Calendar Considerations

It’s getting to that time of year when many of us might be purchasing calendars for the upcoming year. There are many factors involved if you want to consider something different for yourself. And let me say up front, I strongly feel that if you have something that works for you, it’s ideal to stick with what works for you. Period. If the system you’ve been using isn’t working as well, then it’s time to as least think about the options you have. So, let’s jump right in and discuss the variations in the way calendars are designed.

First, we have the big choice between paper and digital. As I’ve already said, if what you use works, then stick with it. Even if that means you have a paper calendar. There’s nothing wrong about sticking with a paper calendar in our growing digital society. On the other hand, if the paper isn’t working for you, then it’s worth considering if a digital calendar would be more effective.

When using a digital calendar, most people think of the more portable – the phone and tablets – although some people still use just their computer calendar. There is a learning curve if this is new to you – as with anything new. You need to get used to how it works and often learn to trust it. The digital calendars often have multiple ways to view it – similar to the paper calendars – you have daily, weekly, and monthly, which give you the flexibility to focus on your schedule in the way that works for you.

One of the features that I appreciate in the digital calendar is the ability to set alarms – I choose the amount of forewarning I want (or if I don’t want one at all). Another positive aspect of the digital is how I can create repeating events easily and have no need to enter the information more than once. It just occurred to me also that there’s no recurring cost for the digital calendars or getting it up to date for the coming year – I have some appointments repeating forever.

Second, when you are looking at paper calendars, you need to decide on the format you want. Most calendars have a monthly view in addition to either a daily or a weekly view. Depending on your needs, a weekly view is usually sufficient for most people as it allows you to put in many appointments as well as some tasks (if you chose to do that). The weekly view also gives you an easy overview of what’s coming up.

I reviewed 2 planners last year, both of which I still think about and appreciate: Planner Pad and Taylor Planner. If I was still using a paper calendar, I would be using one of these and I would be torn about which one.

Something else you want to think about is how you handle your to-dos. Do you put them into your calendar? Do you put them in another place within the calendar or are they completely separate? What other things do you want or need to track with your calendar (or calendar system) – phone numbers, grocery lists, websites, projects, ideas, etc? Digitally, this would likely require different programs or apps on the device, whereas with paper it could all be contained together or divided, as you prefer.

The only time to change your calendar is if you’re struggling with your current system. With so many choices of calendars, it can be challenging to decide on which one to use. Therefore, before rushing out and simply grabbing something, consider what your needs are for your system.

Cycles of Time

For every time there is a season. I’ve talked before about how I deeply appreciate the seasons, the symbol of how things change – maybe not a lot, yet change surrounds us. This doesn’t necessarily make it easy. It can be challenging to embrace the changes happening. Yet, adapting and then thriving require us to figure out how to make the most of the changes. If you think about yourself over the course of a day, your energy and focus shift throughout that day.

How do you handle your own cycles? There are lots of people who’ve talked about working on your most challenging task during the time of the day when you are most focused. I think of this as finding and working during your prime time.

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out your prime time. There are many factors that impact your focus – the biggest being sleep and making sure you are getting enough good rest. If you are dealing with mental health issues, these too take a tremendous toll on your focus. There are many things that can interfere with your prime time. It’s important to handle these things and be gentle with yourself if you’re struggling to make the most of your time.

It’s great to make the most of your prime time for getting things accomplished; yet typically we can’t stop working after our best time is over. We still have things we need to work on, though hopefully we’ll have made the most of our prime time. This is one the reasons that I think about my tasks in relation to various factors, i.e. time, energy, activity, intellectual, etc.

Do you think about your energy and attention when you’re considering your to-do list? A few years back I began making sure my to-do list had different types of tasks. Too many times I was staring at the list dreading it all and simply procrastinating. By thinking about my energy and attention, I wasn’t making the to-do list that would facilitate making the most of my time. Now I make sure that there are a variety of types of tasks – so when I am feeling more drained, I can work on more sedentary tasks – either needing more or less concentration depending on my level of focus.

In this day and age it seems there’s always more to do, and this means that we can set up our to-do lists with various criteria. Figure out when your prime time is and make the most of that. Then consider what things you can do when you’re more tired – those tasks that require less thought or less activity. If we always have options for getting things accomplished even when we’re not at our best – we move through the to-do list steadily.

