TIME IS OUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE, RIGHT?
It’s finite. We all want to maximize it. Get the most out of every work day, family day, and for suuuuuure vacation day.
So this week, we want to bring you our best Time Management tips. As two entrepreneurs we wear *a lot* of hats. And while we don’t have it all figured out, and we are far from perfect, we hope even one of these ideas brings you greater harmony.
Inhale, exhale, we got this!!
OUR TOP TIPS
Create an Ideal Weekly Plan Sheet OK friend. Whether it’s paper or digital, color coded or not, write down what you’d looooove to see your Ideal Week look like. Schedule it all - work, life, self, exercise, faith, family, sleeping, errands. Get it all down. You can even create two lists! A priority list with about 5 or 6 things and a DUMP list with everything floating around in my head right now
Then Give Yourself Grace The goal of an Ideal Weekly Plan Sheet is that you know what to aim for. You will never, repeat never, make 100% of that Ideal schedule happen. Because life. But if you shoot for the moon, you’ll land among the stars. Cheesy, but true.
Schedule To-Do List the Night Before This was a new way to think about to-do’s for Audra & it changed the game for her. Instead of just making a daily to-do list, she now *schedules* exactly when she’s going to accomplish each task. Heyooooo upgrade. It also helps her create her ideal day every night before leaving the office. She knows what to aim for. This is SO helpful!! It gives your day PURPOSE. If you enter the day without having a to-do list already mapped out, you’re starting from scratch every dang day. But if you head into your day already knowing what you gotta get done, you’re ahead of the game!
Set Alarms Wanna be extra? Try this - it works. If you are prone to getting a little... distracted like Audra can, you'll benefit from this! After you schedule your next day’s to-do’s, set alarms on your phone WITH TITLES of exactly what you should be accomplishing at the time. Hidden benefit: if you get off track, you can bet a loud alarm will jolt you back on track! It is PROVEN that you can wear your brain out if you try to sit down ALL day and focus on a task. Saying to yourself, I’m not going to get up until I finish this whole website is a lot of pressure. Instead, set BREAK timers, too! Set alarms for every 60 minutes WITHOUT distractions. Don’t look at your phone. Don’t get up to pee. Don’t scroll the ‘gram. Just focus on the task at hand. Then, after the 60 minutes is up, take a 2 minute break or a 10 minute break. This is your time to pee, stretch, scroll the ‘gram, meditate, move around, grab a snack, have an intermittent dance party. When those 10 minutes are up, set another alarm for 60 minutes. Rinse and repeat, baby.
Calendar Reminders are Your Friend "The faintest ink is better than the most retentive memory." - Mary Kay Ash. Whatever system works for you, set reminders. For all of life’s little things. I.e. Audra sets family birthday reminders 2 weeks in advance so she has time to shop aka send on Amazon. This idea reduces scrambling at the last minute because you’re creating a tickler system for yourself. Is that sexual? Who cares, I like it!
Delegate Take a look at your lists - do you actually have to be the one doing all that work? If not, who else do you trust to tackle it for you? Can someone else do your food shopping? Cross that bad boy off. Do the tasks you LOVE to do and delegate the rest.
Eliminate “Half-Work” Author of the book “Atomic Habits”, James Clear, categories “half-work” as answering emails, texts, responding to messages on Instagram and other “reactive” work as half-work. These are things that feel productive in the moment but don’t actually get us closer to achieving our bigger goals. Setting times for these tasks such as once before lunch, and once before the end of the day allows us to focus solely on the tasks at hand for the rest of our day.
SOME THINKING POINTS
What if you did the hardest task first each day? Eat the Frog book
What if you created a reward system for yourself? Coffee AFTER you work out (a la professional coach Nisse Noble)
What if you literally put things in your path to remind you aka guilt you. Like workout clothes where your feet hit the floor in the morning? - You are a Badass book
What if you created a morning ritual that boosted your day & a nighttime ritual that boosted your sleep? Miracle Morning & our Gratitude episode
Isn’t it funny how we always say “we don’t have time?” Like, we don’t have time to find parking so we pick a random spot on the road, only to get towed and spend an extra 2 hours later that day getting it from the Tow Pound? So...when you thought you didn’t have the time, you actually MADE time. Therefore, the time was there all along. You just have to prioritize it.
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