How to Move from Chaos into Owning Your Time
1. Write down your goal
2. Break down goals into specific tasks
3. Learn how to manage distractions using (write, organize, and prioritize system)
4. Schedule
5. Set a time-sensitive reminder
6. Write down why this task is essential (consequence or reward)
7. Designate blocks of time for specific re-occurring tasks
8. Day, Week, Month, Year
One of the most frustrating truths is the inability to do the things that are important to you.
This blog trains the inattentive brain to own one's time. This is one of the most essential skills that must be mastered. At the core of mental health is a strong self-image supported by accomplishments and challenges one has undertaken on their life journey. A positive self-image is linked to a track record of accomplishments. The good news, learning how to get things done is not a mystery but a skill. A skill that can be broken down into eight steps.
Creating Momentum
The brain is like a bicycle. It needs movement to stay in balance. Movement is created by providing a sense of direction. The feeling of accomplishment is connected with knowing what to do and doing it well repeatedly. The inattentive brain is easily distracted, has difficulty with task transitions, and frequently procrastinates. The next challenge is to recognize that we might be good at getting things done for someone else, but when it comes to your own life, deep down inside, you know that owning your time is only a wish. Sounds familiar? If so, keep reading.
Write down your goal
The first step is defining a clear goal. If you are not sure where to start, consider the following goal. I want to learn how to own my time by improving my sleep, physical health and staying on top of administrative responsibilities. Once a goal is defined, write it down. Holding your goal in your head is not enough. The goal needs to be clear, meaningful, and essential to you.
Remember to write your goal down where it's visible to you daily.
Break down goals into specific tasks.
Now it's time to break down the goal into doable tasks. The way to accomplish any goal is by building momentum connected with knowing what to do and when. Let's come back to our goal and create specific objectives. When you set a goal of owning your time, there are specific things you want to identify and build tasks around. For example, improving sleep hygiene can be broken into cut-off screen time by 9 pm, bed by 9:30 pm, and reading a book between 9:30 pm-10 pm, Sunday-Thur. Another example is going to the gym, broken down into 3x 45-minute weekly sessions starting at 6:30 am Mon, Wed, and Fri.
Breaking the goal down into manageable tasks
Set specific triggers that will remind you when you are starting and ending a task until a habit is formed.
Own Your Day
Start with planning out your day. Consider a night before or first thing in the morning; you return to your written goals and identify what you want to accomplish for the day. The suggestion is to start from the most difficult and work your way back to the least complicated. The reasoning is that your energy is finite. You are likely spending most of your energy avoiding the most challenging task for the end or have spent doing things for others, leaving only the last reserve for yourself. If you leave the most challenging task until the end, the chances it will not be done go up exponentially. Remember, owning your time is not neglecting your goals.
Start your day with clear goals.
Write your goals down.
Remember to leave the most crucial task to do when you have the most energy to do it.
Learning to manage distractions
Throughout your day, you will be distracted. Plan for it. Part of the frustration is not setting realistic expectations and lacking a system to help you address this reality. If you set clear and specific goals for the day, part of the battle is done by taking this step. Just like the weeds grow where there is no grass, your brain will find distractions if you do not provide clear guidance on what must be done. Moreover, you must let go of reacting to the world around you. Answering emails every time a new email pings your desktop or phone, picking up your phone every time it rings, or saying yes to things that are less on the priority list. Learning to say no, is a new habit that must be cultivated. Lastly, a system comes in handy if your brain sends you an intriguing idea, reminder, or what you forgot to do or someone else asks you something. Here is the system you can follow
Internal Demands Create an Impulse to switch your focus
Create categories for recurring tasks here are some examples below and write things into the categories where the tasks belong
Admin
Family
Friends
Schedule a time to return to the list and schedule tasks according to the priority.
External Demands Created an Impulse to switch your focus
Acknowledge the person who interrupted you and let them know they are important.
Politely assess the priority, cross-referencing your schedule and your current priority list.
Assign tasks according to the priority list and let the person know when you can address their need.
Schedule
Anything and everything that you see around you that is worth admiring does not happen overnight. Such things are planned, broken down into sub-parts, and scheduled on a calendar. Do not forget that skipping this step will lead to failure in accomplishing what you want. The inattentive brain does not like to plan a limiting belief that must be updated: "If I plan things, life will be boring, robotic, and I will not have time to do what I want." The truth of the matter is that you can only do the things that you want to do in life if you learn how to plan and get things done, which includes learning how to be efficient with your time, saying no to low-priority things, and others who want to steal your time intentionally or not, getting things done quickly and planning out your free time to do what you want.
Let go of the limiting belief you do not need to schedule
Learn to schedule tasks that are in alignment with your goals
Your goals will only pick up momentum when you schedule the tasks associated with your goals
Setting Time-Sensitive Triggers and Define Clear Reward/Consequences
Placing tasks on a calendar is very important. However, one must caution that things will be missed if you are not trained to look at your calendar. Therefore to avoid missing important tasks, you need to design a trigger that reminds you when you need to do the task and why it's essential, specifying the reward/consequence associated with the task to avoid setting a mental snooze button.
Remember to design a trigger that will bring your focus to the task you scheduled
Make sure you are aware of the consequence/reward associated with the task
Writing down consequences/reward help reinforce follow through
Own your day, week, month, year
Setting a daily goal and building momentum will be challenging enough in the beginning. You are encouraged to start there. Once you build momentum with owning your day, challenge yourself to move to owning your week by planning out your week. Proceed to plan our your month. Once you are at this point, the next level is planning your year. As you can see, there is always a challenge you can take this skill to the next level. Do not jump ahead of yourself, and learn to respect the level you are currently working to master. The race is only against the last version of yourself and no one else.
Start with owning your day.
Proceed to own your week.
Challenge yourself to own your month
Shoot for excellence to own your year
Designate blocks of time for specific re-occurring tasks
Once you can see past your daily activities and start aiming for owning your week, you will see the cyclical nature of things and have an opportunity to schedule recurring blocks of time. An example would be scheduling, checking and processing mail, doing household repairs, shopping, etc. Now you have been introduced to the mentalmap to owning your time. Remember, there are always two maps. Knowing what to do and doing the work is not the same. You are now encouraged to work on building the behavioral map to owning your time. Be patient with yourself. If you need support, we are here for you. Sometimes it may be difficult to determine your triggers and work towards being more positive, and hopeful and have the energy to devote to this area. In that case, schedule a free consultation by clicking the link below for additional support. Share this blog with someone else who you think can benefit from these tips. We also encourage you to sign up for free weekly tips, tools, and strategies by clicking the other link below.
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