Are you so busy every day that you hardly have time to put your feet up? Taking care of the kids, the husband, the elderly parents, the job, the household chores, the bills, the friends, the extracurricular activities, the homework....“But if I don’t do these things, who will?” I ask myself this every single day as I go from room to room with laundry in my arms while on a business phone call. There’s something about leaving things unfinished that makes me unsettled. Telling myself that I can do it tomorrow but that never happens. Bedtime just ends up getting later in order to get it all done. Here are a few ways I manage my time:
1. Prioritize
By deciding to be strict on my schedule and manage my time, I prioritized myself. Remembering that famous intro that the flight attendant says prior to taking off, “be sure to put on your oxygen mask before helping others”. As a child, I never understood this but as an adult, it makes perfect sense. You can’t help others if you can’t help yourself.
Creating time blocks within my day was what helped organize my time. Intentionally scheduling blocks into my Google Calendar confirms my plan for the day.
2. Organize
By organizing my day into blocks that were realistic for me and my family, I was able to accomplish all the monotonous tasks. Having a timeframe to get tasks done guides my productivity, therefore, achieving the reward, ME TIME! Enabling flexibility into blocks is important since life happens. When life happens, take a deep breath and do what you need to do to get through it.
3. Compromise
Making time for yourself is important for YOU. This sounds cheesy but it’s true. By not giving yourself a chance to do what you want to do, you start to feel irritated and angry. You’re not giving your family a chance to experience you at 100%. Involving your loved ones and making them aware of your needs helps you reach your goal of making time for yourself. Involve your family when creating your schedule. It's important for them to understand that you have a million and one things on your plate, Create a compromise and
find ways in your schedule that you can modify and before you know it, you have time for yourself.
Making time for yourself should always be your top priority because no one is going to put that oxygen mask on you before they put theirs on first. Download the TimeBlocking template I use to streamline my day.