Challenge for week fifteen: Conduct a time audit.
Have a look at what you currently have on your to do list, what is in
your calendar, what activities you are involved in, commitments you have
made. Do these reflect the values you
identified in the goals you set? How
much of your time is spent ‘above the line’?
Think about what might need to go to make room for what you really want
in life – to achieve the vision you have set for this year – or what changes
can be made to your routines and activities to make room.
Interesting one this one.
In the process or getting your head around ‘time
management’, which the next four or five challenges are focused on, we have to
look at how we’re currently managing our time.
I don’t know about you, but I use to spend a lot
of time running around trying to cram as much into my day as possible. I’d dread a day where I’d felt that I was
just sitting around reading or watching telly, because upon reflection, I felt
that I’d wasted it. In reality, it was
down time for me, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
However, guilt steps in and you feel like you’ve
done something wrong because you’ve taken time for yourself.
Here’s a tip: we don’t have to spend every
waking moment of our lives running around after everyone else. At some point, we have to stop and take care
of ourselves.
That is nothing to feel guilty about.
Look at it like this; if we spend all of our
time running around after everyone else and accommodating all of their needs,
and neglect ourselves, we will crash. What
good are we to anyone, let alone ourselves, if we crash?
We must take time for ourselves.
So, part of this challenge is about focusing on
what’s important to you (which again, refers us back to goal setting and the
wheel of balance stuff from previous challenges) and puts them in some kind of
priority.
Time management is not about cramming as much as
possible into one day: it’s about having a day filled with things that we want to do, whilst still managing to
address the things we have to do.
It’s about balance.
For example; no one wants to spend half an hour
paying the bills. Gaaa… what a boring
and unrewarding job that is. However, it
has to be done. If we procrastinate
around this task, ignore it and put it off, all of a sudden it becomes and
urgent problem and takes up more time (and creates more stress) than we really
need it to do.
Our life should be a balance of doing the shit
we want to do, and these little tasks are simply peppered through it as one of
life’s necessities.
Deb, the creator of the 52 week challenge, talks
about a time management matrix created by a gentleman called Stephen Covey,
called ‘the four quadrants’.
Basically, this matrix carves up your ‘time
management’ life into four sections.
Thinks that are important or of value that are both urgent and not
urgent (first two), and thinks that are not important, that are also urgent and
not urgent.
I’ve attached a copy of my own quadrant that I
created, so you’ll get the drift.
Now, this is not gospel according to Stephen
Covey, but it runs along the same theory, and it works for me.
You see, in quadrant number one are the things
that are a priority to me at this point in time. My health, gym/water aerobics, my diet, my
relationship with Charlie and any emergencies that pop up, no matter what they
are. These are the ‘big things’ that
will take a front seat at all times.
These are the things that my life will revolve around.
You will note that ‘work’ is not listed
here. I see work as a necessary evil;
something that I must do to fund my lifestyle.
This matrix is about what I do with my down time.
The second quadrant are things that are no so
urgent, but still important to me.
Secondary things that I enjoy, and when the big things are done, this is
what I focus on.
I love updating my Facebook recipe page, my
blog, watching the odd television show (love the cooking channel), reading,
gardening, CWA and looking after Mum.
These are the things that bring joy to my life.
The third quadrant is things that are not a
priority to me, but have to be done. I
have to keep on top of the household and my personal finances, and I have to do
jobs around the house. That’s life. However, they’re not going to be a dominating
part of it.
The fourth quadrant, to me, represents things
that I really don’t want in my life at all, but are there none the less.
In reality, we can’t control the impact of other
people on our lives. People will be
negative; they will be drama queens, and they will endeavour to dump their
problems on you instead of dealing with it themselves. These things are inevitable, but instead of
them controlling my life, as they have in the past, I’m pushing them as far out
of my circle of influence as I possibly can.
Time management is about taking care of the
important stuff first, and in this sense, by ‘important stuff’, I mean the
stuff that’s important to me and the goals I’ve set for myself in this
challenge.
I found this quadrant matrix very interesting,
because what you see here is not what I started with. It’s helped me clearly see what has to be a
priority for me; what I need to be spending the majority of my time focusing
on, and what’s actually dragging me down.
When I have the big stuff under control, I can
bring in the little things, like the stuff in quadrant two. They are not as important as the other
things, but again, they give my life some joy.
It’s time to start living ‘above the line’ in
quadrant one and two. Above the line.
I’m not 100% convinced that I have my head
around this challenge fully yet, but I think over the next few weeks, as I
press forward with the other challenges, this one will fall into place.
Mmm…. Not meant to be easy, is it?
Peace out.
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