Got Mail?

Funny: my husband took our daughter tonight ( saturday) to the Jonas Brothers concert. He rode with another dad and the girls had decorated the car for the concert in pink hearts, etc. Her car has dark tinted windows, so the only people you can see are the ones in the front seat. So there is my husband and another big guy driving this pink hearted decorated car. Totally crackin' me up!!!

Cool: I was able to get the budget teaching job in my community / park district for this fall. Very excited!

Let's continue with the time management.

Jul 11, 2009

Time Management 101, part B

So, did you take time to do your writing assignments? If not, then get off of the computer and do it! LOL if so, then let's continue......

People can usually put themselves into 4 different categories. They look like this:

Do you have just too much on your plate? Do you wish for 28 hours in a day or an 8th day of the week? or are you here? ( see below) Is your life one constant emergency to another? Stress and confusion and frustration?
or are you just so overwhelmed that you take the polar opposite approach and look like this guy ( see below)
or are you here?


Which picture do you see yourself being? Do you ever get to resemble this ?
Now there are times in our life where we are put into emergency mode, that is out of our control. You can be in the middle of having some you time, like reading a book, and your child falls and breaks their arm and you spend the day in the ER. But if every day is spent in the ER, then we have a problem. The most healthful place to be is in Balance.

Personal soapbox: If you are catching yourself comparing what your balance is and what someone else is, then you will be miserable. Some people can look like the first picture and they do function with more on their plates, others- no so much. So I hope you aren't comparing yourself to another person. This is about YOUR balance. My balance as a single woman and my balance as a wife and mother of 3 children is very different. So just something to keep in mind, okay?

What keeps you from spending time in balance? Compare to your day to day right now to these categories. Is your goal balance? Have you ever heard anyone on their death bed wishing they would have had more time at office or had spent more time with a cleaner house?

Here is another writing assignment:


List something that if done perfectly in your life, would result in an amazing transformation in your life. So, with these writing assignments as a reference guide, you can now make a priority pie. It might look something like this:

Well, okay you might have different clip art, but I want you to start by identifying 4 areas of your life that you want to make a priority. IE: the blue labels on the outside of the pie: self, family, work, community.

Once you have ID'd your 4 priorities, then list what end result you want to accomplish. IE: the green inside the circles. IE: you realize you want to make more time to exercise, you need more fun time with your family, you need to improve you listening skills at work and you want to serve in the community somehow.

The next step is then to break your big picture goal down to something that you can do. IE: the red labels inside the circle. You can workout 3 times a week, you can set aside one night a week for family fun night, you can listen to a self-help communication cd on your commute to work, and you can volunteer once a month at the school to read to your child's class.That might not seem hard to some people and it might be a lot to swallow for others. So that is where I am going to stop this week.


Your Home work then is:
1- List something that if done perfectly in your life, would result in an amazing transformation in your life.
2- make a priority pie by A) listing 4 areas of your life that you want to make a priority, B) then ID a big picture goal, the end result, and then one or two mini goals of what will get you to the end result.


Good luck this week! I'll see ya next weekend.

Jul 3, 2009

Time Management 101, part A

First of all, does anyone have a spare moment since school has been out? okay and if you have a spare moment, is it quiet? LOL

finding things different from my cushioned schedule during the school year. Just wanted to commiserate with anyone out there for a moment

So, I guess the first question is:

DISCLAIMER:the above photograph is for laughing purposes only and it is not recommended that you actually save time by bathing your child while you do the dishes. This might even be illegal in some states.

Imagine...
There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do?

Draw out ALL OF IT, of course!

Each of us has such a bank.

Its name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow." You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.


I will point a few things out right now:

#1- I did not make up the above analogy, I am not sure the source honestly. I read it years ago and I liked it a lot.

#2- While I did work for Covey Leadership years ago, I am not here to endorse nor am I licensed to teach Covey principles.

#3- There are basic organization and time management elements that are universal, kinda like a recipe. So I do pull my thoughts / syllabus from a variety of sources. I will always credit those when I can.

#4- My main motivation to share what I know and what I practice and teach is for helping others. As you can see, this blog is a free blog, I am not rich for doing this, so if I step on any one's toes or use something that I am not sure what the source may be, then I apologize ahead of time. I am not here to get rich. I am just here to help.

whew! now that the administrative parts are out of the way, let's get going.

This series of postings that I will be doing are in small parts, so that you can digest a little at at time and if you are a serious student, you can take a week to work on the homework assignments. So part A is just some questions to make you think. We have to do some homework before we can do hands on with a planner sheet exercises.

Question #1- What is your vision for your life? Where do you want to go?

You need to know where you are going if you are going to plan on getting there. Sounds kinda silly but it's the truth.

So I have two writing assignments for you in the next week

HOMEWORK:


A- Write what a perfect day would be like. Include everything you want to do, need to do, dream of doing. Don't limit yourself to a 24 hour period. List things that you really want to be doing. If you want to, make two list. Make a dream / fantasy list and then a more realistic day list.


B- Write about what you would want your memorial service to say about you. Kinda dramatic and a downer, but think about what you would hope you are remembered for.

So, that is it for this week. Take some time for reflection. Good luck and I'll be back next week. Feel free to share with me however you'd like.

Coming up Next week:

Time Management, part B
What picture best describes your current phase of life