Is more time a myth?
Maybe you’re saying, “Danielle, you don’t know how busy I am. I’ve got SO much going on, I couldn’t possibly have more time.”
Well, I get it. We are busier than ever before in history and between school activities, running businesses, church activities, social media, making sure we’re feeding ourselves organic, non-GMO, getting 30 plus minutes of exercise a day and so many more things, it’s OVERWHELMING.
But there’s GREAT news!
You don’t need to prioritize everything. And you don’t need to be doing everything. In fact, I’ll be the first one to give you permission to not do everything. In fact, we can’t. At least not long term.
This takes creating boundaries and knowing what all you’re doing, but, when you’re done, you have more time!
See, once we know our priorities, we can live according to them. These priorities are going to guide what’s on your calendar. Do you still get lost in the social media scroll? Yes, but that’s going to be something that’s either for two reasons – you are doing it legitimately for work or you are giving yourself that time know that it’s taking time from other things you are doing. When we turn to something like social media for other reasons, it’s usually from bordeum or avoiding something else.
One of the first things I have you do for the Productivity Intensive is identifying your priorities. Do you know what your priorities are? Have you identified where God’s calling you to spend your time?
As we talked about the other day, God’s cares about you and where you put your time. He’s given us specific places where we’re to steward (take care of) our time. For me, those places are my home, relationships, business and self. Those are my priorities or my areas of responsibility.
When I’m spending my day taking care of different things under those four areas of responsibility, I find myself more fulfilled and I’ve got enough time for everything.
Let’s talk about kids for a minute. Kids take up a lot of our time. I know. I’ve got four of them from ages 8 years to 21 months. We let our 6-year-old play t-ball this Summer. That was a large time commitment. It was worth it to see him play and cultivate that joy of sports in him, but it also took time away from other things we were wanting to do. That was the decision we made. It’s extra, but what about the things that are mandatory like medical appointments?
I recently did a Productivity Intensive with a business owner/mom with a special needs child. She has margin time to work if they’ve got a doctor’s appt. She also has her husband help around the house so that she’s got extra time for working when she needs it. I also go into busy seasons with doctor or dentist appointments expecting to do less, or work more during my free time, just like I am tonight on my Saturday night.
Lastly, do you multitask? If you’re bouncing between multiple things, you’re wasting time. That’s a pretty bold statement but it’s scientifically proven that your brain can’t actually multitask, you just do a lot of things at one time less effectively.
Bouncing back and forth between different inboxes or writing a blog post and checking Facebook constantly is forcing your brain to switch back and forth, losing its focus. It takes longer to refocus and pick back up where you were at. I’ve done it. I’m not as effective as I’d like. This is a great place to start getting time back.
So what now? Well, my Productivity Intensive is a great place to start! It’s 2 1/2 hour call with me where we…
- Talk about and work through your priorities, your schedule and your dreamy ideal week
- On the spot implementation of changing your calendar with your new ideal week or creating boundaries so you don’t have homework after the call (because you have better things to do)
- An assessment of your priorities and walking through how to make your schedule align with them
- Creating your mission and vision statements (or refine what you have written ) so you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it
Interested in learning more and booking your own call with me? Click here.
