Time Management – for teens who do more than most! PART III
On a piece of paper (this is your rough outline first) timetable in ALL of the NON-NEGOTIABLE activities you do on a daily basis. These are things that CANNOT move and will be there for your foreseeable future.
For example:
Monday
8:30-3:00pm School
4:00-6:00pm Dancing
Tuesday
7:00-8:00am Band Practice
8:30-3:00pm School
Wednesday
8:30-3:00pm School
3:00-4:00pm Swimming lesson
You get the drift. These are the items that, for the most part, will not change. From here, on a separate piece of paper, create 2 columns. The first column is headed ‘What I currently do’ and the second column is ‘What I need to add.’ In the first column you are writing down absolutely EVERYTHING you do. I mean everything. This is the column where we figure out how and where these items can be timetabled into your weekly schedule. Even include things like washing your hair and the frequency in which you need to do these things. For example: Wash my hair x 3, Homework at least 6 hours, Make my bed daily, clean the bathroom once a week. This is a brain dump. No item is wrong. Write everything that comes to mind!
The second column can be filled with things that you aren’t currently doing, but feel like you really need to include. They can be school, dance or self focused. This column can get a little out of hand so make sure you are realistic here. Options like; extra time for assignments (at least 4 hours per week), time for myself to read a book, once a week family time, stretching twice a week, bedroom tidy up – are all great options. What you choose shouldn’t be overly outlandish BUT items needed and realistic for your weekly routine and quality of life.
Once these 2 columns are complete – go to your first column and read it carefully. Is there anything in that column that you are currently doing that either A: you don’t need to do, B: you can cut down on the TIME spent doing it or C: delegate to someone else to do??? This is the first culling portion of this exercise. Remove items, or decrease the amount of time that is wasted on that item or pass over anything that someone else can do to help relieve your weekly burden. Once your two columns include what you believe you need to accomplish within a ‘normal’ week, we can begin the timetabling.
You must start with the first column. These are the items that need to be in your routine. Look for space in your week. Sometimes you may not realise it’s there until you do this exercise. You will find yourself saying ‘Oh look at that. I never realised I had 30mins there where I’m really not utilising my time efficiently. I could do [insert task] here!’ You get my drift. Once this portion is completed, look to your second column and begin to schedule these items. This one is a little tricker as they aren’t currently items within your normal week – BUT you want to make time for them. See how you go. Put as many in as your schedule will allow. Once your schedule is done, print it out and pop it on your wall. Take pictures of it so you can access it from your phone when you aren’t home. This is the draft of your new life.
Now here’s the important part. Rolling the timetable out practically, rather than just on paper. For the first couple of weeks, try to adhere to the timetable as best you can. You will start to realise whether you have allocated sufficient time for certain tasks, or too much for others. Take notes!! This is the trial period. This is where you can practically asses what does and does not work. Be disciplined with yourself though – and really do your best to stick to the time frames. This will become easier once you start realising that you are accomplishing more than what you ever have before. Its exciting and is definitely a motivator for staying on track. Once you have been on track for for a solid few weeks, you can then make any ‘final’ changes to your timetable to reflect the notes you have taken. Then reprint it – and make it pretty so it really does reflect the ‘plan for success’ in your life.
Now let’s be realistic. Not every week is going to be your ‘normal’ week. Things are going to pop up all over the place that will throw your schedule out – because they are out of your control; eisteddfod schedules, cheer comps, weddings, parental birthday dinners, cousins visiting from overseas etc etc. We need to already know and accept that this will happen from time to time and we need to be able to deal with it. Remember – during those weeks, the most important shift that you will need to make is to ensure that those ‘brain heavy’, ‘high priority’, ‘most important’ tasks are still getting completed. In those weeks, something else from our schedule my have to give or move over to ensure we are still completing those very important tasks. This will ensure that you don’t fall behind on the things that matter the most.
On the flip side, you will also have school holidays where your timetable suddenly frees up a large portion of time where school is normally scheduled. Holidays, believe it or not, can be timetabled too. Why not?! When it gets closer to the holidays plan out (using the exact format above) what you will do and accomplish over the 2 weeks you have off. How great will it be knowing that you have scheduled time to catch up with this person and spend time with that person – and even complete some tasks that you haven’t been able to do during a normal school term?
By having a clear plan for how you manage you life – you are eliminating stress in huge amounts. This is because you KNOW that you have TIME to get everything done. You don’t have to worry about when you are going to complete that assignment, because the time you require has already been scheduled. You don’t have to feel down about not having ‘me’ time, or ‘family’ time, or any down time at all – because you have already scheduled it. There is something rather freeing about being rigid with your time. Sometimes people look at this process and feel stressed and think that this would increase anxiety levels – but it does the complete opposite. You relax – knowing that you have everything under control. You can rest in the fact that your timetable has set you free.
Now go ahead and DO IT! This could be the huge breakthrough that you need to really do something amazing in your life. Follow the steps, asks questions in the blog comments below and always know that I will share my knowledge and advice with anyone who asks. This is something that I’m really passionate about, because I believe that all young people should be able to do what they are good at and strive to achieve greatness – without feeling overwhelmed, crazily stressed or worse still – giving up. Here’s a re-cap on what we covered:
A failure to plan is a plan to fail
Why time management is so important
Life is designed to be ONE BIG distraction
Accessing motivation and will power
Socially – you can’t do everything your friends do
Time is time – you can’t change it, it is about how you use it
Having enough discipline to create a routine
Time blocking
Creating a new routine
Managing your new routine
How your timetable will set you free
I can’t wait to hear how this has worked for you.