Summary::
Hi you guys!
Recently I was challenged to creating an hour-by-hour calendar for me life. If you know me at all, you know planning was never really my forte. I’ve come to know planning as meaning boring. My best friend growing up lived by plans, and I always thought that took the fun out of everything. But now I see that maybe she was onto something because…
I LOVE MY GOOGLE CALENDAR.
I almost feel like a traitor saying that out loud. So, don’t tell anyone. But let me tell you, it has made my entrepreneur lifestyle go from all over the place and stressful to perfectly lined up (almost).
But this didn’t come easy. I was super resistant to the idea. I thought maybe I would just buy cute post-its and that would be a good step. And then I got a trendy weekly planner that had bubbles I can check off. Fun!! When someone mentioned the idea of planning hour by hour, I think I almost had a panic attack for them. Plan out your whole day?! What if something fun comes up? What if something more important comes up? What if…actually you know what, I can’t think of many what-ifs because my freakout was all in my head from years of thinking planning is lame and for the non-spontaneous.
However, I’ve learned that anything I have a lot of resistance to is totally something to be explored more. Think about something in your life you have resistance around…do you even know why you are so resistant to it? If you dig deeper, it may be way different that you expected. Journal on it today!
Continuing on. I started a Google Calendar. Actually, I started iCal first, which was meh. It didn’t really do it for me. Personal preference I suppose. But when my visual self saw that Google offers colored hour blocks for the day, I was ready to dive in. Well, for a week trial. Except, I’m almost embarrassed to admit, before the first day was over, I was hooked. HOOKED! And now, I’m not exactly sure how I ever expected to be productive when I was leaving my days open so that anything could happen.
So, my first piece of advice is to try out a calendar system. What system you prefer doesn’t matter. What does matter is you being able to accomplish of those little things that keep getting missed on your post-it to-do list? Please try out a calendar system, I want to see you take control of your time, and you’ll find you have more than expected!
Okay so onto my real finding. As I kept going a few days with my calendar, I was able to evaluate what was working, what wasn’t, where I need to block more time, and why I wasn’t getting some things done when I should. What I found isn’t some great revelation, but if I had to guess, I’m sure you might be right there with me.
DISTRACTIONS.
I quickly saw that my procrastination takes place in the form of distractions. I sit down to draw and get up way too many times to make a drink or fix myself something to eat. I sit down to create a newsletter and get lost in my email instead. I block out time to read and, seriously every day, found odds and ends more important to do, and I even like to read.
What kinds of distractions are taking away from your productivity? If you don’t know, check in with your calendar in a week.
So once we know about our personal distractions, what do we do? I’ve laid out 5 easy steps to removing them and they are:
1.Add Whitespace in your Calendar
By this, I mean add in blank areas to your schedule. Maybe something will run longer and you’ll need the time, otherwise, it’s always good to allow a bit of a transition period for your brain to jump activities. If nothing else, in this time, take a walk, stretch, and rehydrate.
2. Hire a VA to do what you don’t want to.
Recognize when you continue to procrastinate on something and decide if it’s really worth your time. I recently noticed I was putting off some important research, and decided to hire a Virtual Assistant to research for me.
3. Do your most important things first
It’s no secret we often lag in energy as the day goes on. Get those important things done right away while you have max energy and brain power and aren’t looking for ways to get out of it.
4. Turn off notifications
Are you guilty of allowing your phone to control what you do? Take away some of Facebook’s power by first, getting rid of those ridiculous notifications on your lock screen. Not cool, sorry:) Or better yet, turn your phone on silent and don’t look at it during periods where you should be focusing on yourself, not whoever wants to contact you.
5. Savor the work you’re doing
Be proud of what you are doing and give yourself permission to go all in.Feel it, know what it’s leading towards, and breathe it in.
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