How To Get Super-Organised And Accountable For Your Time Spending?
You wake up totally inspired! The sun is shining though your bedroom window and its gonna be a beautiful day! You’ve got a million things to do and you’re gonna conquer them all.
- Reality Check!
There’s only so many hours in a day and sleeping, eating, school, work and social interaction have already penciled themselves into your invisible planner. You may think otherwise but regardless of what you think, those things will creep back in and consume the hours of your every day and thats just the beginning.
Then there’s the issues we have to face day in, day out and problems we have to solve that we would much rather, throw in our way too hard basket. But we have to start somewhere and starting with a little can grow into a lot.
2. The Time Spending Accountability Exercise:
Being accountable for the time we have in a day is a skill in itself and is as important as learning how to best spend you money. Let’s look at each of these separately to better understand and gain some clarity:
Firstly, I have $100 and have the choice to save it for a rainy day or I could…Save $50 this week and invest the remaining $50 on myself as follows:
- I could download a book from audible to learn more about something I am interested in (such as how to books, memoirs, educational and success books that will allow me with self development and more.)
- I could download some songs from I-tunes and enjoy listening or dancing to them (to lift my spirits, get me moving and even get hold of the backing tracks or karaoke tracks so that I can practice my singing. We all know practice makes perfect!)
- I could book in for a virtual or an in person lesson or class (to help nurture myself and my passion of singing, boxing, painting or how to do just about anything. The skies the limit when you get clear on your calling or what helps with health and wellbeing.)
- I could buy a domain name and set up a website (to work towards launching my personal artist brand, chef brand, or marketer brand or for just about anything using a website builder.)
- I could buy plant seedlings and grow my own vegetable garden in under a month (allowing me to cut down my groceries bill weekly cost. I could even start a blog and share what I learnt along the way with other people.)
Or instead, I could splurge on a million quick fixes such as:
- Take out, Chocolate, Donuts (where I will feel great for a moment at the expense of my waistline with this guilty pleasure.)
- Online spending (and yes I am only too aware of the fact that I could open up my own Decjuba Store from the heart of my own bedroom wardrobe! We accumulate more than what is needed, as a was of feeling better about ourselves. The key is to invest in yourself in ways where you will get better value for money by nurturing yourself and not so much on the the material things.)
- Surfing sites like Facebook Marketplace, Ebay or Gumtree just to name a few (hoarding up everything and anything just for the sake of it. You know that thing I call ‘being busy, just being busy!’ We’ve all done it and some of us are still doing it and we are getting bogged down under all that junk that is adding to our mess.)
- Stocking up on more than what is needed just in case. (Well, you could be forgiven for this one. We all know the toilet paper shortage of 2020 in Australia was the talk of the world a few months back as the Covid-19 unfolded into a Global Pandemic.)
3. How can I make myself accountable for my time spending?
Now let’s turn the tables around from spending money, to the ways we are spending our time. Each day you have 24 hours to spend. Be accountable for how you spend your time to work towards what matters most to you and getting things done and being fulfilled. Otherwise, you may just blow it all and feel rather empty on the inside.
4. Getting super-organised!
You could block up your hours into specific groups and then allocate a time frame to each in order to better understand where all your time goes. Then you can better manage the results you will be able to achieve each day, making a huge difference over time just by making a few changes:
- Family Chores (making lunches, cooking up dinner meals, washing clothes, Supermarket Shopping, running errands can be easily managed by batching up tasks and mapping out your travel to get a number of things done in a more orderly fashion.)
- Delegating Chores (like do your own bed, clean up your own room, make your own breakfast, put your clothes away, helping with dishes, helping to unload the supermarket shopping, washing the cars, washing the dog are all part running a household and many hands will make the whole routine less of a burden.)
- Uber Mum or Dad (with school drop offs and pick ups, after school activities and classes, rehearsal and much more can be shared to help the day flow better and also to save on fuel that will also benefit our planet.)
- Get your workspace organised with what is needed (file away the rest and priorities and get things done with minimal distractions. Know what your daily tasks are and work towards you outcomes. Stick to your timelines and meet you deadlines.)
- Get your home space organised (by setting up your work space and getting equiped with the essential tools needed to operate from home (including a Computer, Printer, Stationery, Filing System, Office furniture. Then moving forward with a Website or E-Commerce site is the new norm but and with that came Online Meeting & Conferencing Platforms, Virtual Classes and Webinars on Zoom, Skype and FaceTime to help manage our day to day communications.)
- Using free time at School to get homework done (to free up time to do extra curricular activities of interest that will also have health benefits to get you up and moving and release those feel good endorphins.)
- Managing your time and maintaining balance in your life so that you can give more of yourself as a Volunteer or Carer (that can be both rewarding as it can be challenging.)
- Family Time (quality time with family and catch up with friends. Investing time to build solid relationships that will be there to support you and you to support them. We all need to be grounded.)
5. Getting the mundane things done!
If we can get super-organised then we can get the mundane things done quickly and free up more time in our days to focus on doing what you love or what will attribute to fulfilment:
- Cooking a bigger batch of Home made sauce, risotto, minestrone, curry’s, boiled rice and freezing it up in containers so you have stock pile of quick delicious and healthy meals.
- Preparing Chicken or beef Snitzel, battered fish, meatballs are not only handy to have ready to go but make a great pub meal dinner when you add a side salad, vegetables, chips or rice to it.
- Another favourite is our home made Italian Style Chicken Soup. You may have your traditional dishes that have that home feeling attached to it that you can make up in large pots. Then the stock can also be added to make other meal dishes like a risotto or asian soups or just team up with the chicken and vegetables and noodles to turn it into a full meal.
- Having a garden of home grown produce is awesome but obviously not for everyone. So get your fresh produce and stock up on some frozen vegetable as back up and also for quick meals to save time.
- Washing clothes while you are doing home chores works really well. If you are working from home then you can multi-task.
- Using the sunny days to your advantage is important to help with climate change. Put the clothes out and magically bring then in dry in no time. This will also cut down ironing time to almost nothing if you take them out of the washing machine as soon as the cycle is complete.
- I could have my husband play Uber dad some mornings, dropping off the kids on his way to work, helping me to be more productive on my busier days and also save on fuel.)
- I could listen to an audible book in the car after School drop offs and also when I’m taking my morning walk to help me get motivated and gain momentum to help super-charge the rest of my day.
Suddenly, you have cooking time down to a minimum and can still spend your days cooking if you have the time. You also have your house chores allocated and delegated. You’re managing the travel part of your day, while still helping yourself to learn, listen and feel good on the way. Its about multi-tasking and prioritising first and streamlining next.
The best part is that now “The juggle becomes less of a struggle and you have free’d up some of the hours of your day!” So now the balls in your court and you are accountable for how you spend your time in the same way you would be accountable for spending the $100 you have to get more out of your everyday and wear that smile on your face!
Nancy D’Agostino
Day 7 — Write 365 Blogs In One Year Challenge! Starting 28/10/2020
