astrideastmanHow to Take Back Your Time Through Changing Your Thoughts (and Scheduling!)
How many of you are planners? Hands up!
I am definitely a planner – vacations, shopping trips, parties, meetings. If it’s something that could possibly need a plan/schedule, I’m on it! Planning is just something my brain seems to be hardwired to do more naturally than others.
Scheduling
But one thing I wasn’t great at was planning out my entire day. I love a good to-do list and I would have that laying on the counter and putter away at things all day long. What I was finding though was that some days I just didn’t get what I needed to get done. The list was there but some tasks I would spend hours on while others just kept getting bumped down for another day.
(We all have time thieves – be sure to read my other article Top 4 Time Thieves to learn more.)
Then I learned to schedule my working day, especially once I started working from home full time. I love a good paper planner still and I started adding in everything I was going to do each day (and I like the planner with the hours listed for the entire day) – walk the dog, journal, eat breakfast, coaching call, teaching call, content creation, go to grocery store, go to kids’ sport game, meal prep, dinner time.
Yes, I fill it in for every day and plan one week at a time. At first I thought writing all these things down every day and in an actual time slot, was over kill. But do you know what? After a month of giving it a try, I love writing in my planner EVERY DAY. If it’s written in my planner, it gets done. And here is what else I do:
I COMMIT to myself that from 6-7 am every day, I walk the dog.
I COMMIT to myself that every Thursday I will spend 1 hour writing a new blog post and my weekly newsletter.
I COMMIT to myself that I will stop working at 4pm and begin meal prep and make dinner for the family.
I COMMIT to myself that every Sunday is spent sitting on the couch, nibbling on snacks and watching the days NFL games, with my husband.
Planning and committing to that time, big or small is what is going to keep you focused and productive.
Take Massive Action
This is what I used to think about productivity – I’d make a giant to do list and everything I could think of, big or small. I would tackle all the small stuff first and happily cross off ten things right away. Bam – I’m being productive! Well, yes and no.
Yes, I was getting things done that needed to be done. But was I getting what was IMPORTANT done – NO. In an attempt to make myself feel like a success, I was finding any little tasks, adding it to the list and quickly crossing them off when they were complete.
Now don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with getting those tiny things accomplished. Nothing at all. I still do them and you will still find mini “win” lists on Post-it Notes and in the margins of my day planner.
Where I have shifted my thinking and doing is by scheduling in those projects that will have more of an impact on my work, my house, my family when I cross them off my list.
I’m scheduling in actions that I know will have an impact.
I’m scheduling in creating content for my life coaching business.
I’m scheduling in writing my weekly newsletter.
I’m scheduling in time to grocery shop and meal prep so my teenagers find food when they open the fridge for the 1000ths time.
Scheduling, working on and finishing those massive action items is so ENERGIZING. And when we are energized, we have an easier time being focused and productive.
Prepare for Resistance
Truth time – even though I make a commitment to myself that whatever I put in my planner/schedule for the day is what gets done, there are SO many days when I look at my list, I just don’t want to do what I have scheduled. Anyone else feel the same way? It happens ALL the time.
So far we’ve gone ahead and made a plan, we’ve become serious and committed to the plan, we have been intentional in what we schedule. The last thing we need to do is EXECUTE. Sounds simple, right? Here is what deflates us all the time – RESISTANCE.
I guarantee you will not want to do what is in your calendar when the time comes. When I get to meal planning, I will do EVERYTHING else I can think of – laundry, dishes, vacuum. Yes, my go to, to NOT do things in my schedule is usually cleaning (strange, I know. I have no idea where that comes from). I can easily sidetrack myself for an hour by cleaning and not doing what I have scheduled). So what can we do to not get sidetracked?
We remember that when you planned to sit and write emails for an hour, you did this with the best, smartest, most ambitious, productive, motivated version of your brain. You planned all this out to be the best version of yourself and tackle your highest priorities.
My life coach has the best “new thoughts” to flip the script in our brain:
“Yep, I hear you brain. I see you don’t want us to do that now. I get you, but we’re going to EXECUTE because this is what we said we would do.”
We let the RESISTANCE come but we EXECUTE the plan anyways. We honour the commitment to ourselves. But why do we want to do this? Why can’t we just go get sidetracked?
We honour that commitment so that we get the RESULTS that we originally wanted – feeling amazing because we finished what needed to be finished, tackling our highest priorities. There is no other feeling like it in the world!
And remember, staying focused to finish the tasks will actually provide you with that extra time and energy we are all looking for to rest, relax and do all the fun things in life we all thought we were too busy to enjoy.
