Keepin the pace when the pace picks up (part III)

By ellen on October 21, 2009

Time Management and Sticking to Schedules

Easier said than done, right? Really the “secret” to time management may be simpler than you think. Sure, there are tools that can help us to make sure we’re at the right place at the right time, but what it comes down to is you. You make the commitment. If you are the type of person who volunteers (or gets “volunteered”) to do things that stretch you to the limit, then time management is less of a problem than learning how to say no.

That said, here are a few tips to help you organize and schedule the commitments that you do have.

  • Schedule ‘Must-Do’s’ first. The first thing I always have on my calendar is work. Sure, it’s the same time every day from 7am-3pm, but I think seeing that chunk of time taken away puts the rest of my day into perspective. Your 9-5 job may seem like a no-brainer (it’s not like you’d forget to go one day), but it is probably your biggest time commitment.
  • Exercise is a commitment. Falling under the ‘Must-Do’ category is exercise. I need it regularly during the week, and if I don’t purposely carve out time for it, it can be easy to skip it sometimes. On Sundays, I’ll look at my calendar and schedule runs, yoga classes, etc. based on my availability.
  • Calendars are for fun stuff too. It can be really motivating during the week to know that on particular days/evenings you have a fun event. Seeing this on the calendar can help you push through the more tedious tasks. For example, I usually schedule “Pizza and Movie Date” for Friday nights. It’s really just pizza at home and some Netflix on Fridays after work with husbo, but I love it and I like to look forward to it at the end of the week.
  • Leave free time, and if you have difficulty doing this, schedule it. I like to leave a little free time in the evenings after dinner if possible, and on weekends I strive to make my schedule pretty loose. ‘Free time’ could encompass anything – little tasks at home, reading, running some errands… having a chunk of time in which you don’t feel the need to do anything specific can be really restorative. If you are not the kind of person who deals well with downtime, schedule it. Have a favorite show? Schedule that viewing time as ‘free time.’ It’s a start.
  • Be kind to yourself. No one is productive or happy when they are over-scheduled, over-worked, and exhausted. Know who you are. Are you happiest when you have lots of little tasks? Create to-do lists. Are you not really a morning person? Try not to schedule major events at that time. It seems obvious, but without realizing it, many of us (myself included) sometimes forget that we actually need to do the things we commit to.

One tool that really helps me schedule everything is Google Calendar. I love it, and seem to constantly find new ways it can help me stay on top of things. Talk about perfect timing, KathEats just posted a new KERF NERD video on using Google Calendar for time management. Whether GCal is new to you or not, it’s a really informative video.  Check it out – it’s great.

A few other great posts on organizing, scheduling, and time management:

  • Healthy Tipping Point posted a great entry about time management recently.
  • Simple Mom has an excellent entry about tech tools to simplify life at home
  • Here’s another Simple Mom post that focuses on managing emails. (Really love this blog – I’m certainly not a mom, but if anyone is an expert in organization it’s a mother.

I’m right on schedule today. With my free time this evening, I’ll be heading out to dinner with husbo. Have a good evening, and check in tomorrow for part IV which focuses on

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Keepin the pace when the pace picks up (Part II)

By ellen on October 20, 2009

Setting priorities: balancing needs and wants.

There are so many facets to balancing needs and wants. People have literally written volumes. For today, I’d like to focus on the parts of my life that impact me most in my daily life:  fitness, nutrition, relationships, and work. With many obligations and commitments to ourselves and to others it’s easy to feel overextended at times.

To simplify the process of making sure that my needs and wants are relatively balanced, I look at a typical day in my life and ask myself:

  • What 1-3 things do I need today in ________ (fitness/nutrition/relationships/work) to feel content?
  • Of these three things, which one is vital or most important?
  • What is one thing that I would love in ________ (each area) that would make my day exceptional?

This way, I am able to clearly see what I need to function well in my day and what would be a bonus. Here’s how a sample looks for me (and yes, I really do write it down when things get crazy. I’m a list girl).

What are 1-3 nutritional needs I have today to make me feel complete?

  • 5 servings of fruits and vegetables
  • 2+ liters of water

Today the most vital thing is to get all of my fruits and veggies, so I need to make sure that I have at least one fruit/veggie at each meal or snack time.

What would make me really happy today is if I did not eat one packaged food item.

Once I can map out my priorities for the day, I’m able to plan accordingly (in this case, I’ll pack my lunch and snacks for the next day). To look at this with a slightly wider lens, I set overarching weekly goals and priorities on Sundays and do my menu planning and shopping before the week begins. (Check out this other post I did on meal planning).

  • Franklin Covey has an excellent system of prioritizing for their Franklin Planners. I will touch upon this in the next post about scheduling, but it’s worth a look. I used a Franklin Planner before using Google Calendars and find that I still use some of the FP methods. Note: FP is now electronic as well.
  • Ohio State has a short quiz and some tips on setting priorities.

Once we’ve decided what’s important, tomorrow’s post will focus on scheduling these things into our busy lives.

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Good Old Fashioned Workout

By ellen on September 28, 2009

That’s right. A little manual labor and heavy lifting is quite the throwback workout. I should know. I’ve been doing it since about 11 this morning… stopping only for snacks, or to buy more packing tape. Yowsa. So, yeah, I wasn’t able to fit in that Bikram class today. I was holding out for the run, but rain (and pure exhaustion) deterred me. While I didn’t get the workout in that I intended, I definitely got in a workout. So I feel alright about that.

Tonight holds more packing (argh, it never ends!), and since the kitchen is now packed away… a Kashi pizza and salad. This week should be pretty boring in terms of eats, but I did pick up a little fruit and some baby carrots for work. I’ll barely be getting in my 5/day, but it’ll have to do for now.

I’ve noticed that when things are hectic, there are certain things that always seem to take the back seat first. For me, exercise goes out the window when my time is super crunched. The last thing to go is sleep. I’m a good sleeper – even on nights when I think I’m “not sleeping enough” I’m still getting at least 6 hours. Eight hours is superb for me. Ideally during the week, I’d like to hit the hay around 9:30 (I said ideally, haha) and wake up at 5:30. The early wake up is huge for me since I’m remarkably productive in the early morning hours.

What about you? What’s the first thing in your healthy life to go when you are really crunched for time?

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