Our Time Is Precious: How Managing Time Aids In Achieving Goals.

“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!” –Anthony Robbins

As we begin 2024, many of us have come up with resolutions for ourselves that guide us to become a better version of ourselves. Though you may start the year off strong on completing your goal, life happens and we can end up near the end of the year realizing we were never able to complete our resolutions. Knowing how to manage your time can not only give you stability in your life but also allow you to make time to pursue your goals. When setting goals for yourself, creating deadlines, making plans, and using a calendar is a great way of learning how to manage your time. 

As I have discussed in one of my previous blogs, giving yourself deadlines creates a sense of urgency and proves to yourself that you can genuinely commit to the goals you are pursuing. As we create an action plan, using a calendar and choosing certain dates can help give you a visual of when you want to have things completed. Having deadlines and creating action plans on how to meet those deadlines has been very important for me as I raise my two children, run a coaching business, and create weekly blogs. I used to write in calendars and daily planners, and while they helped me remember important dates, my daily planners only helped for so long that I would leave it somewhere and forget about it. I found it more helpful to use digital calendars and planners. It is more beneficial to me to get alerts from my phone, plan my days, and complete the necessary tasks I set for myself. Creating deadlines and having a calendar isn’t the only way that helps me stay on track of achieving my goals, I also have implemented time blocking into my life that helps keep a healthy work-life balance. 

Time blocking is a time management technique that allows you to set a part of your day aside to focus on tasks and be productive. Instead of spending hours working on a project, break down your project into smaller chunks throughout your week. For example, I allow an hour to two hours a day to focus on my website and blog as well as 2 hours max for cleaning. This leaves the rest of my day open to spend time with my family, and my evenings open for clients. Blocking out certain times of the day for my daily tasks helps my awareness of what is most important for me to complete and also gives me plenty of time throughout the week for me to complete my weekly goals. It also helps me from either rushing through what needs to be done or getting burnt out from my work.

Another important part of time management is allowing breaks for yourself. If you are planning on working on a task that may take a few hours, working on the task then taking breaks helps increase productivity and focus, while decreasing fatigue and stress. This is especially important when you are working with technology and screen time. Taking breaks away from a computer helps decrease eye strain, headaches, and burnout. If a task takes 3 hours, set a timer for 25 to 30 minutes. Take this time to focus on the work in front of you and when the timer goes off take a 5-minute break. During your break get up and stretch, take a bathroom break, grab a drink of water, or just sit for a few minutes before starting your timer again. Repeat this until you have completed your task or you feel you have accomplished enough for the day. As I have implemented this into my life, it is easier to focus on what needs to get done and allows me to return from a short break with a clear head and able to continue my work. 

Being aware that every day only has 24 hours, the time you set aside to be task-focused and productive is important. Limiting distractions during this time allows you to focus more on what you want to get done during this time. This looks different from person to person. Some people need to be in a quiet place isolated from others, and some prefer working in a coffee shop with their headphones on. For me, it depends on what I am doing. I like to jam out to music while I am cleaning, and if I am working I try to limit as many distractions as I can while still having some background noise. As a stay-at-home mom/ work-from-home mom, during the day I am with my 5-year-old and 9-month-old and it is easy for me to get distracted by the two of them. I am lucky to sometimes get help with cleaning from my 5-year-old, but in the times I need to work on something independently I have different activities for my kids that help them be in the same space with me yet allow me to get what I want done. 

Taking time to plan out your day and manage your time appropriately can help make the most of each day. Time management allows you to delegate small amounts of time to work on your goals. Whether it is for a half hour or a few hours a day, giving yourself time to work on your goals will help you accomplish your yearly resolution and more. Time management will also increase productivity, decision-making, focus, confidence, better work-life balance, and decrease stress and procrastination. Our yearly resolutions are achievable as long as we actively make time to pursue them. 

Come back next week as I discuss the Eisenhower Matrix and how it can help us choose which tasks are important, non-important, urgent, and not urgent. This allows us to focus on what needs to get done now versus what can be done later. Always remember, we all can rise from our ashes and soar.