How do you manage your time?
It’s finally FRIDAY!
I always thought I was good at managing my time but turns out we all have setbacks. In the last couple weeks I have felt like I wasn’t getting enough done with my business and household chores. I was doing “stuff” but I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing my lists like I needed to. It was driving me crazy! So, what did I do? I had a pep talk with myself and I took action.
When I decided to become a Virtual Assistant I took part in a coaching program with a huge support system and awesome mentor. She delivered to our inboxes over the weekend a bonus training on…guess what?! TIME MANAGEMENT! My first thought was, “I don’t need that! I can manage my time pretty good.” But, for some reason I downloaded the training to my computer for future use. After Monday and Tuesday of this week not being productive days or at least not good enough for me, I gave myself a pep talk, prayed and took action and did the training.
OH.MY.GOODNESS! Someone knew I needed that right in that moment. I gained so much from it and right away made some changes. You see, I already knew and implemented most of what my mentor was training us on but I needed the reminder. And, honestly, we all need reminders even if we think we are experts in something. That goes for every aspects of life.
I want to share with you some things I gained from this training that may help you.
Step One: BRAIN DUMP
What’s that? Grab a sheet of paper and write down all the things in your head that you want to accomplish (personally and professionally; big and small).
Step Two: PRIORITIZE
How do I do that? Grab another sheet of paper and make 3-4 columns (A-C; A being URGENT, B being IMPORTANT, C being NO RUSH). These columns will be where you put your brain dump items.
Starting with your Column A items prioritize the items you want to accomplish. If there’s a timeframe that it needs to be completed then make sure to write that out to the side. Go through and number these items in 1,2,3 form (1 being needs to be completed first and so on).
Step Three: TAKE ACTION
Focus on ONE item per month! Sounds crazy, right?! KEEP READING!
Using your planner (if you don’t have one get one!) or some type of calendar and take your 1,2,3 and so on items and lay them out for each month remaining for the year. This will be your Monthly FOCUS. For instance, my February Focus (for my business) is to create a Portfolio as a Virtual Assistant.
On a sheet of paper or on a Word document (whatever works for you) lay it all out. Here’s mine:
You are probably wondering, “Why only choose one for the month?” Well, here’s why: because ONE project has multiple steps. There may be some items on your list that you can complete in a day and that’s great! But, often they need to be broken down because we all have busy lives!
Be realistic with yourself! I know it sounds crazy to only choose one project to focus on for the month BUT don’t you have other “life” things you need to focus on? Like being a mama and a wife, daily household chores, sleeping, etc.
Step Four: TIME BLOCK
This is a hard one! You will need discipline for this.
What is time blocking? It’s giving yourself set times in your day to work on your projects. For example:
8AM to 9AM-Check Emails and respond
9AM to 11AM-Finish pages 2 and 3 of Portfolio
11AM to 12PM-Take a break and eat some lunch
Remember that my example is for my business. Yours may be for your personal/home life. Take that into account. When you get home from work you typically start dinner, right?! Block your time for that. Or, if you want to block your time for “Family Time” and have it include dinner, laundry, bath time, etc, then do what works for you.
I haven’t always time blocked and it’s took me some time to get used to it but if you DO IT and stay consistent you will see that it actually works. My planner is setup by times for the day in 30 minutes increments and it works well for time blocking.
Have questions or need a little guidance? Send me an email!
If this interests you and you have some time to focus on it this weekend I encourage you to do it. We still have three weeks left in the month that you can set yourself up to tackle those projects. Or, you can get yourself started for March. Maybe your focus for February is to get focused, buy a planner, or learn how to time block.
YOU GOT THIS!
Have a good weekend!
~Hope
“People often complain about lack of time when lack of direction is the problem.”
