We are busy creatures. I think that should say enough why we overwhelm ourselves, don’t keep every promise we make, and can’t commit to ourselves the goals we want to make in life. To be 100% honest, we don’t reach every goal we want because we are TOO BUSY! We always say “I’ll do this, I’ll do that,” but when it comes up, we make an EXCUSE! On the other hand, we also know we will ALWAYS make time for what we want in life.
Simple: If you don’t make time to work towards the goals you want, you don’t want it bad enough anyways. If you make time no matter what, you are committed and have great time management!
That is really all it is, you need to be committed and have great time management to succeed at anything you do, even when it seems impossible!
Time Management is not always easy when you are juggling life. Is it relationships, school, work, training of some kind, sleep, social life, family, ect. that is taking up most of your time? We all are different and different activities call for different schedules. Taking other people’s advice never works for you, no one understands your time like you do. So instead of looking up schedules and “how to” advice from everyone else, reflect on yourself, your day, and what you want, from there, you can find the best way to manage your own time. Looking at your life ask yourself 3 questions:
- What is Crucial I focus my time on at this moment in my life?
- How much time realistically needs to be dedicated to what activites?
- What is your back-up plan?
3 Questions to ask yourself:
1.What is Crucial I focus my time on at this moment in my life?
The most IMPORTANT question to ask yourself. What do you want most? Focusing on kids, focusing on school, focusing on advancing in work, or focusing on whatever it is you need most at this time, what can you not stop thinking about?
You HAVE to figure this out first.
This will be what you dedicate the most time to in your schedule, that is, if you do not have other responsibilities (children, school, work) that come first.
2. How much time needs to be realistically dedicated to what?
The word realistically is important here. All too often people panic with the assumption that something may take them days when it only might take a few hours to complete. Break it down into steps before tackling it whole. People also neglect knowing how much extra time they have during the week!
Let’s break it down:
- There are 168 hours in a week, most people spend 40-60 hours a week at work which is 23%-35% of those hours at work.
- If you get at least 8 hours of sleep a night that’s 33% of your week.
- So 56%-68% of the week is taken up by work and sleep, but you still have 44%-32% or 72-52 hours left to work on what you want! 72 hours is 3 whole days, seems like more than you would actually have.
This might not be how much extra time you have, or you might have more, but look at how much remaining time you really have. That is 10 WHOLE HOURS a day you can add other things into your schedule, social life, family, goals, or whatever it is you want!
Return back to #1, look what it is that is most important to you, dedicate and set aside at least 1 hour a day. Overlook your schedule and think what times you find yourself doing nothing, that is where you are able to find time to work towards your goal. A little progress everyday can go a long way!
3. What is your back-up plan?
This one is simple, we all need back up plans because not everything ever goes to plan. You may have been planning a big trip with friends over the weekend, which fell through and now you find yourself doing nothing because that was your only plan. Well now you have all this free time to yourself! Take that time and dedicate that new time to what you want!
If the opposite happens and you were planning to work on what you want, but something came up, you can do one of two things, let it go and resume late to it, or panic freak out and give up. I don’t know about you, but I’d let it go and work harder next time I make the time.
All of this Sounds simple right? Then why do most of us panic, stress out, and end up doing nothing? Because we didn’t plan, we don’t know what we exactly want, and we don’t know how to manage our time. The biggest take away you can take with you is don’t panic when you have a lot on your plate instead,
Always know what you want, plan it out, create a backup, and go with the flow until you reach your goal!
EVOACTIVE 