How to manage your time to achieve what really matters to you!
We have so many options now, so many tasks on our to do list now more than ever.. so how can we modify and focus on what is important to ourselves to achieve our desired outcomes. For me personally, I love to be productively busy! My son and husband think it’s crazy, but it is totally true! My sister says to me “you are like Wonder Woman! I just don’t know how you fit everything in” which then made me think about her comment. I started to reflect, I started to think about what my sister had said then go a little bit deeper into how I actually fit everything into my day… I actually felt like I wasn’t doing enough and that I should be doing more with my time. So, I came up with some tips and tools that I thought would be great to share with you all to help you with how to manage your self-care, your time and how to focus on what really matters to you.
What my lifestyle looks like
Some contexts for you on the background on why my sister shared her thoughts with me first before I share the tips with you. As I feel it is important to share some insights into my lifestyle. For me personally, I find that I worked really well when I have a lot on my to do list, as I feel that I am naturally more productive that way. However, there is a limit of when it can be too much, and all get too much as well! For me there was a point when my to do list and priorities holistically were all too much.
What do I mean by holistically, for me it was all areas of my life had so much going on. I was being a Muma, a wife, looking after our two fur babies, one bird, our household (cleaning, cooking, washing clothes, etc. etc. you know ladies. our other unpaid job that we do out of love) also working full time in a corporate human resource business partner role, working part time starting to create and run my own business (Wellness Soul Tribe), trying to eat well to nourish my body, trying to move my body every day whether that be at the gym or at home doing an online class, trying to do Yoga, Pilates, Balance, meditation and mindful space, manifesting and moon tracking, time with friends, financial budgets, savings, looking at how to invest, and I was investing time into my personal and professional development.
My Self-Awareness
Sometimes I felt that I didn’t have enough hours in the day to do everything that needed to be done. Which was correct – I didn’t… I would be hard on myself as well as I felt that I should be and could be doing more.. I was touching on pieces of everything and pushing myself so hard to do everything every day, that most weeks, I found myself working 6-7 days per week. Which included mostly nights after my 9 to 5 role, then my weekends, and every spare moment of time that I had. However, people like my sister, did not physical see this part as I time managed to fit everything in.
I have continued to learn how to better self-care and time management practices on how I can take intentional action and still be productive with my time every day – that is how I managed to fit it all in.
Disclaimer and being totally serious, please listen carefully. Please be intentional and try not to take on too much, taking on too does have the potential to create a risk of feeling stress, feeling overwhelmed and uncertain on which direction to take sometimes.
My hot tips for you on how I manage my self-care and manage my time are:
Number 1 - Have clarity on your vision and what your goals are
This is so critical – if you don’t know where you are going how will you know when you get there! What is your answer? Yes or No?
If yes, great!! Keep reading for some more tips before moving to tip number 2. If your answer is no, then a great opportunity now to take action. It is up to you to make the decision on what you want in your life and create your vision and your goals. It is up to you to make the decision, take action on what your priorities are in your life, and have clarity on why these are important and why they matter to you. Great opportunity to journal on these to.
Your own personal vision statement is generally one page, it helps you to identify your dreams, connects to your core values and passions and your vision – the direction on what and where you want to be in your life. This will give you a feeling of direction, so you always know what direction you are heading towards and what you are trying to achieve. I would recommend that you then create a vision boards (see my Vision Board Workshop).
Your goals I would recommend having 3-4 to goals to focus on.
Number 2 – Create your action plan
Now you have clarity on what your vision and your goals are, it is time to unpack them and create your action plan. When you write your goals, you are first writing what you want to achieve, then afterwards you list the steps or the tasks you need to action to achieve your goal and what time frames you need to have in place to achieve them. This is what formulates your action plan.
There are many different types of goal frameworks and templates available that you can use. I like to keep it simple and write them in a template that I have created. If you would like a copy, please let me know by sending me a message to my contact page. I would recommend when setting goals, to keep it simple. be direct and concise with your language so you have a strong plan.
Number 3 – Schedule the time
Get out your diary, your yearly calendar and go through your actions and tasks and assess how long they will take you and be realistic. Think about when you would like to have the main goal completed then work backwards from that date. I like to have paper copies of the calendar, I use a yearly, monthly, and weekly calendar. To really plan out the space and reflect on how the time would work for me. First things first, block out your self-care time or day, your holidays, your regular date night with your partner or friends, your gym workouts, your work and include your travel time. Then add in the time for each task then when you are ready schedule into your calendar.
Number 4 - Take action, be accountable, measure your success
This step is important as I see that people get so busy with life, that they put their dreams and goals on the sidelines sometimes. But let me share with you my friends, you have now scheduled that time in your calendar and you are on a journey to create the life you want to life and achieve the goals that you want to achieve.
The first step to take action is to actually take action. So, it is time for you to decide right now to commit to yourself, decide right now that you will not cancel or postpone your actions (unless you are moving them forward to action sooner), and that you will be accountable to yourself to achieve the life you desire and that you deserve. By creating your schedule and booking the time into your calendar to complete the tasks are great steps to help you take accountable for yourself. You can ask a friend or your partner to help you to be accountable or get some coaching.
I hope that you found these tips practical and that you can apply them to your life to help you to progress with your goals...
Speak soon, Kelly xox
