Time Management Tips

“He’s making a list, checking it twice! Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.”

While Santa may still be getting his list ready for Christmas time, he isn’t the only one who should have a list and check it twice. Today we are going to talk about how keeping a list is going to help you with time management.

Do you ever feel like you just have too much to do at the end of each day, or every task you thought you were going to do got piled on at the end of the week? I know I have gone through seasons of disorganization where I let life happen to me instead of taking just a minute to sort out my priorities.

When I started my fitness journey, I was a busy person. I had just recently gotten married, was working, and keeping up with daily life in general. It was absolutely hard to carve out the time to workout and make my health a priority. I had to make a new routine.

Then in April I started coaching with Beachbody while still working my regular job. I didn’t drop any duties, but picked up something new. Now it wasn’t something that I have gone into lightly, and I have actually found that my time is more organized now than it was before I started my journey.

How is that possible? A list, my friends. A list.

Every week I create a list of tasks that I need to get accomplished. They range from simple, like grocery shopping and cleaning, to more complex tasks that have to do with my business.

Let’s try a simple activity, shall we? Grab a piece of paper (or if you are more technologically inclined, open up a notepad on your phone), and write out all the tasks you need to accomplish this coming week. This could be chores, appointments, projects, etc.

For me, I put down things like: meal plan, meal prep, grocery shop, write three blogs, vacuum, clean the bathroom, clean the kitchen, do laundry, call three people, create a new curriculum, and send someone an encouraging note, plan a surprise for my husband.

These tasks are actually fairly regular tasks in my week, and are things that must be done outside of my regular daily routine (quiet time, working out, spending time with my husband, working my business, etc). Now, imagine if you had let all of these tasks slip by until your weekend. You would feel overwhelmed, wouldn’t you? I know I would, and have!

Now, your next step is to break it down over your entire week. When you divide and conquer and make each day have it’s own goals, I have found that a lot more can be accomplished.

What I do is grab a piece of notebook paper and put seven small post it notes across the paper, each representing a different day. I take the tasks from my list and divide it up, and usually end up with about 2-4 tasks per day, depending on the week.

This simple exercise allows you to have a plan and a goal for how you want your week to go, and what you want to accomplish. Now don’t get hung up on the list. Life will happen, and some things may need to be switched around. But at least you have a plan, and you know written in front of you what you want to accomplish every single day.

Every day I check my list in the morning so I know what my intentions need to be set to, and I check it at night to make sure I finished what I needed to. I encourage you to give it a try for a full week and see what happens!

What are some of your regular tasks for the week? Let’s hear them below!