Time Management

When I was a child I loved the book If you Give a Mouse a Cookie… as I have grown older- I came up with my own version of this childhood favorite that I could relate to.  How about you, can you relate?

If you give a woman an Hour

If you give a woman an hour, she’s going to want to take a warm bath.

When she goes in the bathroom to run the water,she will see that the sink needs to be cleaned.

When she finishes cleaning the sink she will notice that she needs a new towel for her bath.

When she goes to the laundry room to get a towel she will see the loads need to be changed.

When she finishes changing the loads she folds the load of jeans from the dryer.

When the jeans are folded she will walk to her closet to put them away.

As she walks into the closet she will notice that she has shoes laying on the floor.

She starts to pick them up and remembers that she was going to donate that pair because they hurt her feet when she walks.

She will go to the garage to get a box.

While she is in the garage she will notice that the trash needs to be taken out.

After she takes the trash out to the curb she will come inside and look for an empty box.

While looking for the box she will discover a box of pictures that she has not seen in years.

She will sit and look through the pictures and start to cry.

When she starts to cry she will need a tissue.

As she goes to find the box of tissues it reminds her that she needed to find an empty box in the garage.

She returns to the garage and locates a box to take to her closet.

She will start by packing the shoes but then begin going through her drawers, shelves, and hanging clothes too.

When the box is full she will carry it to the car.

As she puts it in the car she will notice that the car needs to be cleaned

She will grab her keys.

After she drops off the box of clothes and finishes cleaning the car at the car wash she will remember that they are out of milk for dinner.

While at the grocery store grabbing milk she will decide that brownies sound good for dessert.

She will shop for the ingredients needed before checking out.

At the checkout she will run into a friend who asks her to go walking later that night.

She agrees to meet her after dinner.

She will get home to make dinner and brownies.

After eating dinner with her family and cleaning up the kitchen, she heads out to meet her friend to walk.

As they walk they talk about how tired and stressed out they both are.

When she is finished walking she realizes that she needs a shower.

Chances are if she needs a shower… she will wish she had an hour to take a bath and relax.

Can you relate???  Statistics show us that the average woman wastes AT LEAST one hour a day with distractions and disorganization… so the question is: What would you do if someone gave you an hour?

Is anyone else having a hard time believing that another year is drawing to a close?  I feel like the older that I get the faster that time seems to go by!

A few years ago I got myself into the routine of using the week between Christmas and New Years to wrap up the old year and begin to plan ahead for the year to come.

In this time I have an unofficial checklist of sorts that I always follow.  I wanted to share that list of tasks with you today in hopes that it gives you an idea or two that you can use to end this year on a strong note and start next year on the right foot.

My end of the year checklist:

• Writing thank you notes for Christmas gifts as well as helping my children write their own thank you notes as well.
• Organizing all of our pictures (digital or print) from the year so that I can access them easily in the future.
• Sitting down to write down new goals for the next year.  I divide my goals into the following categories:  Personal, Professional, Family, Fitness, Financial, and Household Projects.
• Evaluate my current work schedule and make needed changes for the upcoming year.
• Organize financial paperwork from the year to make tax preparation easy next month.
• I store all of our household owner’s manuals in a 3 ring binder with each in a clear plastic sheet protector.  At the end of each year I go through to make sure that none of them need to be pulled out for something that we no longer own or use.
• Clean and purge my closet of clothes that I am not using or wearing to donate to others.
• Go through my address book and double check that my contacts are current.
• Choose my focus word for the upcoming year and make a poster for my office about it.  (See old post about this)
• Our family makes a to do list for the upcoming year, a list of things that we want to try to get done the next year.  These items can be fun places to visit, recipes to try, crafts to make, games to play, or projects that we want to work on.  It is a fun way for us to look forward to a new year together.
• Replace kid’s school supplies that have been worn out the first half of the school year.

These are some of the things that I will be doing this week to wrap up this year and prepare for the next.  I hope that some of these will challenge and inspire you as you begin to transition this week also!

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Think back to when you were in school, did you learn better by seeing things, hearing things, or touching things?  The answer to that question may stir up more than nostalgic thoughts… it many also hold the key to mastering the art of time management.

Visual Learner Time Management Strategies:  You learn best by seeing things and information.

• You need to see your schedule, your plan, your to do lists, etc… each day so write them down and keep them accessible daily.

• Color coding your calendar. You can do it by family member so you can see at a glance who is doing what by using different colored inks or highlighting the various entries.

You can also use color coding to show your different time zones that you set up.  Give each zone a different color and then when you look at your schedule you will see quickly when you can put an activity in the right time zone.

• Using charts to track chores, projects, and activities so you can see      the steps that need to be completed.

• Post daily routines and reminders to help hold you accountable.

Auditory Learner Time Management Strategies:  You learn and organize best by hearing things and information.

• You thrive on hearing things so using timers to keep you accountable on time spent on a task can help you.  If you are going to clean the house set a timer for thirty minutes and see how much you can get done in that time without getting distracted.  If you are going to be preparing for a meeting for an hour set your timer for 45 minutes to warn you to find a stopping point in your preparations before moving to your next task.

• Read your schedule out loud to yourself at the start of the day or have someone read it to you.  This will help to reinforce the schedule that you need to keep.

• Setting alarms for when you need to do something or be somewhere throughout the day.  Set an alarm so you can always leave in time to be 10-15 minutes early to your destination.

• Recording notes to yourself on a small digital voice recorder can save you time later looking for small hand written notes.

Kinesthetic Learner Time Management Strategies:  You do best when you tangibly touch something or do something.

• You thrive on being able to physically cross items off of your to do list daily so a paper or wipe off boards work well for you.

• You normally do not like to spend too much time on one task so break tasks into smaller steps and do them a little at a time.

• Consider using task cards so that you can thumb through regular chores that need to get done.  Separate them into two piles each week; still to do and have done.