Racing – Time & Energy

How does having lots of to-dos make you feel? The answer might vary depending on many different circumstances. There is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when we have lots of things pressing on our time and still manage to get it all done. It can certainly make you feel alive, your heart is racing, and you can look around and see all that you accomplished. There is a time and a place for using this energy.

Unfortunately, if this is how you primarily function, your super productive moments might be far and few between, if you do not have that external pressure to get it all done, it is easy to struggle. This also assumes that you can turn on those super productive times when you want or need them.

There are times when I race around the house, full of energy, getting things accomplished. My husband will talk to me, but I often hardly hear him, my brain is working so fast it’s like I can’t slow down to speak. That feeling is wonderful – the energy coursing through me in combination with all the things that I can get done.

Yet, there are consequences to this energy. Your focus is often not directed when you’re racing around. The tasks you work on are frequently the easiest and you ignore the pieces that require more attention or are more challenging to accomplish. If you continue to avoid those tasks that take more time, they won’t get done.

This can look like ADD/ADHD – the attention and energy, although it’s not limited to this situation – this racing energy can affect us all. You might discover this energy regardless of the length of your to-do list. Early on when I became a professional organizer, I would come home from working with people, I would be filled with this energy. I enjoyed using it to get things accomplished.

Sometimes though there are consequences to using this energy. I would occasionally wear myself out racing around; I wasn’t paying attention to my real energy level. Other times, after I had settled down I would look around and see obvious tasks I’d missed. I’ve seen some people struggle with the energy as things actually get messier by the time they’ve finished.

Consider how that energy works or doesn’t work for you. If you understand the effect of your racing energy, you can then use it to benefit yourself and your tasks.

Define Your Time

Time is this fleeting thing. We all have the same amount as everyone else and nothing we do can make it multiply. There are a multitude of ways to approach handling your time – from those that encourage people to put all tasks into your calendar or to base your tasks on your current availability of context, time, energy, and priority. I’m certainly one that prefers the latter approach since if I fill my calendar with tasks, I will simply avoid doing anything in that slot.

You could even say that I’ve taken that idea of choosing tasks based on context, time, energy, and priority and put my own personal spin on it. I’ve even given it a fun name: “Whim time.” This term might even sound like an oxymoron, how can those two words fit together? Whim is defined as – “a capricious or eccentric and often sudden idea or turn of the mind: fancy.”

For me, “whim time” is when I listen to myself about what I feel like doing – this can be productive or it can be time for rejuvenating. It’s about paying attention to my mood and using that to help determine what I will work on. For instance, there is something about making phone calls – to search out speakers for the support group, or following up on insurance issues, or whatever else – that may mean playing phone tag, which I typically avoid. Yet, there are times that I am happy to tackle that process – and it makes sense to take advantage of that when it strikes. (This also doesn’t mean that I only wait for the mood to work on those tasks.)

There’s something light and easy-going about doing things according to my mood or more correctly called my state of mind. I am not being a taskmaster upon myself yet I can get plenty of things accomplished. When I can use my whim time as I’ve set it up – to make decisions about what I will do with my time and to do those things – I have a great feeling at the end of the day. It feels productive in the best way – being mindful of where I am at – both mentally and physically.

Sometimes, my “whim time” turns into escapism. This is not what I set out for my time. It’s a behavior that the equivalent to burying my head in the sand and ignoring both what’s good for me and what needs to be worked on. When this happens I feel horrible. In this age with all the possible ways we can distract ourselves and escape; it’s easy to slip into this. I wonder if it’s not even more of a temptation with our never-ending to-do lists. Is there ever a time when you are free from more tasks that need your attention?

I’ve talked about being mindful of how you use your time (in the blog, Use Your Time Intentionally) and I’ve talked about finding ways to make your tasks fun (in the blog, Make It Fun). In many ways, my “whim time” is my combination of these two principles (and somehow David Allen’s Getting Things Done). I didn’t set out to create this, but this is what it evolved into over time.

Maybe “Whim Time” is something you can use for yourself. Maybe it’s not. You are welcome to it, if you want yet I would encourage you to find your own way to define your time that makes sense to you and for your life. Experiment with different ways to handle your time, observe what works and what doesn’t (and this isn’t always obvious from one or two tries) and see what develops for yourself. It really doesn’t matter what you come up with, as long as it works for you.

