Need Help Balancing Your Schedule? Borrow This Framework to Get Started.
Alex Barilec
Leadership Coach I ICF Certified Coach (ACC) I Helping new educational people leaders repair institutional cultures by developing engaged and effective team leaders.
Let's assume that your time is worth $50/hr. Maybe you're being compensated that or maybe you're not (and if not, it's likely your time is worth at least that much).
A study done by USwitch, and shared in Forbes, highlighted the use of social media for Americans over the past year.
They found on average Americans spent 1,300 hours on social media.
Read that again.
1,300 hours!
That's over 10% towards Malcolm Gladwell's infamous 10,000 hours required to be an expert in just 1 year.
Now imagine your time is worth $50 per hour and you wasted 1,3000 hours in 2020 (that may be a vast underestimate, but useful for our purposes here).
That comes to the equivalent of $65,000. OR $178 EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Where Do We Go From Here?
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
– Yogi Berra
As we've covered in Part 1 and Part 2 of this scheduling series the starting blocks are to determine what is essential and then systematically reduce to distraction to focus our attention on those activities. Easier said that done.
One thing that is apparent with everyone I work with is that when it comes to scheduling everyone wants to jump to the finish line. They want the perfect structure they can overlay into their life that will magically make them feel happy, joyful and like they have more time than they know what to do with.
Sorry burst your bubble, but it doesn’t exist.
In fact, without establishing ‘What is Essential’ like we did in Part 1 of this series and building frameworks focused on ‘Reducing Distraction’ in Part 2 any template you borrow will be futile at best.
It is only when we have the clarity of what is most important, coupled with the mental strength to control our attention, and we have redesigned our environment that we are ready to begin.
Once we’ve got a clear definition of our why and how, we can develop our what.
?Schedule Your Life for Success
Below is a general framework you can use to build a schedule that will you help create tangible increases in productivity, performance, and well-being in your life.
Start slow, go easy, get feedback and course correct when necessary.
1. Stack Rank & Sort
Make a list of all of your activities in the 4 key areas of your life:
Take your time.
Next sort each activity into how frequently you will do it:
Lastly, go through and examine this list.
Does at least 80% of look like activities that you enjoy doing, that bring value to your life and that you are actively choosing?
?
2. Plug and Play
Now it’s time to begin building. Say goodbye to your “to-do list” and say hello to a dynamic scheduling tool that can change and update as the days go on. Take your pick of a scheduling application.
I love Google Calendar. For you Microsoft Outlook might work better or maybe Apple’s Calendar does the trick. Either way, pick one and stick to it.
Whichever tool you choose, commit to using it daily and updating it as things change. This is how you design a routine that works and can measure it’s effectiveness. More on this later.
Here are a few guidelines when you begin to input your life into your calendar:
1.?????Set sleep time and wake-up time at roughly the same time everyday
2.?????Set consistent work hours
3.?????Focus on creating the IDEAL
4.?????This is NOT a prison. In fact, quiet the opposite, it is intended to be flexible.
?
3. Leave Buffer Periods
As the old cliché uttered by Benjamin Franklin goes:
"Failing to plan, is planning to fail."
He could’ve also added the caveat that we are notoriously inaccurate at predicting just how long certain activities will take.
With that wisdom and a bit of humbleness we can aim to always be prepared by building in a buffer for the unexpected. We can look ahead, use extreme preparation and planning to prepare for contingencies.
领英推荐
And when in doubt, add 50% to your time estimate just to be safe!
?
4. Fill in the Gaps
Now that you have the key activities that you engage with on a daily, weekly and monthly basis it’s time to go back through and fill in the gaps.
One thing you may notice is that you have more ‘free time/space’ than you initially thought. Before you jump into building a side hustle, finding the next Netflix show to binge or booking that trip fill in the gaps.
Look at your week and revisit the list of activities you had above.
Aim to schedule every part of your day for at least 1 week.
Remember you are creating the ideal life built with intention and purpose.
A few areas to examine:
-?????????Are all of you workouts planned and scheduled?
-?????????What about coffee with that friend on Saturday morning?
-?????????Do you have Sunday evening dinner with family on there?
-?????????Big presentation Thursday with a gap after? Consider adding a short nap
-?????????When are you eating dinner each night?
-?????????Did someone say grocery shopping? Better add that.
The most common mistake I see well-meaning and high-achieving people make is they stick to their commitments to other people, but rarely stick to the commitments they make to themselves, and sometimes close friends.
They say ‘YES!’ too quickly and give their time freely to others, only to end up feeling drained by the end of the week. There is no right way to build your schedule. Do what works for you. Consider your energy levels, personality type, season of the year and current projects you’ve go going on at work.
The goal is to create a schedule that helps you show up at your highest level day in and day out while creating a life you love to live.
5.?????Measure Success
How do you measure success?
First, you have to know what you are aiming at. Create metrics for yourself to measure and answer the question: “Am I making progress?”
Use Part 1 of this series to help ensure your most important personal and professional goals and key activities are represented on your calendar each week.
One idea I have found particularly help is the idea of a Weekly Performance Review from Brendan Burchard. Each Sunday I sit down and ask myself 2 questions about the week.
-?????????What went well?
-?????????What could have improved?
I also look back to see if I met my goal of exercise, reading, focused work, and other important habits that benefit my health and well-being.
This is a time for you to make changes and look forward to the coming week with fresh eyes.
?Time for You to Create
To recap, here's the 5 simple steps we covered to help you create a schedule to increase productivity, performance and well-being.
STEP 1: Stack Rank & Sort
STEP 2: Plug & Play
STEP 3: Leave Buffer Periods
STEP 4: Fill in the Gaps
STEP 5: Measure Success
Now that you have a blueprint, block out a few hours of your time to build a new schedule that you would love to follow. Create your ideal. Don't hold yourself back.
Take action, be consistent and adjust as necessary.
And most importantly, don't forget to enjoy the journey.
If you find yourself wondering why you should sit down and reframe your schedule at all, let the wise words of Abraham Lincoln be a reminder.
?“Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe.”
– Abraham Lincoln
Follow along here @alex.barilec and @mindfulhealthcollective for my next Schedule Your Life for Success workshop!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alex Barilec is a professional High-Performance Coach, Life Coach and Mentor. He works with CEO's, entrepreneurs, educators, business owners and government employees to upgrade their beliefs, develop a blueprint for a healthier life and re-create their lives with intention. Clients who seek his support have gone from 80 hour work weeks in jobs they don’t enjoy to creating their own opportunities in the field of their choice, starting their own businesses, deepened their connections with friends, family and significant others and have developed the confidence and unwavering belief in their own innate abilities. He was professionally certified as a Life Coach by the Coach Training Alliance and hold a Bachelors Degree in Business Management from John Carroll University.?