Perhaps this is obvious, but the more I plan my days and my weeks, the better they go. Granted, unlike 99% of the people reading this blog, absent planning, my week includes huge blocks of unscheduled time--thank you, God, I am so lucky.
I engage in 3 levels of planning, monthly, weekly and daily.
1) Once a month I look over the whole month, block out all the regular appointments in my life--things that happen every single week. I also look ahead a few months at what is in the hopper--check out deadlines for things and schedule backwards from them.
2) Once a week, usually Sunday night, I get out my planner and block the week. If the monthly planner did its job, this is easier, because I have left time for the things I always need to do. So, every day I schedule time, literally schedule, for prayer, meditation, reading, writing, exercise, studying, and housecleaning. This usually takes up a total of about 3 hours a day. Then I schedule time for board and volunteer responsibilities, job hunting and errands or what I call do it now. This usually adds another 2-3 hours to the day. And that's my kids' school day right there. I sometimes have 2 to 3 hours left over in a week where I will schedule the luxury of a hair cut or lunch with a friend. Usually after school and evenings are taken up with kids or church activities, but sometimes, as now, the kids are at swim team for large blocks of time and I can get something accomplished or have some fun during that period.
A word on exercise: the exercise really doesn't happen unless I write down when it's happening and what it is, e.g., running, biking, swimming, or Tae Bo. If I just say exercise then I have to figure that out daily and that can be tricky.
3) Daily. Every morning I look over the schedule and make sure it's realistic. In implementing it, and adjusting it, I use Steven Covey's guides as my priority, 1st) urgent and important (e.g. making a speech that I agreed to make), 2nd) non-urgent and important (prayer and meditation, planning, setting a future appointment), 3rd) urgent and unimportant (dropping off something at the dry cleaners, 4) non-urgent and unimportant (most emails).
A word about email. For me, for this strategy to succeed, it is crucial that I delay looking at emails for as long as possible, it is a giant time sink. After I've finished all the important stuff, I can look at emails. This is particular difficult when one of the urgent things is sending out an email. I can be tempted to check my email and often fall into that trap. I am trying to discipline myself into getting in, sending the email, only opening the emails that obviously pertain to the urgent and important activities of the day and getting out. Deferring random email checking to a period of time in which I can quickly respond to emails.
This is also important because if I open an email and read it when I have time to respond, my chances of responding later become sharply diminished so it really is a losing proposition.
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