I’d love to hear what works for you and how you got there. 🙂

Efficiency can be Fun

Late last year I began thinking about 2 books from my childhood a lot. So much so I decided I needed to pick them up and reread them. I remembered them as being full of fun high jinx, which might be q given considering it’s about a family with 12 children. Yes, you read that right, 12 children (no multiple births and all but 1 lived to adulthood) – and we might cringe at our one or two kids. My memories were accurate, yet it was not these escapades of family life that specifically caught my attention this time through. Really, if it were just a fun read would I ask you to read my writing about it?

It turns out that the parents, Lillian and Frank Sr. Gilbreth, are motion study experts. Frank (although there is a Jr. I will be talking only about the Sr.) applies his theories and beliefs about efficiency to the whole family. Lillian was a psychologist as well, so their focus was on not just saving time and energy, it was about cooperation. An example of this was how surgeries were studied and simplified – doctors asking for the implements they needed and having them handed to them. I took this for granted; yet when the Gilbreth’s were working it was the early 1900’s.

They applied these same ideas to learning, creating different ways to learn – from Morse code being written on walls in the summer home which sometimes gave locations of surprises, to developing how to touch type, to listening to Spanish and French lessons while you were getting ready in the morning and at night – all to increase efficiency.

I’ve talked about efficiency before – I am continually looking at how I do things, asking myself if there is a “better” way. I do this when I wash dishes, in fully utilizing how I fill the dish rack, keeping both the loading and the unloading in mind. When I mow the lawn, I consider whether there are other approaches to it, there are 5 different areas with certain obstacles. Although I think some people can get carried away with shaving off a few seconds or minutes here or there, I am fascinated with the idea of efficiency from the standpoint of simplifying things.

You might not be interested in thinking that much about your own efficiency. I do not think you need to be. Yet, for me the idea of efficiency is wrapped up in simplifying. With much of what I talk about, I encourage you to find ways to make organizing easier. If something is too difficult, there’s a strong chance we won’t do it, even with the best of intentions. If the steps required to put this away are too many or too complicated or convoluted, that thing will not get put away. If we can find a way to make it easier, we’re more likely to fulfill our intentions. In many ways this is exactly what the Gilbreth’s focus was on – reducing the number of steps and complication of accomplishing this or that while not ignoring the human aspect of any of it. They focused on reducing the amount of motions involved not on just speeding things up, although reducing motions did decrease the amount of time needed to complete an action.

Maybe today’s world is not that different from those of decades ago – maybe it is. Regardless, as humans we all have limited time and energy to do all that we might want and need to do. If you find ways to save time and also energy from doing it in the easiest way, you have that much more time and energy for what matters most to you. When someone asked him, “But what do you want to save time for? What are you going to do with it?” Frank responded with,

“For work, if you love that best. For education, for beauty, for art, for pleasure. For mumblety-peg, if that’s where your heart lies.”

* The first book deals more with efficiency, Cheaper by the Dozen (not to be confused with the movies). The second book deals more with running a home and being as economical as possible, Belles on Their Toes. Both books are authored by 2 of the children – Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.

Using Your Planner

With my recent reviews of 2 different planners (PlannerPad & Taylor Planner), this is a great time for me to talk about time management and our planners. This becomes even more critical with all the digital options available. I’m sure there are people out there who will advocate one specific system. You might realize by now, that would never be me. Nevertheless, there are things to consider for a system that will work for you. Our planners are about our time and how we spend it – both our schedule as well as the tasks we need to accomplish.

Most importantly, use what works. If you already have something that works, don’t try to change to keep up with the crowd or for any other reason. Remember how I say, don’t try to fix it if it isn’t broken – this applies to our planners just as much as any other system we have in place. It also doesn’t matter if it’s some “no name” planner. I’ve worked with several people who’ve found some planner and use it successfully – from various non-traditional stores.

Using this idea of thinking about what works for you – one consideration is about scheduling tasks into your calendar which are not time sensitive. We all have tons of things we want to accomplish, those tasks that aren’t critical or time sensitive. Are you more likely to make progress on this if you put it into your calendar? Or if you put it in the calendar, do you end up ignoring it? We’re all unique and there is no one right answer.

