Errmm, so what did happen to me blogging at least once a week. Well, life happened I suppose! Now, I can sit here berating myself that someone who is supposed to be a professional organiser hasn’t been incredibly organised nor made effective or productive use of their time lately (cough, cough). Or I can say “Oh well!” and do what needs to be done from this moment on. I am a true believer of choosing the latter path because putting yourself down will only take unnecessary energy and more time that you could actually map out how you should be spending your time more effectively and productively. I choose to have a “From now on” kind of attitude. It really doesn’t matter what you have chosen to do up to this point, but from now on you can choose another path.
In my first (yes, yes and only) post, I spoke being realistic in planning your to do lists. One way of trying to see how much time you have to attack the to do list is by creating a time management plan/map. If you map out all the activities, tasks, roles you have to do, you then can see what time you have left to complete the to do list. For example, if you work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, it takes you an hour each way to commute to and from work, then you would block out 8am to 6pm in your time plan. If you have a regular meeting every week, block out that time too. Children’s activities? Block that time out and so on and so forth. Only then will you discover how much time you can realistically spend doing all the other stuff. There just is no point being determined to spend 3 hours working on your new business when you just don’t have the time at present to be able to do that. By mapping out your schedule, you can make realistic plans for your time or even see what you would have to cut out in order to fit new plans in.
Here’s mine:
I’m a very visual person so I like to colour code mine.
I get very bored, very easily so I tend not to work for more than 2 hours at a time but prefer to work for an hour to an hour and a half at a time. Things happen, so have a contingency plan in case you need extra time to get everything done. I didn’t have so much ‘me’ time last week because my son was sick and I had to collect him from school. His school isn’t just around the corner. In fact, it takes up to 3 hours to get there and back sometimes. But it’s fine that I didn’t have so much me time because I had things that I had to do. Sometimes I only get an evening off and sometimes a Sunday. That’s fine too because that is what life is like when you work hard, am ambitious and want to provide a comfortable life for yourself and your family. If there are weeks and months of not having a break and quality time for yourself, well then, that’s not on. Then you will have to look at your time map and see what you could or have to cut out because you have just packed too much in there.
Try and be strict with your time plan and stick to it because that is the only way that you are going to get everything done. Focus on what you want out of life and go for it. But if you don’t always stick to the plan, it’s ok. Just say “From now on…” and mean it!
If you need to speak with me, please contact me on hello@thevass.com
I can help you stay organised by teaching you how or getting a member of the VASS team to do the tasks for you. Whether it's Book Keeping, Admin, Business Set Up Help, Marketing, Legal, HR, Event Co-Ordination or Lifestyle Management, we're here to help in any way we can.