It happens every so often that I will read a book that will stick with
me in some way. Usually it is a fiction
book that is particularly well written but sometimes non-fiction sneaks on to
the list of books that have changed me.
This list is filled with book that change the way I look at things or think
about things. They are books that force
me to question myself in some way or another.
The most recent book to make this list is “What the Most Successful
People do Before Breakfast” by Laura Vanderkam.
I was given this book for Christmas from my Dad. I know it is totally not your typical
Christmas gift and Dad even felt the need to justify giving it to me by saying ‘I
know you already do a lot of this but I thought it was a great read’. Well Dad
you were right. It is a great read and
although I do some of the things she suggests already, I still gained a lot
more out of this book. This book in fact
made me take a look at how I currently live my life. It made me question a lot of my assumption on
living a fulfilling life and the time it takes to do it.
Essentially the book, which actually has three short guides to time
management, boils down to we only have 168 hours in a week and we only have a
finite number of hours in our lives.
Laura Vanderkam offers a lot of ideas and suggestion on the best way to
structure our days to ensure that we can get the most of what we want in life
in those given hours. If you are
struggling to figure out how to be able to not only do the things you need to
do but also the things you want, I totally suggest giving the book a read. This entry is not meant to be a book review
though, what I really want to talk about is the changes it has helped me to
make.
The first thing I did when I finished reading this book was to sit down
and make a list of the things that I really want to be doing with my days but
feel like I don’t have enough time for.
It will be no surprise that the list included more reading, writing,
scrapbooking, working out, cooking and spending time with friends. These are things that I love to do but often
find I don’t have time to do them. These
are things that leave me feeling happy and complete. They are things that I want to make sure I
always have time for because they are what bring me joy but that I had been
struggling to make time for.
The second thing I did was to commit to tracking my time for a
week. I tried to track everything in
15min intervals as Laura suggested in her book.
There were sometimes I had to fake it because I forgot or wasn’t sure on
the timing but I got it done. I tracked
168 hours of my life. It was eye
opening. I always knew I had a tendency
to waste time doing things like playing games on my phone or mindlessly
watching tv but it was crazy to see just how much time I was using on that. One of the most interesting things to me on
my tracking was the amount of tv I watch that I didn’t even particular
like. We all have shows we love but how
often do we watch other things just because the tv is on. I was blown away by how much of the time that
is the case for me. It was easy to see
that although I think I don’t have time for the things I love that I certainly
have opportunities to find more time to give to them.
The third thing I did was to create my own list of dreams. She suggests that everyone should sit down
and come up with a list of 100 goals you want.
She said to include personal goals, travel goals, professional goals,
ect. This was harder than it seems. The first maybe 30 were really easy but it
got harder and harder. Mine started off
with a list of places I want to travel and novels that I want to finish writing
but by the end of the 100 it included a lot more smaller goals like hiking Mt
Prevost to see the war memorial or reading Moby Dick again. What I found most interesting about this list
though was that it really brought into focus the things that I really want to
be doing. It really helped to cement the
things that I want to do in my life both big and small.
With those three things done I set out to create a new schedule for
myself for my non work hours. I set
aside time in my schedule to do all the things I wanted to do as well as things
that I needed to do. I knew when I was
going to be doing everything from dishes to meal planning to going to the
gym. It was a work of art in time
management as far as I’m concerned.
Hehehe! I was excited to try it
out. I got to do exactly 4 days of it
before the request came at work for someone to change to the later shift to
help out with phone coverage. Since no
one else volunteered I offered to change my schedule from an early start back to
a later start. I had done the later
shift before but had switched to the early shift to avoid some of the
traffic. Switching back to the later
shift meant I had to go back to the drawing board on my new schedule.
Now you would think that shifting things would be easy. I had my hours figured out with the early
work shift and it seemed to flow perfectly so it should be easy to transition
to a schedule where I start an hour and a half later but just moving everything
later. That was so not the case. I was surprised at just how wrong that
thinking turned out to be. It is truly
amazing how if you change one thing how it completely forces your hand to change
everything. It took a little figuring
and a week of trying out a few things to see if things like an early morning
session at the gym would work out (pun not intended but hehehe). I had to get creative with my time and things
couldn’t always be scheduled when I would want them but I made sure that I
still got everything in. I once again
got to feel excited that I had a plan.
With everything figured out I knew I had just one more task to do. I knew to help make it stick I needed to
write it down. So I quickly sketched it
out with ink first. Then in true geeky
fashion (and because I love a good list) I created a word document that I could
print and post. As of this weekend (well
a little bit last week as well) I am officially on track with my new
schedule. I’m excited for what is to
come, not because of the fact my life is scheduled, but because of the doors
this opens for me. I now have time in my
life for things that I have long said I don’t have time for (dating, hiking)
and I have time in my life for the things that will help me achieve some long
term goals (running a marathon, publishing a novel). I feel like I will finally be making most of
the time I have been given and there is something really amazing about
that.
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| Weekday schedule |
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| Weekend schedule |
As scheduled as things now look, I actually feel like I have gained a
lot of freedom. I have culled the big
time wasters from my life and filled it with things that really make me happy. We only have so much time in this world and
this whole process helped me to make sure that the hours I do have will be used
doing things that really matter to me.
Will stuff still come up that will get in the way – yep of course. Will there still be days that I waste the
time I have – yep I have no doubt of that either. Will this help me find peace with the fact we
only have limited hours – it totally already has. I can’t wait to see when I look back six
months from now, what I have been able to accomplish on my goals now that I
have a clear focus and plan to achieve them.
I can do all things I just can’t do all things at once!