I tested this out for myself, putting general tasks into “open” slots into my calendar. What I discovered was that unless it was time sensitive, I would more often ignore or procrastinate it. I was more likely to work on those same tasks if I left them on my to-do list and simply had a block of time for tasks in my calendar.

Do you know what will help you more? Play with it and find out – become curious to see how you respond.

With all the electronic gadgets available, exploring them if they’re accessible to you can be great. They do provide some benefits; my husband and I share a calendar and I can see when he’s scheduled an activity for us. Are you working with trying to schedule multiple people for meetings regularly? The electronic calendars are often cloud computing so you can access them from multiple devices with internet access – is this important for you? Of course, the size varies according to the device – so is it big enough on a smart phone to be useful?

When my Franklin planner was getting too heavy for my purse, I tried my smart phone for a calendar. I strongly disliked it. I now love the calendar on my iPad – I rely on it, trust it, and it works wonderfully for me. When I recognized this, I got a to-do app for the iPad. I mostly like this. It has all of my tasks contained and I can set priorities, time lines, and categorize the tasks. Then something interesting happened – I was working with paper planners in order to review them and I loved writing the tasks I wanted to accomplish during the week into the to-do areas of those planners.

Using this system provided me with that planning aspect that so many experts talk about – a review of my various tasks and what was most important for the coming week. I think it also helped me because I enjoy the process of writing it down and the color-coding I could do (although I didn’t do much, 2 colors). It also limited me from seeing the huge number of things I have on my general list daily (or more often), making sure I didn’t get overwhelmed each time I had some time to work on one of my to-dos. As I said with both of the planners I reviewed, I appreciated the limited space for to-dos and see too many people thinking they need to do MORE. Anything that can help us limit the amount we try to do is a great thing in my mind.

Do you want a monthly view or is weekly enough? Do you need a daily view? This is something else to consider when choosing a planner system – whether electronic or paper. With electronic you usually can change the view to whatever suits you. For planning to-dos I think monthly is too broad, so you’d likely need something in addition to that. Personally, the daily view is too constricting now and contributes to my losing the bigger picture. What works for you?

Size and weight can often be an issue. Does it need to fit in your purse? I do recommend that if you are using a planner, that it is with you all the time. It will only save you time and energy to be able to make appointments and know you’re available (and not need to reschedule later due to an accidental double booking). It also means you can make appointments on the spot, not after you return home to check your calendar. You can also add tasks immediately and not risk forgetting them.

Consider your personal tastes – do you remember better by handwriting things? Do you try to give yourself too much to do? Does scheduling non-critical tasks into your calendar focus you to actually do them? Do you need to coordinate your schedule with someone else? Remember there is no one right solution. No matter what you choose, it needs to work for you. There are lots of questions here rather than answers – giving you some aspects to think about if you are looking for a new system for the coming year.

Use Your Time Intentionally

With that title, do you think I’m going to talk about being more productive? I’m certainly a fan of being as productive as possible and always striving to find ways to improve productivity.

But, that is not my point with this title.

It’s about being aware of how you’re using your time; of asking yourself periodically if you’re currently using your time in a way that you want to be.

Maybe the best example is a couple of weekends ago, my husband saw me sitting on the couch playing a game and he asked me “is this how you want to be spending your time?” My answer was “yup.” What he hadn’t been aware of was that I’d just stopped being productive and was taking a few minutes to relax before jumping into the next task. I was using my time intentionally – since I had decided to take a break and play a couple of games.

In what felt like an occurrence of synchronicity, one of the sessions I attended at the NAPO conference this year, talked about having an “intention awareness.” A couple of month’s prior, I’d started asking whether my husband and I were using our time “intentionally.” It was a way to simply pay attention to how we were spending our time, and whether there were other things we needed or wanted to be doing.

You probably know, as I do, how easy it is to lose track of time. I love Sudoku, and there are times when I sit down to play and the next thing I know, several hours have passed! Eeekk! That wasn’t what I wanted to be doing – at least not for that long. I’ve had that happen on the other end of things, where I’m working on something around the house (or even with a client) and before I know it hours have passed. It was “productive” time, but at least with the housework, was it what I needed or wanted to be spending all that time on?

