When I was in college, I was a pretty busy lady. I had seven or eight classes every semester, plus a lot of practice time and tons of homework {I was a music major so I always had a lot of practicing to do and my homework load was, literally, insane}. I quickly learned that with everything I had to get done each day, I had to be really organized to stay on top of things. At the beginning of each semester, I would create a schedule of a general week in Excel. On the very left side was a general time line of the day, separated into 15-minute segments. Then I would have an additional five columns, one for each day of the "work" week. Then I would block out all my class times and other obligations such as work, practice time, choir council meetings, etc. Having this schedule, a single sheet of paper, really helped me stay on track. It showed every block of free time I had that I could do homework in. It was a lifesaver to me. Yes, at the end of the semester I would get stressed because of all the finals, juries, concerts, etc., I had going on. But I never, ever missed or was late on an assignment or test and I never felt too stressed about school obligations. All thanks to a detailed schedule.
Now fast forward three years, add a new house, a toddler, different activities, groups, and teaching voice lessons, I'm still a busy lady. Just in different ways. I don't have professors assigning me letter grades to tell me how I did every 3 months. I evaluate how I'm doing on my own now.
A few weeks ago I realized that I wasn't managing my time very effectively. I'd get busy doing something that wasn't very important and I'd spend too much of my precious time doing that thing. Basically, I just was losing track of time but then the more important and essential things weren't getting done like they should. I thought back to my college days {they were so long ago, you know} and remembered that the only reason I didn't get behind on the important things in those days was that I had created a detailed schedule. I still have a cleaning schedule, but realized I needed more.
Enter the Weekly Schedule.
The concept is basically the same as my old school schedule. Since I teach voice lessons, have a job cleaning house for an elderly couple here in town, exercise with a friend, and have several scheduled hobbies, I have parts of my day that can and should be blocked out and dedicated to specifics. So, on the left side of an Excel spreadsheet, I have the day split up into half-hour blocks. I have six columns, one for the time, and five for the days of the week. I also have extra rows on this schedule. They are titled: "Activity for Livie", "My Day", "Seasonal Jobs", and "General Tasks".
The general tasks row is filled with my daily cleaning schedule jobs into each day they belong. Under the seasonal jobs row, I look at my seasonal jobs chart and the Monthly To-Do's in my organization binder and I list what things I need to do that week to stay on top of those things.
Activity for Livie is supposed to help me get out of the house and take her out to do things. I'm a homebody. I love to be home, and I'm usually very content not to go anywhere. But I don't really want to be this way. I want to expose my child to what is around us. I want us to have fun traditions. I don't want my children to be afraid. So I decided I need to do things. So various days have activities attached to them. Every Monday is Park Day. Every Wednesday is Library Day. Every Friday she comes with me when I go cleaning and she loves playing with the elderly couple I clean for while I work.
The my day row is for me. I have a day set aside for blogging. It's the day I have the fewest other obligations and I can spend a bit of time. I have crafting days where I set aside time to practice being creative.
I'll print out a new sheet every week, then I'll fill in where it needs to be filled in with the other tasks that need to be done. I usually print them back-to-back so I use less paper. It seems like a lot of printing, but it's worth it to me to have something that helps me keep up, something that helps me manage my time more effectively. {Note: you can use the weekly schedule link to find a replica of the time management sheet I use - you can download it and fill it in to fit your own schedule.}
How do you manage your time?
1 comment:
I learned very quickly that once I had a child and was a "stay at home" mom, a schedule didn't work for me at all. I got too caught up in "ack! It's 10am, I need to be doing _____" and it was just super stressful. Not so much a problem when I was single. Now, I have routines and things I do during the day. Where those best fit in varies from day to day so I just take it as it comes. I keep track of fitness classes and other appointments in my planner. My planner also has a section for weekly goals and to dos that I utilize. Super helpful!
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