A Simple Strategy To Stop Wasting Your Time Away

Follow these 6 simple steps to help you re-evaluate your day to day and recognize what is most important in life. Figure out what is holding you back and why you may not be accomplishing the things you want or need to get done. Learn how I took control of my days instead of my days controlling me.

Find a Partner

Having a partner is not a must but I highly recommend it. Your partner can help you to see things differently then you would, and can point out areas where they think you are struggling or need to focus on. Your partner can be anyone that is going to be honest and open with you, your spouse, parent, sibling, best friend, and so on. My wonderful husband and I did this whole process together, so we were each others partners.

Break It Down

Find the areas in your life that have the most meaning. Think about these questions. What is important to you? What is going to help you accomplish your goals. What brings you joy? What brings you fulfillment? What is going to make you, your best self? This is an area your partner can help. They can help you brainstorm and really recognize what is most important and what is not. The areas in my life consist of 7 different things. Mother, wife, spiritual, education, physical, homemaker, and work. This is my list, yours may have some similarities, but could also be completely different.

Define It

The next step is to define what needs to be done in each of those areas. Defining your areas is about what you are wanting to accomplish for the day or maybe week. For example, I’ll define homemaker and education. Homemaker for me is laundry, cooking, cleaning, gardening, canning, sewing projects, and trying new recipes. For education I have reading, and researching. Cooking and reading are on my daily list where sewing projects and new recipes are more of a weekly thing. You may have homemaker or education as an area of your life too, but it may be defined in a completely different way.

Cut Out The Crap

This may sound a little harsh, but it has to be done. If the things you listed above are really important to you, are you getting them done? Why or why not? There are so many things that waste our time and are basically crap. If you want to get things done, you have to recognize where your time is going. Once you figure that out, then you can move to the next step.

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 Plan It Out

Now that you have figured out the most important things you would like to be doing each day its time to make a plan. I broke things down into daily items and weekly items. Some things I gave a time frame for and a time of day. Others are just simple tasks that can be done when there is a spare minute. For example, exercising I set at 6:30 for  30 minutes, and spiritual studies I set at 7:00 for 30 minutes. While making our bed, cleaning the bathroom counter, and doing the dishes are just daily tasks that can be done through out the day. Then the weekly items get broken down into specific days. For example on Mondays is the kitchen and I pick something to deep clean like the fridge, or cupboards.

Be Prepared To Adjust

Your plan may not be perfect the first time and may need some adjusting. The biggest thing is to recognize what is really important to you and to prioritize those things. Stick to it for a few days. If it is not working try rearranging some things. My first plan did not work, so I adjusted it. My days are never the same either, so sometimes I have to wake up a little earlier. Or if I wake up late then sometimes my time frames will get cut short and the less important things get left out.

 

This whole process is still a work in progress for me. It has really helped me to focus on the important things in life though. It has helped me to feel more accomplished and useful. I have been able to do more things that I enjoy and spend more meaningful time with my husband and daughters. I have adjusted my plan several times and each time I do I get a little bit closer the where I want to be.

 

Adam & Paige

 

P.S. We let our kids become the priority and so that meant changing the way we work. Working when and where we want has been a liberating experience for us. Learn how we did it.

If this is useful let us know, comment below, or snap a photo and hashtag it #Embrace_The_kids — We love to see the fun things you are doing and the adventures you are going on. Find us: @Embrace_The_Kids

 

 

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