It can be challenging to even remember to ask yourself the question about whether you’re spending time the way you want to – if it weren’t, you probably wouldn’t lose track of time at all. It can be helpful to have someone else around to gently ask the question, as my husband did to me. Yet, he’s gone all day and I’ve gotten in the habit of first – randomly asking myself, whenever it occurs to me. Second, I use cues around the house, like when a plane goes overhead (which happens a lot) to stop and consider if I’m using my time in the way I want to be.

This second approach is actually what the session talked about – finding some ways to cue yourself to stop and think. Ideally, it will be somewhat randomly and periodically throughout the day, since it’s something you want to think about more than once a day. Even a timer that you continue to reset can help here.

I’m fascinated with time. It never changes, yet it certainly feels like it does – our perceptions of time are erratic and inconsistent. I’m amazed how easy it is to lose track of time – whether we’re being productive or goofing off. Everyone I know, professionally or personally, seems at least a little discontented about the way they use their time.

Here’s a question for you – are you aware (and happy) with how you’re using your time? I don’t believe we can ever be perfect, yet I do believe that there’s always room for improvement – are you ready to start asking yourself “is this an intentional use of my time?”

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Let me admit something – I frequently struggle with wearing myself out. I’ll wake up one morning with plans of all that I’ll get accomplished and it falls flat. I’ve exhausted myself in prior days and my body and mind demand a reprieve. Often I blame this on having a chronic disease and how it can be unpredictable. The truth is that although this might be part of the picture, I also have a tendency to overdo things. As a professional organizer, I feel like I should be better about this not happening, yet I’m human as well as I recognize it and am working on it.

Somehow, many of us strive to just work harder. As if that’s the answer – “If only I could work harder and faster, then I could manage…” This is not the answer. We only have a limited supply of energy, whether you have health issues or not. We all need a certain amount of sleep to re-energize ourselves. The truth is that we need to work smarter.

I was fortunate enough to get into the expo of ASTD (The American Society for Training and Development) last year and was intrigued with a booth there: The Energy Project. Although I found the people manning the booth to be rude, I was captivated by the ideas presented. Since a year ago on coming across them, I’ve been fortunate enough to attend a few webinars they’ve put on. Eventually I buy his latest book and read that to get more in depth information.

One of the things Tony Schwartz, the CEO of The Energy Project, says is that we have 90 minutes maximum of focused attention before we lose that energy. After that, we need to take a break for renewal. He recommends doing this throughout the day, after 90 minutes of focused work to build in intermittent renewal breaks, as we have cycles like our sleep cycle. He says how long those breaks are depends on you and what will help you renew your energy although it can be as little as 5 minutes – it’s about the quality of the renewal, not how much time we spend. If we can implement those renewal breaks throughout our day, he says that we’ll be even more productive.

This makes sense to me. I also know that I’m notorious for getting so absorbed into something that before I know it hours have passed. This is not healthy – I want to be conscious about what I’m doing and how I’m spending my time. I found a Mac program that helps me address this issue for when I’m on the computer for long stretches, Dejal Time Out Free. It fades the screen for me at the intervals I’ve set – for resting my eyes and reminding me that 90 minutes have passed with the option of postponing the break or even skipping it altogether.

I’m still practicing applying this when I’m not at the computer. I know what I need to do; I just forget to set the timer! I’ve talked before about how using a timer (Time I & Time II) can help us get control of our time, and now we can use it for our energy too. I’ve my timer handy so that I can use it both for the focused attention as well as to track my breaks. It’s been amazing how refreshed I’ve felt at the end of the day when I’ve applied this process during the day.

As an entrepreneur, I could always be doing more work. That’s not including my other roles as wife, friend, daughter, or the various values I hold in my life and I want to spend time on. This is not any different from anyone else as we all have many roles and values that we need to attend to in order to feel we’re handling things well. If we can use this 90 minutes cycle to focus on those various aspects, we’ll find more balance without the exhaustion from overextending ourselves. It’s a process and we can train ourselves to stay focused and then enjoy the break before digging back in.

Set Times for Handling E-Mail

I’ve been reading how we should set aside specific times during the day to deal with e-mail. By only dealing with e-mail at those certain times, we’ll reduce distractions and improve our productivity. I’ve noticed how although I’ve turned the e-mail chime off, the number of unopened e-mails get my attention whenever it goes up. It turns out that I’m enticed to check my e-mail, even when I’m in the midst of working on something. I know better, yet it’s hard to resist.

