I have been following a few people on Facebook and listening to podcasts regarding time management and productivity. I’ve heard most of the ideas and suggestions they share before, but never really took heed to the suggestions. If I did, it didn’t last very long. A few months ago, I started to consciously put their suggestions into action. Although I still have a lot of work to do, and I am nowhere near a pro at any of this, I thought I would share what has helped me.

1. Plan… everything… even the unplannable

I keep everything on my phone calendar. All the doctor’s appointments, scout meetings and events, webinars I want to watch, outings with friends, birthdays, bills, and everything else goes on my phone calendar. Even if something is on another calendar, that calendar is synced to my phone calendar. Before we started homeschooling, I had the kids’ daily school schedule (what classes they were in and when) on my phone calendar. So when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. The problem is, I would rarely look at my calendar… unless I was adding an event to it. Everything I had to do would (almost always) stay in my head. I never looked at and planned my week every week. Why would I, I already knew what I had to do, right?

A few months ago, I was in an online time-management boot camp. The suggestion/challenge was to sit down every Sunday and plan the next week by using a paper calendar. First, start with the non-negotiable tasks, such as meetings or appointments. Then put down the tasks you need to accomplish. Lastly, put down any other tasks you want to accomplish, but know it’s not the end of the world if you can’t get to them. Maybe write those in pencil. Make sure you leave open space (aka white space) each day. In the beginning, I would suggest “plan” the open space. This would be planning for the unplannable. Leave some room for when that meeting goes longer than expected, or something else comes up and you have to rearrange your schedule. Also, you need some open space, or planned self-care space, to take care of yourself (more on this under number 7).

2. Brain dump

Does your head hurt from storing all the things you have to do and want to do in your head? Does it feel like your junk drawer (you know you have one) looks? Don’t try to keep all the things in your head. Write it down or put it in a note on your phone. When you think of a book you want to read, a project you want to complete, an item you want to buy, or something you want to accomplish in the “near future” write it down. Somehow, someway, get it out of your head. Then when you’re planning your week on Sunday, pull out all your brain-dumped tasks, and see which tasks can be put on your calendar to complete that week. This will also be a good time to see if you want to move any to your to-don’t list.

3. Keep everything in one place

While you’re getting all the tasks, thoughts, wants, needs out of your head, put them in ONE place. Whether it’s writing them down, or putting them in your notes on your phone, or finding an app to put them in, make sure they are all in one central place. Don’t have some tasks on a sticky note, some more on your phone, others in a notebook, and a few more in your head. Personally, I just use my reminders app on my phone. However, there are many apps out there specifically to help with this, or if you’re a paper person, grab a notebook.

4. It’s ok to say no (and you don’t have to give a reason)

Also, you don’t have to apologize for it. Scenario: your friend asks you to dinner, but it’s on the only night of the week that you had white space on your calendar. It is ok to simply say “I can’t make it tonight” and leave it at that. If it makes you feel bad to say no, but you really wanted that time to yourself, then say “I can’t make it tonight, but how about next [insert next available time here].” It is not selfish to protect your open calendar space. It does not mean you love your friends any less either. If you’re like me, friendships are just as important as my self-care. My friendships are literally the reason I am as sane as I am. However, there are just some times I have to tell myself it’s ok to miss out.

5. Time-block – if you wear all the hats at one mace, they will fall over.

What is time-blocking? Well, simply put, it’s blocking off times during the day to where you only have to wear one hat. How many hats do you wear on any given day? Personally, I count about five big hats that could easily be hiding another 20 hats under them. I am a mom, a bookkeeper, an administrative assistant, a direct sales consultant, and a blogger. However, underneath all those hats, I’m also (to name a few) a teacher, a nurse, a chef (well maybe more like a cafeteria worker), a chauffeur, a referee, a house cleaner, a clothes washer, a personal assistant, a marketer, a graphics designer, and more. There are days I have to wear all my hats, but there is no way I can wear them all at once (no matter how hard I try). When I’m planning my week on Sunday evenings, I try to time-block as much as possible. I block out times for my bookkeeping job, then for eating times, for homeschooling times, for blogging time, etc. Naturally, these time-blocks are “drawn” with a soft pencil, because life happens and things have to shift. However, I try really hard to not have my focus on multiple hats at once.

