing, or what you should be doing in that time instead. For example, let's say you want to be a writer. Well first you need to think about all the things you would need to accomplish in order to obtain that goal. You need to come up with a book idea, you need to map out the characters, you need to build the world (if it is a fiction novel) you need to write the first draft, so on and so forth. Then you need to think about how long each of those goals or steps would take. Okay, based on what I know about this process and myself I think I can map out all of my book characters in 3 weeks. But that means I have to work on them every night.
Or maybe you know you don't have time every single day to work on your dreams so it may take you 6 weeks because you can only dedicate 3-4 days a week towards working on your goals. The aim here is to realize how big or small your dreams and goals are so you can set realistic expectations for yourself. You already know where you are spending too much time, now you are figuring out how much time you need in order to accomplish your goals.
Do a Time Swap
Here is where you take all the data you've gathered and you create an action plan! You know you are spending too much time doing ________, and you know you need at least this much time to do _______, so now you need to figure out where those hours you need will come from.
For me personally, I started thinking to myself, what would I be able to accomplish if I just cut my phone time to 2 hours a day? By changing nothing else, I just gained 2 whole hours in my day! Imagine dedicating 2 hours a day to your dreams and goals! Now what if I did even more, what if I only played sims 3 days week. That frees up another hour for 4 days. So now I have a total of 18 hours a week on dream and goal work! That's like having a part time job! But one that you actually enjoy! Plus I guarantee you, once you start to see results you won't want to stop.
This step is all about balance. No one is telling you to cut all your down time out of your life. That would not be fun and would end up being not productive because it would cause you to resent the time you dedicate toward your dreams. No, just seriously evaluate yourself and where you are allowing yourself to spend time. Start small and gradually build your way up. Even if you start with just 20 minutes a day dedicated to your goals, that is 2 hours and 20 minutes a week more than you were doing prior!
Swap out your time, work towards your goals, change your life!
Keep a Journey Journal
One good way to make sure you stick to your new goal and time management systems that you created is to keep a Journey Journal. Journal about your progress, be honest with yourself! What days did you crush it and what days did you slip? On those days that you slipped, look back at what you did. What was your environment like? What was it that caused you to not meet your goals that day? How can you do better next time?
Journaling serves as a good accountability tool and it allows you to recognize patterns both with your wins and your losses, and that will help you grow further and faster!
Build Long Lasting Habits & Success
The Journey Journal shows you where you are succeeding and where you are slipping, once you notice those areas that you are slipping you need to have a reality check with yourself. Do I have habits that contribute to my growth or to my downfall? For example, with me I spent 4 hours a day on my phone. I began to notice a habit I had that contributed to that time wasting behavior. As soon as I woke up in the morning, I would turn off my alarm and immediately go on Instagram. Also, any time I was not 100 percent engaged during the day I would go on my phone. AND part of my bed time routine was to play games on my phone.
All of these little habits, that I didn't even know I was building were affecting my time management negatively and they were impacting how I was progressing with my goals. The habits I had created for myself were derailing me from making progress. Luckily, I took the steps above and now I was aware of them, so I shifted and created new habits. My new morning routine looks more like this: Wake up, turn off the alarm, take dogs for a walk, do morning yoga, set daily intentions and practice gratitude, look at my schedule for the day and do any prep work, have breakfast and feed the fur babies THEN I CHECK MY PHONE. Now I am awake for 2 and a half hours of my day BEFORE even looking at my phone.
Don't get me wrong I still have urges to check it sometimes, but I know that I have created this habit of my morning routine and that it serves me well. It gives me time I need to prepare for my day so I can be more productive later, and I feel better when I successfully accomplish it! In addition, during the day I limit the times I check it by forcing myself to pause before going on. Any time I reach for the phone I ask myself, "Do I really want to check my phone right now?" or sometimes I check to see how long it has been since I was last on it, sometimes just the sheer embarrassment of finding out how much I go on it is enough to derail me from scrolling.
With that time I save I now dedicate time to things like my mental health, writing my books (and blogs!) and crushing all my dreams.
You can crush your dreams too, you just have to create the time to develop the skills and tools you need to conquer them!
That's it for today folks, I hope you found value in this list and I hope you are feeling motivated to get out there and accomplish everything and anything you set your mind to! Don't forget to be honest with yourself, and give yourself grace. No one changes over night! Just show up and do your best every single day !
Until next time,
Steph
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