People ask me all the time, “How do you do it all?” Well, it’s safe to say that the most accurate answer is, “I don’t do it all. I’ve selectively chosen to only do a few things and to aim to do those well. And there are plenty of times when I feel like I’m failing at even those few things.”
Practically speaking, I have 2 time management principles I live my life by:
1) You are not a slave to your calendar.
You can choose to say yes or to say no. If you’re overwhelmed and busy, you can almost always choose to make changes to simplify. (I did a scope on this last night, if you’re interested.)
2) In the absence of a plan, there is chaos.
A builder would never build a house without blueprints. A pilot would never fly somewhere without a flight plan. And so, if we want order and focus in our lives — and we want to actually make progress in the right direction — we need to create a plan for our days.
This can be as simple as 3-4 items that are your priorities for the day on a whiteboard or a long list with 30-minute time blocks. Do what works for you and your family.
{Many of you have asked what my daily plans look like. Shown above is a real-life example of my plan for today to give you an idea. My kids are at camp during the day this week and today is a really heavy project/work day so this is reflected in the list.}
Links to items shown in the picture: The Book I’m Reading — Loving My Actual Life, My Gratitude Journal, She Reads Truth, Erin Condren Journal
I completely agree with your second point. I also love being intentional in my weekly planning and see the small steps of progress.
I’ve found keeping a list of the 1-3 things I need to do that are outside of my daily routines is very helpful. It makes for a very simple, non-overwhelming list. And it feels great to always get through it all.
I wrote about it here: http://everydayintentionalliving.com/simplify-saturday-create-a-daily-to-do-list/