Calendar like a boss.

In 2022 my word of the year was intentional. I had big plans. I’d take my calendar by storm and create even more time to learn and grow while doing ALL the other things. And I kicked off the year right. I was in my daily planner noting the 3 most important things of the day, alert about my schedule and what was coming when.

And yet getting those 3 most important things does was not moving me forward.

So I started a 90 day challenge in July to grow my business. I learned a self coaching model to really become aware of my thinking and how that affected my results. I calendared time to get this done and I did it. Yet still, no real forward motion. Some motion, but I wanted more and I felt like a chicken running around with my head cut off.

One Project at a Time

The thing is though, I was trying to do SO MANY THINGS at once. I was trying to continue my lifting journey and improve, launch my mindset course for kids and get good at it, launch another mindset course for adults, support clients and friends in getting started with Plexus, Nutrition and Mindset coaching clients, homeschool, wife, mom, and the list goes on and on. Really, I was afraid to make a thorough to do list because it was so big. I knew it was too big and I really didn’t want to choose one project at a time. I want them all done now. Yesterday, even. And that is the thing, doing many things at once is called multi-tasking and there is all kinds of behavioral science to prove that multi-tasking slows us down.

Re-discovering Time Blocking & More

After praying and getting seeking sage and wise advice I knew I needed to figure out this time blocking thing. Are you with me? I know you have been through this too. Who has time to do one thing at a time!?

And I felt so silly because I am close to 50 years old and I KNOW HOW TO TIME BLOCK. I did ALL of this with my Google calendar. Free and easy. On the left hand tool bar there is a little button that says more insights. All I had to do was click to create these categories and get more detailed.

But here is the thing. What I needed to see was not when to do what and how to create sections of time to do specific work, I needed to see where I was spending my time. WHAT TASKS are taking up my day?

So instead of categorizing activities, I categorized my priorities. I created categories based on my priorities for time. Creation time, podcast writing, coaching, content creating, social media posting, daily exercise, daily systems…

And I began to categorize my to do list into my calendar under those headings. NOW I can SEE if I am spending time in my priorities. If not, what can I get rid of or what can I move or make more efficient? This has been mind blowing.

And I have done this before! I’ve done this with food journaling. I used the SAME method to look at what I was eating for years and to pick out patterns. I’d look at a week’s glance of the food I was eating and circle matching choices. And my patterns were revealed. From candy time at 2 to 32+ oz of diet coke in most days, my food patterns emerged for me to understand and see. The same thing is possible with time.

When I look at my calendar now, guess what I can see? I can see what IS and what IS not making me money. I can see if I am taking care of myself. I can see how much time I spent in the gym or meditation. It does require upkeep, but I have never experienced a better tool for awareness around how I am spending time.

The New Calendar System

So these days, I set aside time Sunday afternoon or Monday morning for 1 hour and I calendar my week. I take to-do’s from the week before and I plug them in for the following week, and I add new plans. This calendar is never static. It moves and flows and I find that beautiful. I want it to move and flow, and I want to show up when and where I plan to do so. Seeing when and where I am showing up each week shows me what’s happened, and it offers me answers I am seeking when something didn’t get done or I need a spot to plan something new and exciting. I can immediately look and see where I am spending the most time and if that is necessary OR where I WANT to be spending my time!

On Friday afternoons around 4 pm I look over the week and ‘close it out’. I move to do list items forward, delegate or chunk them. This way I do not spend my weekend worrying over what was left hanging. I’ve got this squared away and ready to reload on Monday.