I wrote last week about being responsibly selfish with time to take care of yourself. I received several responses that led back to conversations about time management.
I haven’t hosted a time management workshop since the pandemic hit but it might be a good time to start them back up soon.
Until then, try implementing my simple 4 step plan.
1 – The first thing to schedule each week is time to take care of yourself. This includes things like exercise, meditation, quiet time, book reading time, etc. This time helps you reflect, relax and re energize yourself.
2 – The second thing to schedule is relationship time. Whether that’s your significant other, children, family or friends, schedule time to strengthen and build on the important relationships in your life. If you haven’t done this yet you may have to start by scheduling time to make a list of these relationships. Since many of you reading this are entrepreneurs I should mention that this list should not include business connections; if you can’t keep the conversation personal, they are business connections.
3 – Schedule time every week to work on your goals, your why and your future. Look at your 3 year and 10 year goals. Revisit your why and track how you are doing.
4 – Schedule time to work on your calendar. This could be step 1 but I feel that without the first three you probably won’t do it. I encourage you to schedule this daily. It will probably only take you 15 minutes but the more often you do it the more likely you are to keep up with it. During this time review how you did since the last time you looked at your calendar. Make the necessary adjustments, track your results and work on your accountability. If you didn’t complete one of your big three yesterday, move it, don’t delete it. If you were supposed to exercise for 30 minutes yesterday, but didn’t you need to move it to today or tomorrow and exercise for an hour. If you are seriously committed to this I would also encourage you to find an accountability partner and share your calendar with them. An accountability partner is someone you can trust to push you to stay on the course that you have created. If you’re committed, you want that.
When are you going to get any work done? Most people schedule their things to do first and then end up with no time for the 4 items we just listed. They spend too much time in an almost vegetative state in front of the television or on social media because they are burnt out and tired. Following this plan, you will have more energy, more focus, will get more done in less time and will waste less time.
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