6. You’d be surprised how much you can accomplish in 25 minutes

Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro Technique? You may not have necessarily heard the name, but you probably are familiar with the technique. It’s where you set a timer for 25 minutes and work (on whatever) focused without any distractions. After 25 minutes, you take a 5 min break and then start the cycle over. There are so many apps out there that help you with the steps, but you can also just use a normal timer. When I do this, it seems like I get more done in those focused 25 minutes than I would in a normal hour. I set the timer, usually on my phone, and then turn my phone face down and stay focused until the alarm goes off. If I’m still focused on my task, and not quite finished, I’ll keep working until I finish the task. It’s the simplest yet most effective technique.

7. Fill your cup the right way for you.

What energizes you? What makes you feel better? It’s different for everyone. For some it’s running or exercise, for some being around a lot of people energizes them, for others it’s meditation, and then there some that need a lot of quiet time. There are personality tests out there for you to take to help you decide what type of person you are and what most likely fills your cup. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, I’m an ISFJ. ISFJ stands for Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging. My cup is filled by being alone and quiet. Although I love to be around other people, I’m usually more tired afterward than I normally am.

It is important to know what fills your cup, what energizes you, what makes you feel better. It is also very important to make sure your cup is getting filled every day. It may even be a good idea to start the morning with something that’s for you. I’ve heard it’s better to serve yourself before you serve others. This may be why that morning cup of coffee is so important. I may not always get up early enough to serve myself before I serve others, but there is not a lot that gets done before that first sip of coffee.

8. I feel better and get more accomplished when I have an overly busy schedule

When the pandemic first hit and everything came to such a screeching halt, I didn’t feel like doing anything. My once busily scheduled life had turned into the most boring life. I worked a few hours during the day, but I literally played games on my phone all night. Very little housework got done and so many other things got put off. I wasn’t doing much of anything, and that made me want to do even less which led to me being depressed and unmotivated. As soon as things started picking back up at work, and I started this blog, got back to working my direct sales business, started planning a few scout activities, I started feeling so much better and more housework got done. When I don’t have time to do anything, so much gets done, but when I have all the time in the world, nothing gets done.

9. Busy is not productive

Have you ever had those days where you are exhausted because you’ve been busy all day, but you don’t feel like you accomplished anything? Those are horrible days. It’s like looking at your checking account and saying “where did all my money go?” but instead you’re saying “where did all my time go?” it is just as easy to spend time as it is money and have nothing to show for it. This is why it’s so important to plan. I like to make a list, whether it be handwritten or electronic, and mark tasks complete. That’s one reason I’ve started loving the planning process. When all my tasks were being stored in my head, I didn’t realize I was completing anything. Now, I get to check off completed tasks, and see how productive (and not just busy) I was all day. Being productive is such a good feeling.

10. Stop getting distracted with shiny new things

This is a hard one for me to not do. I love trying out new apps, or apps/software that someone has suggested is “the best for organization” or “the best for time management” even if my current way of doing things has been working just fine. I still have to try it though. 90% of the time, I spend hours trying to get all my tasks transferred over and set up just right, and then realized I like my old way better. I am smart enough though to not delete every item off my old system until I know for sure. For instance, I just found a web and phone app I love and was perfect for planning out my blog and direct sales side of my life. I thought it would be a good idea to have my daily personal/family checklist on there as well (refer back to number 3). However, this software, even though there’s a phone app for it, didn’t send me push notifications when something was due. This is a very important thing for my daily checklist, but not so important for my weekly blogging and direct sales planning.

As you can imagine, I have tried several apps to help with the things I’ve learned. If you would like my honest opinion/review of some time management and/or productivity apps, feel free to ask.