3 Ways To Protect Your Time
Have you ever looked at your phone or the clock and said, “WHAT?!”
Or something of that nature.
It works both ways, doesn’t it? Sometimes, I feel like an hour has passed and it’s only been 2 minutes (that often happens on the days we’re in a “run out the clock” scenario with our kids’ bed time).
But more often than not, I can’t believe how much time in the day has passed.
Let me check one email.
This will just take a minute.
We should meet about that. (screams internally, NOOOOOOOOOO!)
“Time flies when you’re having fun!”
How about just… “TIME FLIES.”
There, I fixed it.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve struggled here and there at protecting your time.
Here are 3 major mistakes we typically make and what we can do about it!
1. Calendars
We fail to use or follow a calendar.
A little secret: APPs are your friend! There are so many task organizing and calendar planning apps out there (many for free!) for you and I take advantage of. I’ve turned down lunches, meetings, and even small conversations because it wouldn’t fit in my calendar. That may sound harsh, especially the conversation piece, but it was critical for me to have my family time later to be open/free.
3 Things to Factor when creating your calendar…
You: This may sound silly, but let’s think about a question: What time of day do you feel you are at your best? For me it’s in the morning. More specifically, the early morning between 5-7am. In a normal work hour day, I feel best around 10:00-11:30am. If you know what time you feel your best, you may be able to build around it.
Your deadlines: What day or time does your goal need to be achieved. If you don’t have one, I suggest making one! In our last post, we talked about accessibility and accountability with your goal. It’s beneficial to you and the people around you if your timeline is established.
Your distractions: There will be distractions. Sometimes they come disguised as wonderful things! But they are distractions nonetheless. When you stick to a calendar, you know what you can say yes to and what you need to say no to! (There’s an entire post dedicated to saying “NO” coming soon).
2. Commitments
We overload and overthink our commitments.
This section is going to be me talking directly to me! I want to say “Yes!” to as many things as possible.
I like serving people, I like new opportunities, heck.. I just like opportunities!
When we overload our calendars, it spreads us thin. Odds are, we are not doing anything very well, but we’re probably doing okay or good at a lot of things. And I don’t want to be remembered or thought of as just getting by.
I want to do things intentionally, diligently, and exceptionally. The reality is, I can’t do that when I overload my commitments.
Our family, 99% thanks to my wife, tries to minimize the amount of commitments we make for ourselves and our children. As much as we want our kids to experience everything they want, we know it’s not healthy for them. The same goes for you and I. It’s not healthy for us personally or professionally. It wears us down. You know this. I know this. Yet, we still overload. Start filtering your unnecessary commitments.
*Check out a previous post involving the Eisenhower Matrix.
*Bernie Sanders meme* I once again reminding you I will be doing a post about saying “NO!”
Secondly, we overthink our commitments. When we overthink, we get overwhelmed.
There’s nothing I can say in a post like this that will cure our overthinking. However, if I can draw your attention to the fact that you may be doing it, we can start addressing it.
Have you heard of Marie Kondo? Well, I bit, and watched some of Tidying Up (Netflix). Regardless of whether or not you wholeheartedly agree with her or care to watch her show, she has a strategy for decluttering that translates beyond your junk drawer in the kitchen.
The simply question, “does it give you joy?” that she asks her clients is a beneficial one to ask ourselves.
You may be thinking, half the things I do for my job or for my children do NOT give my joy but I still have to do them. You’re absolutely right! I wish I could only do the aspects of my job that I like. But think of this strategy in terms of your thought process.
Does this line of thinking help with my level of joy? When it comes to commitments that we cannot move, ones that we must keep, our thought life and inner conversations play a major role in how we operate before and after these commitments. Chances are, many of your commitments that say 6-8pm on the calendar are actually robbing your time from 8am-Midnight.
Even with a lot of commitments, you and I find more margin when we address our thought life.
3. Consistency
We lack consistency.
One of the biggest problems with our time management is consistency. It’s so easy to get off the tracks of staying and being consistent. Life happens and with that comes a lot of unexpected - we’ll call them - bumps in the road. Like a toilet overflowing in your house and raining down into your basement. Not that something like that happened at our house this weekend…
With so much pushing against us in different seasons, I am the first to admit I struggle to stay consistent.
I am also aware that not everyone wants to do the same things over and over again. Back to the beginning of our conversation, we need to understand who we are and what works for you. The important thing is to find what keeps you motivated and moving.
We all are aware of what it takes to be consistent so I want to advise you to take one little step towards becoming more disciplined.
Why?
Because when we become more disciplined and more consistent, we’re able to set our pace and gain confidence with how we manage our time.
I’ve always heard the military argument of making your bed every morning because it helps set the tone for the day. Whether you need to make your bed, go for a walk, wake up early for time alone, exercise… find what helps keep you consistent. Doing something we love daily builds our confidence, keeps us healthy, and brings us starts to snowball downhill into consistency in other areas of our day.
I don’t know what you need to do, but I want to encourage you to start doing it today.
You and I will do a much better job of protecting our time when we…
Set our Calendar.
Stick to our Commitments.
Stay as Consistent as we can.