thedifferentmomblogAre you properly accessing and auditing your time each day to get the most out of your day? So many of us use the phrase “ain’t nobody got time for that.” If you are guilty of that, my guess is you aren’t properly accessing your time as a busy parent or even a busy person. It’s like we would rather stress instead of doing better with our time.
For some reason, we have convinced ourselves that we have to stay busy. It’s like you aren’t “cool” if you aren’t saying you’re busy. We have seriously used the word busy like a status symbol like the word wealthy.
It’s OK to save time like we save money. When we save money, it goes into a savings account to use at our discretion. We should treat our time the same.
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If you have goals, or plans throughout the day it is imperative, just like a budget to assign tasks, goals, appointments, etc. to a category every day/hour just like you would assign your money to a budget. With a budget, every dollar has a name. So with your time, every tasks, goal, appointment should have a name.
If you call yourself a busy parent, I have some tips to help you in accessing your time.
Set a schedule to aid in properly accessing your time
I know you hear that a lot from me, but it is so necessary to keep you on tasks, and to keep you sane. So many confuse a schedule with their daily goal setting. While the two are intertwined, they are not the same.
A schedule helps you accomplish your daily goals/tasks. A schedule is your path way to get to your end result. Your schedule includes and involves actual time increments. Your goals do not necessarily have clock times assigned to them.
Let me clarify, you can say I want to accomplish X in 3 months, but it does not necessarily have to say “I must accomplish X at 1:00 pm on July 16th.
Scheduling variations before you get it right are OK.
In fact they are encouraged to an extent. But, your daily schedule should have very few variations, or deviations to it, especially when you have children. Click here to see my daily schedule to give you a better idea of what should be included on your schedule.
Once you repeat your schedule over and over, it will become a habit. It won’t be necessary to have it written down. I’ve basically had the same schedule for me and my children for 10+ years.
Creating a schedule is just a small step to help with your time management.
Another huge key in accessing your time
Is be intentional with your time.
Like I said earlier, we make things harder for ourselves. We aren’t intentional with time, and we wear the busy badge with pride. Stop doing that. It’s not a bad thing to not be busy sometime.
Being busy doesn’t always mean important. It’s the quality of your tasks and schedule not quantity. This can be applied to your work, or anything. Remember, it’s quality not quantity.
Are your daily tasks actually getting your closer to a goal, or are they just tasks to give you the busy appearance?
For instance, I’ve seen over and over mom’s complain about doing loads and loads of laundry. This makes no sense to me.
Being a single mother, can be overwhelming. Even being a mother can be overwhelming, but there are tricks and tips that can help you master your day.
Streamline such processes like laundry or cleaning
This will help save time throughout your day. You can eliminate a lot of stress, and accomplish so much more when you learn to streamline your daily chores.
This is probably my favorite part of showing people how to get the most out of their day. When you get a hold on your tasks and chores, it’s like everything else will fall into place.
Think of it kind of like organization, or some may even say OCD. But it’s not necessarily on that level. You’re just learning to be efficient, and intentional with your time through make your tasks work for you.
When you learn to streamline your morning routine, or your laundry routine, you naturally eliminate the busy excuse over a good chunk of your day.
Think about that time you could be sipping a drink with your friends, instead of folding laundry…or having the thought of piles of laundry, so you can’t enjoy yourself.
Busyness is an enemy of good time assessing and properly accessing your time
It has become the status symbol and the battle cry for women and mothers every where. It’s like we enjoy the stress and the incomplete tasks. Just stop being busy. Stop checking your phone all the time. Stop relying on caffeine to get you through the day. Are you properly accessing your time to get the most out of your day? This is a question we need to ask ourselves when we try and access and perfect our schedules.
We don’t feel complete unless we can say that we’re busy. Like I mentioned earlier, we equate busy with important.
A few signs of busyness are:
Constantly checking your phone
I mean you completely ignore the new feature on the iPhone that gives you a weekly report of your cell phone usage. You don’t use the feature that allows for you to not use your phone so you can REST.
You’re constantly checking your seven social media accounts. I’m not even sure why someone needs that many, but you’d be surprised. Me as a full time worker, business owner, blogger, and single mother, I only have two social media accounts, so I question you as to why you have so many.
You don’t need that many. It’s truly a sign of busyness that can be streamlined or a lot of it can be eliminated.
That Superwoman mindset has got you down
You feel like superwoman, because you’re relied upon for so much. Your family needs you. Or you’re needed by friends, or a volunteer group. But, you are getting worn out by being Superwoman for so many.
That means it’s time to slow down, and even say no. It’s OK to say now. Remember what I said about values? If you being Superwoman to so many people doesn’t fit in with your values, then you definitely need to learn to say no.
You’re probably wondering what’s next. If you know what it is to identify the busyness, and to streamline your tasks, then you’re probably asking what’s next.
It’s kind of simple. After your values are identified, and you know if your goals line up with those values, then you make a routine.
These are just two of the things that fall under busyness. I go into more detail in my FREE Time Management course, where I help people just like you properly access their time, and learn many of the steps discussed in this post.
Steps in Properly Accessing Your Time
Once you have a routine, schedule, and/or agenda, then you can look at it to see if you are properly accessing your time to get the most out of your day. Your routine should become second nature to you. Once you’ve gotten into the habit of your routine, along with your family, you no longer need to write it down.
Next you simple keep an agenda of your appointments, or anything that doesn’t normally fit into your routine. If you enroll in one of my courses, I walk you through all of these steps, and actually help you identify the differences, and what should be on your agenda and schedule versus your routine.
I teach how to identify your values, and to make sure your goals line up with those values. Later I break my R.A.S.H. Method down step by step.
The course has helped countless people eliminate the excuse of not having enough time in the day, and it has helped them become so efficient with their time. They are able to have free time to spend with friends, their children, or even relaxing binge watching their favorite TV series on Netflix.
If this sounds like something you could be down for, check out the Different Mom Blog store to enroll in one of my courses, or even get the materials I use in my paid course. I will gladly show you how to use them.
My approach to mastering time is using my time to spend with the God, and in His word. That is why I have developed the “It’s My Day Journal.” To get you on the right track to starting your day. Knowing what your goals are, and then even reflecting on your day.
Now that you have the tools, you can ask are you properly accessing your time to get the most out of your day. The answer is probably not yet, but we can get you there.
You will be amazed at how early you are for events, or that your laundry isn’t mountains high. Or you’ll see a change in your children’s and family’s performance and attitude.
Let me help you become the queen of walking out the door without being in a rush or panic. We can probably access your time.
