TIME BLOCKING

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ROBE / NOTEBOOK / PLANNER

TIME BLOCKING. 

Something that has changed my entire life.  We all have the same hours in the day, it’s how we use them thats important.  I was waisting a lot of time doing god knows what.  Ever since having Oaks, being a working mom, having house duties, and keeping my marriage good, I’ve had to really take  step back and look at my time efficiently.  Time management is one of the things I’ve really improved on since becoming a mom.  I wanted to be able to do it all still, so I just figured it out.  I’m going to share step by step how to do this.  The concept is very easy to grasp, but actually doing it, is the hard part.   Lets break it down.   Here is a list of what I time block.  

  1. I make time for one on one time with Oaks.  I put my phone in the other room and leave it on silent.  I will do this for 2 hours in the morning and at night.  If I need to get cleaning done, I’ll have him join in with me and make it fun for him. 
  2. I make time to clean.  
  3. I make time to cook dinner every night.
  4. I make time to meal prep once a week
  5. I make time for alone time with TJ
  6. I make time to get my most important work done every day aka this blog post for you guys!!
  7. I make time for myself
  8. Most importantly I make time for my family
  9. I make time to chill out (this is important if you really want to kill it hard all week)
  10. Of course working out

Step 1: PRIORITIZE:   Look at your day and grab a notepad. Then write down hour by hour what you did that day.  After that,  go over it the next day, or that night and see whats a priority and whats not.  Then write down what you want to get done and focus only on that.  

Step 2: SET YOUR TIMER:  Once you’ve done that, then here is when it gets fun.  If your phone is the biggest distraction in the world, set it in the other room, but set your timer, on the microwave, phone, whatever.  Start with task 1 and give yourself 30 mins-3 hrs to do it.  Whatever time you want really, then DONT DO ANYTHING ELSE BUT THAT TASK, for however long you decide to set your timer for.  Then once that timer goes off, you can take a break before the next thing, or go right into your next task.

This is so effective!  I do this for all those 9 things I just listed.  I don’t literally set my timer for some of those, but I definitely recommend doing it for the first little while, until you’re used to it.  Or whatever is distracting you from family time, put it in the other room.  Like your phone,  set it in the other room while you’re trying to get something done, or spending quality time with family.  My phone is the biggest distraction, so I have to shut it off sometimes when I really need to focus. 

BUT have self control and make sure you at least make a dent in the project you’re wanting to get done.  You can do it in 20 minute increments too.  So set your timer for 20 mins and then what will happen is, once that timer goes off, you’ll be deep into it and wont want to take a break.  It works, I swear.  

2 THINGS I ESPECIALLY TIME BLOCK ARE…

  1. My work (projects, emails, answering questions, dms etc)
  2. Cleaning

AGAIN: Set my timer, lets say, for an hour.  Clean as fast as possible, or do my work as fast as possible and nothing else, until that timer goes off!

I swear to you, this is how I get shit done.  It works so well!  Multitasking is distracting and makes you half ass your work.  Focus on one thing at a time to fully put all your energy into that one thing, doing it right the first time, and nicely done.   This also has helped me live in the present moment more, rather than thinking of 10 thousand things I’ve got to get done.  Focus one at a time, and pay attention to that one thing, then onto the next thing. 

Being present is something you have to work on, it’s a muscle you’ve got to exercise all day long, in order for you to fully live in the moment.  I’ve been mediating for 10 minutes every morning with my Headspace app.  Thats a whole other blog post, but it’s so awesome!  It really helps!  Once I’m about a month in, I’ll do a post about it for you guys.

Anyways, who else time blocks?  Any tricks you want to share?

Let me know how you liked this post! 

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XOXO,

SARA LYNN