Time Well Spent

Recently, I was asked to share my time management techniques and how I go about structuring and prioritizing my day.  It was easy to share this information from a ‘work’ perspective – but it seemed like such a narrow perspective and I felt very strongly that I was going to shortchange the audience  if all I had to offer were tips about work.  What I really wanted to extol, since I had the opportunity, is time well spent on bettering life as a whole, not just productivity at work.

So with that mission in mind, I delayed the presentation by a couple of days and reworked my slides.

The thing about time is that everyone gets the same amount each day.  But how that time is spent is very individual.  Quite a few of us have work which means that a certain amount of our time is spent on whatever work we do but that certainly isn’t all there is to life, unless someone chooses to make it so.  And there are such people .  I was one of them.  My life revolved around work so much that I didn’t realize it until that work went away.  When that happened, I had this gut-wrenching feeling that my existence no longer mattered.

When I did start working again I was determined that it would be different.  I wanted to build a life outside of work.

Sometimes though, at least for me, there’s a gap between wanting and doing, especially when it comes to pursuing things outside of work.  I’ll want something or have the intention of doing something, I’ll typically do a bit of research, buy a book associated with the topic at hand, think about a plan, then take more time to actually get around to some kind of action.  And as a result, I oftentimes feel as if I’m not making much progress when it comes to my personal pursuits.  I recently read an article that hit the nail on the head about this tendency. I would reference the article but it has since disappeared!

One of the time management techniques I employ helps me with this issue.  And it’s what I ended up focusing on when I finally gave my time management presentation.

Here is a description of the time management technique that I use:

Each week, beginning Friday and completed by Sunday, I draw boxes for the activities that I want to keep track of on two pages of a notebook.  There’s a box for each bullet point below.  The bullet points represent things that are important to me.

  • Writing Time (for my blog and my stories)
  • What I’m grateful for
  • To Do List
  • Upcoming Events
  • Meditation Tracker
  • Workout Tracker that has a line for time, plan, actual activity, and daily weight.
  • A daily tracker for whether or not I eat starches at each meal and how much my lunch costs ( I have a tendency to buy lunch rather than pack it).
  • Ideas

By Sunday night, I’ll have things written in the “Upcoming Events” box,  the “To Do”box , and the Plan section of the “Workout” box. Drawing the boxes before the beginning of the week reminds me of the personal pursuits I’d like to make progress on.

As I record data each day and realize how much time I’m spending on things that are important to me, I become motivated to continue, especially when I experience the fruits of my labor (like more clarity in my day  because of my consistent meditation practice or being able to post  an article on my blog on a regular basis because I’ve actually taken the time to write or receiving comments like “you’re the happiest person I know” because I’m recognizing the positives in my life and taking the time to record them on my list of things I’m grateful for).

If I don’t see a certain amount of time being spent in all my personal endeavors, I know that whatever else I spent my time on, the things that are important to me suffered because of it.  So I renew my focus.

TIP:  Use Micro-Line Pens for journaling or planning.  They are the best – the ink does not smudge or bleed.  I’ve tried Staedtler, Sakura, and Pilots.  Micro-Line Pens were the only ones that did not smudge or bleed.