- Coach Alicia Byers
Resetting Your Time Management Habits
Today I’d like to share a bit about the season I’m in right now. It’s been difficult, but I’m not sharing it to garner your pity.
I believe you’ll be able to relate to the chaos, even if you have different things going on at your place.
But rather than just “vent” today I’ll be talking about a plan of attack that I’ll be using to assess what’s actually going on in life, and then move forward productively!
Do you ever go through seasons that you realize “something” is missing but you don’t know what?
Or you know something has to change - you may even know what it is that has to change - but you don’t do anything about it?
Or, even worse, you’re living in “frantic mode” - you can’t stop thinking about work, your heart races, you’re always ON!
If you’re there, and it’s not ok with you, either, let’s do something about it…
Introducing the time tracker system
This is something I use in my coaching business - super simple but does require some intentional effort. It’s a 5-7 page document that will allow you to see how you really spend your time (‘cause oftentimes our feelings don’t give us an accurate picture). Through going through this activity, you’ll get clear and aware of what’s really going on during your day.
On the tracker, your time is divided up into 30-minute increments. For each time period, you describe, as honest as you can, what you did during that time. Personally, I’m going to look at the time spent (and you might choose different things, depending on your needs and business):
coaching my clients
doing off-season work (working ON the business)
on Sales, and
prospecting and getting to know new people
Knowing these ratios will give me the data to come up with a plan for making my work fit in with my life!
Something surprising you might discover
In a recent podcast episode, I shared an experience I had recently about cutting off social media for a week. I made some surprising - and not so pleasant - discoveries about myself:
I realized that this is a BIG problem in my life
That the solution is going to be a process, and take awhile
That I need a mindset overhaul, as well
That it’s affecting my work hours and my life in general.
So, I’ll be using this tool for a week, and I invite you to try it with me!
At the end of the week, let’s process the data
Take a look at the actual hours you’re working. (I know sometimes it feels like you’re working ALL the time, but looking at the actual data will give you the real picture.)
Think about:
How many hours are you actually working?
How many hours do you want to work?
How do you want that time broken up?
What things regularly get in your way?
The awareness we gain from this tool may mean we have to try different strategies, and that’s a good thing. Because then they’ll be based on what we actually know we have to change.
Make sure you note when you rest, too, friend, ‘cause we know “good rest fuels great work!”
(And follow the podcast so you don’t miss next week’s episode, where I give you the results from my time-tracking experiment!)
Grab the tracker above or by clicking here.
Listen to the entire episode here to listen to a deeper discussion of this topic…
If we haven’t met already, find me on Instagram @coachaliciabyers