A New Plan
Now that you have a pretty good idea of what you want and do not want to do in the morning and evening, and where to find the extra time needed, it is time to put it all together into a new plan.
The best place to start is with the new set of tasks that are most important to you. Figure out a preliminary time during which you want to get them accomplished. Place them on your schedule when you think they will work best. If one or more does not work out at the time you tried, rework the plan. Do this until everything flows smoothly.
Morning
If your plan is to go for a run in the morning, you may decide to do it before taking a shower and having breakfast. If you want to clean part of the house each morning, you may decide it would work best after you have a cup of coffee. If a goal is to find some time for your favorite hobby, plan to carve out some time before everyone else gets up. Whatever that goal or desire may be, add it to the schedule and just do it.
Evening
Many families already have a nighttime ritual. Using the time that others are engaged in something may give you time to work on something for you. If you have your own business, scheduling posts on Facebook or writing a blog post could be done at this time.
I fall asleep while reading, so nighttime is the best time for me to read if I want to relax before bed. Therefore, I know that before bed is not the right time for me to read for business.
I also know that I write best in the quiet of the morning or evening. Blocking time to work on this a little during these two times is the smart thing to do. Knowing what you need to do and when to do it is key.
Putting It All Together
Work around these new plans. It may take some shuffling around and mixing up of your current routine, but with a little creative thinking and a bit of flexibility, I am sure you will come up with a working plan.
Creating a routine according to your personality is not something that comes naturally to most of us. It takes a little while to get into the grove. We’ll look at this in a little more detail in next weeks post. For right now, my suggestion is that you write your new game plan down. If you don’t know where to write it, print out this page:
Use it until you find either a planner or pad that works for you. It is easy to forget your plans. Writing it down will not only give you a reference to refer back to, but also solidify your new plan in your mind.
Here’s a link to my favorite planner page:
The Busy Woman Appointment Pages
Work on your new plan before bed and first thing in the morning. Put it on your night table or somewhere you will see it first thing in the morning. It will serve as a reminder of what you intend to do that day.
Remember, your plan is not written in stone. The best-laid plans do not always work when put into action. You may need to adjust it and make changes as needed until you come up with a new game plan that works well for you. Once you have that in place, it is time to make it the new routine… something we will talk more about in the next post.
Until then…
Cheers!
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