The Struggle of Time

We live in an ever moving and ever growing world; things are always happening, and they are happening fast. There aren’t enough hours in the day, there aren’t enough minutes in the hours that we have, and somehow we often end up teetering on the edge wondering “What next? How do I get through this?”.

As a mom of three, a homemaker running a busy and full household, and a blogger, I need decisive and clear time management strategies in place. If not, the reality is that both my family and I suffer. Seeing pending tasks piling up leads me to become a version of myself that I don’t like, and a person who is no longer useful to the people around me. Today I’m sharing with you my blueprint for how to apply time management to my life and becoming the most successful version of myself.

1. Planning

As an avid user of the Ryder Carrol bullet journal system, I like to plan things out on a yearly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. It sounds neurotic, and it probably is, but taking the time to lay out to do lists, task breakdowns, schedules, and vital systems such as meal planning etc encourages me to be able to use my time efficiently. Living the life that I do I recognize that my time is precious, and should be respected as such; planning allows that.

2. Prioritise

When sitting down to plan tasks and deciding how I will efficiently go about tackling everything that needs to be done, I prioritize. I pick and choose what is urgent, and absolutely necessary, and I put all said items at the very top of my list. The everyday goal is to make sure that I check off at least one of my must complete items.

3. Time blocking

This is an age old tradition where one lays out actually blocks of time for specific tasks. The night before my day begins, I like to sit down and lay out exactly how I hope to tackle the coming day. The goal is to give myself a framework of how I am planning to manage my time, and to stick to that guide as much as possible.

4. Outsource

There are certain tasks in life that bring each one of us disdain, or discomfort. I personally strongly dislike laundry, and making the time to have to do the household linens feels like an impossibility. So, I outsource, we send all of our linens to the dry cleaner and they come back washed and ironed, ready to lay out. This brings me so much comfort because I recognize something that I do not wish to allocate time to, and I found a more resourceful solution to it.

5. Reward System

Give yourself rewards when you accomplish the tasks that you had hoped to complete within a certain time frame. Recognize that you have done something worthy, and give yourself props for that, you deserve it. It can be as simple as a cup of coffee and a ten minute read of your favourite book, or as elaborate as stepping out to a breakfast date with a friend; whatever works for you in the moment, but allow yourself that privilege.

6. Let It Go

There will be times where despite your time management schedule you are unable to complete certain tasks. As a mother of three this often does happen to me, because life can get in the way. On such days it is necessary for me to step back, take a breath, reevaluate and let some things go. Push tasks forward to another day, or reorganize my time so that it is better suited to my needs, but giving myself that grace means better use of my time as well as more rewards.

So, there you have it, my tips on how I manage my time to help ensure a more productive version of myself, and to lead a healthier and happier lifestyle. Applying these strategies means that I am living life as a stronger and more empowered person, and what could be better than that?

Tell me about you; how do you manage your time? Any helpful and supportive tricks up your sleeve? Let me know in the comments below.