One of the biggest enemies to a balanced life is lack of time, or more accurately, lack of proper time management. We cannot create more time; therefore, we must learn to manage it more efficiently. Much in the same way you might budget your finances, you can budget your time. Want to know if you can volunteer ten hours each week for a homeless kitchen? Wondering if you can take an extra college class this semester? Can you train for that figure competition in the summer? The only way to know is by budgeting your time.
Start by writing down your weekly and daily tasks, in order of importance and from those that take the most of your time to the least. Include a deadline, if applicable. An example might look like this:
Studying - 3 college courses (January 1 – February 28)
Exercising - Training for 10k (April 1)
Work - Home-Based Business
Chores and Errands
Family Time
Church
Sleep (this one’s important – don’t skimp here!)
Next, write out the times you plan to wake up and go to bed. If you work part-time or full-time, block that time out of your schedule. Next, plan the times when you will work on your various tasks, and block out time to spend with family and friends. This is known as “white space” and is very important! We all need it, so don’t omit it. Then, begin allocating time each day for your obligations, again based on the order of most to least time consuming and highest to lowest priorities. Here’s what the above example would look like:
Wake Up: 6:30am
8:30am – Check business email
9:00am - 2 hours college coursework
11:30am – 45-minute run or go to gym
1:00pm – Grocery shopping, cleaners, store errands
3:00pm – 1 hour college coursework
4:00pm – Check business email/work on programs
6:00pm – Cook dinner
7:00pm – Family Time
10:00pm – Bed (read and asleep by 10:45pm)
Write out a schedule like this for every day of the week, or for every day that is different from day one, such as weekends. Monitor your schedule for several weeks and adjust the day as necessary to reflect your accurate schedule.
You’ll also notice from the above example that every second of the day isn’t taken up. This is important to avoid, because not only is it unrealistic and stressful, but it doesn’t allow for any time to be formable in case an emergency or unforeseen situation occurs. Use your white space to pray, meditate, surf the web, watch a little TV, or just relax.
If you have a task to schedule but you’re not sure how much time it will take yet, just do what you would when starting a financial budget: track the time spent for 1-2 weeks, then allocate it accordingly into your schedule.
Tips for sticking to your Time Budget
1. Don’t over-schedule. Include “white space” so you can relax, de-stress and have extra time to be formable.
2. Allocate realistic timeframes in which to complete your obligations/goals.
3. Aim for 6-8 hours of sleep every night. You can’t be productive on little or no sleep.
4. It’s OK to say “no” to people – remember your priorities and stick to them.
5. Make your Time Budget a “living” document. Change it monthly or weekly as needed to fit your lifestyle.
6. Don’t try to be great at and do everything at once. You’ll just end up being mediocre at everything and great at nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment