Time Management is not a personality type.
Being a person of focus and diligence isn’t those people because I’m more relaxed and easy going. Having a focus, a vision and then an application of your intentions is to be faithful not up-tight.
Take your visions and plan your days accordingly.
Seriously. Write down how you are going to spend your time. Block in time for getting ready each day, your quite time, your drive to work, you work day, your dinner with the family, etc…
At a glance my calendar probably looks pretty colorful intense. You might think I’ve gone over the deep end. But my calendar only keeps me accountable to myself. I took the energy to block those times out in the way that I wanted. I made those choices for myself. And now I have to trust myself. I have to trust that in the morning when I’m tired at 5:30 I already decided that getting up was the better choice.
I have already scheduled my get ready time, my personal quiet time, my day at the missions base, my time with my wife, my time for blogging, etc… I’m not being “intense” and it’s not my personality type. It’s because I looked at my life over the past five years and thought about what I wanted to be by now and realized I’m not there and I’m not going to allow that to continue.
I don’t want to live my life in a vacuum. I decided what was most important to me and I’ve scheduled my day to reflect my long term and short term goals and life values.
I recently did a post on Google Calendar for those of you without iCal.
Technorati Tags: iCal, Life Hacks, Time Management
Randy said:
Shawn - I’ve squinted at your schedule for fifteen minutes and can’t figure out where you’re stealing time from to blog….
Posted on October 17, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Yuri said:
A certain truth has been taking root in my heart lately:
“Don’t focus on the task, but on the objective.”
That is, don’t do what is set before you just for the sake of doing it, but look beyond it to it’s purpose and seek to bring that purpose to life through the task. A simple example:
Task: spend time reading the Bible
Objective: encounter God through the Word
Basically it’s keeping our eyes on the life in our activities. Anyway, I’m really loving this truth and think it will help me to stay focused on growing and maturing, not just ‘getting things done.’
So, as i’m doing my weekly schedule, i’m keeping in mind the purpose of each task. I will try to review these constantly and pray for the eternal (life–everlasting, everexpanding) to be birthed and stirred up in me through all that I set my heart to do each day.
Amen.
Posted on October 17, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Ruth said:
Yeah, having a schedule is really really great! I’m still working on keeping it though:) But someday I will, hopefully for at least 80%! I’ve noticed that when I do have a schedule I wanna keep it..and when I don’t have one I seem to be wasting my time and energy on things that are not worth it..
Posted on October 18, 2006 at 7:56 am
John Paul Fullerton said:
A few things that were brought to mind while reading here were
1. David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done”
2. The book “Fifth Discipline”–it’s about learning organizations–a related concept
“Vision, current reality, and creative tension
If we have a personal vision and we also see current reality objectively, then the difference between the two causes “creative tension”. That tension can be used to draw us from where we are - in current reality - to the vision.
What the vision does is to bring about the creative tension that is used to move a person toward the reality of the vision.
Commitment to the truth is the other part of the process. Understanding of current reality as well as a vision are necessary for creative tension to begin to work.”
I don’t put my trust in these books, however, I think that the Lord allowed me to learn from them.
Posted on October 18, 2006 at 9:09 am
Jo said:
My problem has been I will set up a schedule and then never refer to it. I just keep it all in my head… which then defeats the purpose.
I love how you put it that you have to trust yourself… that when you planned to wake up early or set aside time to study when you’d rather watch a movie, that you had a good reason. I’ve decided that I’m not allowed to “think” first thing in the morning. When my alarm goes off– I need to get up! Not think about how much time I can shave off getting ready so that I can doze more…
Thanks for the encouragement and challenge Shawn! I know what I’ll be doing on the plane tomorrow… playing with iCal!
Posted on October 18, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Shawn said:
Randy - You didn’t look hard enough, and did you really spend 15 minutes?
Jo - I’ll be teaching iCal as my seminar for the onething conference. Feel free to come in.
Posted on October 18, 2006 at 1:52 pm
Anna said:
I don’t want to live life in a vacuum either. That really sucks.
Posted on October 18, 2006 at 3:09 pm
chris ferguson said:
Thanks for the reminder. Took the Franklin Covey seminar and one of the big things that stood out was daily time for “planning & solitude” to prepare your day. Totally tracking with you Jo.
Posted on October 18, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Jo said:
LOL! Anna… too funny. Totally laughed out loud…. guess we’re both corney.
Shawn– I’m so there! We should start selling Macs in the bookstore.
Posted on October 18, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Randy said:
Shawn, it’s ok. I schedule an hour to pour over your blog every day.
All joking aside - you’re dead on in your comments about a schedule. Good stuff.
Posted on October 18, 2006 at 11:20 pm
Fighting to Stay Awake » Google Calendar said:
[...] For those of you looking for a way to make your week a little more structured and organized but don’t have access to iCal, I have done a brief review on Google Calendar to help you plan your day. [...]
Posted on October 30, 2006 at 12:02 pm
3.5 Steps to Re-Assess Your Schedule | Fighting to Stay Awake said:
[...] you haven’t already written out a plan for your daily routine then start here. It’s easier than you think. Those who do have a plan it’s time to take a look at it [...]
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 7:20 am
Rock Your Tasks with Gmail and Gcal | The Fight Spot said:
[...] you liked what I’ve talked about regarding schedule and e-mail organization, but you’re not using iCal or Apple’s Mail.app then this [...]
Posted on April 18, 2007 at 3:29 pm