Schedules provide the framework for our days, weeks, and months.\u00a0 These schedules outline our obligations and then around these other appointments, we see the time remaining for accomplishing other things.\u00a0 What the schedule looks like for each of us can vary dramatically \u2013 if we\u2019re working, are the hours consistent or varied?\u00a0 How many appointments do we have for this day\/week\/month?\u00a0 Theoretically when we commit to other people to be somewhere and do something, we want to follow through \u2013 so all these obligations affect the time we have available for everything else.\u00a0 And simply having a schedule does not magically mean your time is maximized.<\/p>\n
First, I\u2019d encourage you to recognize that you have a schedule \u2013 whether you\u2019re working or not, whether you keep a record of it anywhere or not, whether you\u2019re on summer break or not, etcetera \u2013 some people discount their having the schedule\/framework based on their situation.\u00a0 Do you know anyone whose schedule doesn\u2019t have some appointments on it?\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a single person.\u00a0 Even the most relaxed retired people still have commitments and appointments.\u00a0 Therefore, we all have that framework around which we manage other tasks and priorities.\u00a0 Also, think about how you like to focus on your schedule \u2013 is it per day, per week, or per month?\u00a0 It\u2019s important to have a sense of what the upcoming days, weeks, and months bring, yet we tend to focus most on one of them \u2013 for me it\u2019s weekly.<\/p>\n
Second, consider whether your schedule reflects your priorities.\u00a0 Some people thrive on having a schedule that is full of all their passions while others become overwhelmed to have \u201ctoo many\u201d things on their docket.\u00a0 This is why it\u2019s about exploring whether your priorities and schedule get along.\u00a0 Are you saying \u201cyes\u201d to too many voluntary appointments?\u00a0 Are you filling your schedule so full that there\u2019s not enough time for quality time with family or personal rejuvenation?\u00a0 Quite often there are appointments that aren\u2019t negotiable \u2013 we need to work or other things.\u00a0 Yet what else is making it onto your schedule \u2013 are you being conscious and deliberate about what you agree to?<\/p>\n
Third, remember that time is limited.\u00a0 On one level we all know this and you might think I\u2019m silly to make a point about this.\u00a0 Yet it\u2019s all too easy to discount the time required for our appointments (and the potential for delays with them) and forget to consider the time for the \u201cbasics\u201d of eating and bathing.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that these later items need a place on our schedules or to-do lists, rather when we look that the schedule of what we\u2019re doing today, we might not factor these into it.\u00a0 There are 168 hours each week and if we get 8 hours of sleep each night that brings the total down to 112 hours a week.\u00a0 How many hours are accounted for within your schedule (including the drive time)?\u00a0 The amount of time remaining is the starting point for what else you will have time for \u2013 as well as what you simply won\u2019t have time for this week (or day or month).<\/p>\n
Finally, get curious and experiment, experiment, and experiment some more.\u00a0 If you find yourself dissatisfied with how your schedule and tasks are functioning for your life, consider approaching it differently.\u00a0 Or even if you\u2019re satisfied, there might be a way to improve things. There are so many opinions and options for managing your schedule and time \u2013 and this is an important place to begin in order to maximize your life.\u00a0 I\u2019ll talk about some ideas soon.\u00a0 Remember our schedule is the framework for making space for our priorities \u2013 and it is up to each of us to define what that means and looks like for us as an individual.<\/p>\n
I appreciate the structure that schedules provide \u2013 the clear guidelines of my commitments.\u00a0 The framework of the schedule delineates what other tasks may or may not be possible. Our schedules need to be reflections of our high priorities \u2013 whether that is simply working to earn money \u2013 at least a reflection of some<\/strong> of our high priorities.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t have other equally (or greater) high priorities.\u00a0 Our schedules are the framework for navigating within as we identify and make time for our other things we value and need.\u00a0 Honor thy schedule and use it to identify the time you have for everything else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most of the time schedules comfort me, giving me the outline of my commitments \u2013 and if we think about them as the framework for the rest of our priorities, we can begin to get a handle on managing our time successfully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[10,8,18,22],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-timemanagement","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-productivity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-p6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}