I have been struggling with staying on top of my schedule lately. Or, to put it a little more honestly… I have been struggling to accomplish anything lately.
My days seem filled with too many things to do and not enough time to do them. I jump from one task to another to another. By the end of the day I feel like I have been working none stop and somehow not a single thing has been accomplished.
I have three little girls to take care of. Meals to cook. Work at the church that I have committed to. A house to clean. Exercise. Several other things that I am working to turn into a business. I fall into bed at the end of the day to read next to my husband before bed and after a few minutes I wake up to my book falling on my face.
How do some people accomplish so much each day and others so little? We all have the same 24 hours to get things done and I feel like I am falling behind. My husband has been helping me to establish a schedule for each day, which is hilarious because he is the least scheduled person, but it is helpful. He has helped me to realize that without time limits I will spend entirely too much time on one project and ignore the others.
So, the past few days at the beginning of each day we have been establishing a list of areas to focus and then setting time limits. For example:
30 minutes Blogging
30 minutes Study for real estate exam
30 minutes Work on business plan
15 minutes Social Media
Lunch
30 minutes Cleaning
Now, this is just an example, but this system is helping me tremendously. I set the timer on my phone and when the alarm goes off I move on to the next task.
Along with this, I have discovered some of my biggest time wasters:
- Social media – I could lose hours of my day on here or a few minutes here and there by checking it too often. Best solution is to determine at the start of the day when I am going to spend time on social media and move on when my time is up. I set 3 separate times during the day. I’m also going to add in to this section looking up stupid stuff online, this includes the ages of famous people, who is in whose CMT video, and other dumb things that don’t matter to my life.
- Watching TV – my family likes TV, and I’m ok with that (no judging please). However, my husband loves to sit in front of the TV with the laptop and work. He can do it, but I cannot. If I try to work in the living room while the TV is on, I watch TV and don’t get my work done.
- Talking on the phone – I’m not a huge phone talker, but I have noticed that I need to be careful to pay attention to when I answer the phone. Sometimes when I am trying to get work done I need to ignore the ringing phone. Sometimes what I think is going to be a 5 minute conversation turns into an hour!
- Email – I love signing up for sales and subscribing to blogs to receive their bonus gifts, but I have learned that this is a time waster for me. I need to carefully pick and choose what I subscribe my email to because once I do it I start receiving emails that demand my attention, and I hate having unread or unfiled emails in my inbox (I love it to be empty).
- Lack of organization – what a time killer. When I used to work in an office building my desk was meticulous. I had folders and files and all sorts of systems in place. I love organization and I love office supplies; however, when I started working from home I lacked a good system. I have recently invested in some fun colorful folders and sticky notes and am getting to work on my built up paper pile (if you can call it a pile when it’s going in every direction).
With a little work, organization, and planning this ship is getting turned around!
What are your biggest time wasters or your favorite “Get Organized” tips?
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