Then something even more dramatic happened with my e-mail. I checked it one day before heading off to a client’s. I had an e-mail that I very quickly read and thought about it as I drove to my appointment. It was a late night and I went to bed after getting home. Several days later as I was driving to another appointment, I suddenly wondered if I’d responded to that e-mail. It turned out that I hadn’t. Yet, I’d thought about what I’d say and then forgot that I hadn’t gotten those words into an e-mail.

Truthfully, I’d already been thinking I needed a better way to handle e-mail. Everything I’d been reading was just reinforced by my experience. With all that technology offers us, it also is training us to ignore some basic principles. Technology does provide much faster ways to communicate with others, whether it’s e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter – no need to wait for that letter to be delivered by the Post Office and wait for the person to write back and get it into the mail. I do miss those days some!

Yet, I see how compulsively I check my e-mail after I see the number go up, and not unlike the mailbox most times, I’m disappointed. While the real crux of the matter is – I distracted myself from what I was working on. Tony Schwartz of The Energy Project says that tasks take 25% longer when we switch between them, than if we’d just focused on one at a time. Yikes!

It seems to me that most professionals already practice limiting when they deal with e-mail, and having embarrassingly forgotten I hadn’t responded, magnifies its importance for my life. Yet as I think about doing this, I realize there’s some reluctance, maybe even dread. E-mail is certainly not as instant as the social media tools, but it’s designed as this quick way to communicate. It almost seems contradictory to set aside chunks of time for dealing with it. Somehow, it seems like it’s not supposed to be time consuming.

Nevertheless, it’s important to take your time in dealing with it. There’s no question that some e-mails need our time and attention. Also, this is how we avoid letting e-mails get out of control. If we set aside time every day to handle our e-mail we not only respond when we need to, we can add things to our schedule, and archive those e-mails that are relevant enough to keep.

There’s no easy answer for how much time you need to handle your e-mail. If your work is largely via e-mail, you’ll likely need more time than others whose work is less e-mail dependent. From what I’ve read, a minimum of twice a day, so whether that’s 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes in the evening, or more will depend on your situation.

Most of know that we need to focus on what we’re doing and limit the number of distractions that come our way. Yet the technology encourages us to jump around – and we’re prone to avoid pain and drawn towards pleasure. We need to remember that although it might feel limiting to schedule specific times for e-mail, in the long run it will be more pleasurable!

Making Time Means Setting Priorities

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who thought they had enough time – at least at sometimes. It often feels like it just disappears. You’re working on something and think it will only take 20 minutes and before you know it, an hour has gone by. Often it’s just that there are many demands on your time – you have a family, a job, a home, and any number of other responsibilities. There just does not seem to be enough time in a day to do everything you want to do. We all have the same amount of time to manage and the bottom line is making priorities that fit your values.

First, a story about time that I really like and which has circulated the Internet.

The Bank Account of Time: Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!!!! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today. (I took the wording from here.)

In the previous blog, Take Time to Plan, I talked some about the importance of making time to plan and schedule things. This is an important part of the process of setting priorities since we all have limited time – and we need to try to be realistic about what we can accomplish.

The other part of this process is actually figuring out what your priorities are – and this means being aware of what your deep down values are. We need to align our priorities around the values we hold. Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says, “Organize and execute around priorities.”

We all have many priorities – you cannot just focus on one thing and ignore everything else. All the time you spend with family at the expense of your job is not realistic or even desirable! When you make time to consider your schedule and set some realistic plans, you’re aiming to make the most of the time you have. You’ll know that where you spend your time is where it’s best spent.

Often this requires that you alter some of your choices and often avoid immediate gratification. It also means thinking about the long-term and figuring out how to focus on the important things amidst all the demands that seem critical along the way. There are things that you will need to set aside, as you – or anyone – can do it all!

You’ll need to consider a chunk of time – this very day is too limited and this month is too large – so examine this week. Don’t over-schedule, this is not about filling every moment with an activity – but about setting aside to work on things that matter to you, to help you reach goals. You also want to make sure you include yourself in the plans – time for rejuvenation and growth. Most importantly, you need to make time to do this each week.

As such a complex topic, this is only the tip of the iceberg, yet starting even with this, you can take control of your time and spend it in meaningful ways. Each week offers you another opportunity to improve and learn more what you need and want from your life.