"I know I need to scrub the toilets, but I also reaaallllyyy need to read a chapter in my new book [insert frivolous title]."
"I know I should be working out but I also just simply must refold all my socks."
"I know I need to do some personal development, but there are all those shows on the DVR I need to watch before they get deleted.... I'll just watch one or two and then I'll come back and do my PD."
When you are undisciplined with your time, your time gets sucked up into distractions! Then you sit there and wonder why you're not getting anything done!
Some of you have seen this picture already, but here is is again for those that haven't:
This is my day planner, and each color indicates a different piece of my life. No, I didn't come up with this awesome idea myself, I got it straight from MY coach and mentor Dani Johnson. I have to tell you though, it has freed up my life SO MUCH!
Orange and Green indicate work (I have two jobs). Purple is my workout time. Yellow is extracurricular activities. Blue is my time with God. And pink? Oh yes, pink is all for my husband! I make time for him every night, and usually it's just us chilling on the couch together after eating dinner. It's really nice.
The white space leaves me time for everything else I need or want to do! You can see that I have a fair amount of white space, at least a few hours each day in which to read or catch up on Facebook, talk to friends, etc. And obviously I can still be flexible within this schedule because while it is giving me BOUNDARIES, it's not tying me down. I KNOW when I am available, and I KNOW when I can move something to another "white space" to make time for something else!
Boundaries are NOT limitations or control mechanisms. Boundaries on your time will set you FREE!
You will no longer feel guilty when you're watching your DVR or you're browsing on Pinterest. You'll know without a doubt that you HAVE THE TIME to do that! And you will become so much MORE productive in those coloured spaces because you have set yourself time limits in which to achieve the priorities you set for the day.
If you don't tell your time where to go, it will get sucked up into other useless things! And remember this: putting things off because of the time it is going to take to finish them is ridiculous. The time is going to pass by anyway.
Just dive in and get it done!
I encourage you to give this method of scheduling a shot. If you don't have a day planner as detailed as mine (15 minute increments) then at the very least make a time schedule (you can use Excel!) and block out your time, labeling it and colour coding it so that you know what you're going to be doing each day and when. Try it for 21 days, and see if it doesn't make a huge difference in your productivity.
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