Every few months I sit down and look at how I’m spending my time. You should too. By doing this you maximize the time you have to do things that are important to you, and minimize the time you spend doing things that are lame. By re-assessing your schedule you’re making the most out of your life.
If 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 and see how we’re doing.
Quick Review on Planning Your Day
You can see I have just about all of my time scheduled out. This doesn’t mean I’m busy, it means I have a plan. I don’t do anything I don’t want to do. My day is scheduled and planned out to serve me; because I’m the one that scheduled it.
I can’t stress this enough: Your schedule only keeps you accountable to yourself and the things you put down.
Step 1a: Make a New List
Without looking at your current calander make a list of the things you have been spending your time on over the past few months. Include daily activities as well as regular weekly activities. Include Everything.
Here’s my list:
- Getting Ready for my day, checking RSS feeds, checking email, prayer room time, service hours, meals, graphic design, SRM, book-keeping, meetings, Bible studies, personal devotions, blogging, reading, watching movies, shopping, errands, dates, hang-out time, church services, rest time, sleep
These are all things that I do on a regular / semi-regular basis. And they’re all important to me. So I want to keep them as a part of my schedule.
Step 1b: Order the List
Take your list and organize each item into one of three categories: Vital, Necessary or Important.
- Vital things are sleep, get-ready, personal devotions, eating, etc… Things that MUST be done every day or you’re screwed.
- Necessary things are work, family time, meetings, etc… These need to be done daily (or weekly), but you would survive if you took a day or two off from them.
- Important things are just that. Priorities in your life that are important to you. It doesn’t have to be someone else’s emergency. It can be your own personal preference. Spen your time doing what you want to do.
There is no 4th category because if something is less than important why are you wasting your time on it? My list looks a bit like this:
Step 2: Look at Your Current Schedule
Open up your current calendar with your schedule on it. If you don’t currently use a program I use iCal. Also, Google Calendar is great. You don’t have to use a program though; why not a day-timer or moleskine?
Does your written down schedule match up with what you are doing each day? If it lines up 75% or more then I’d say you’re doing great. About 85% of the time I’m doing what my calendar has written down. I think that is a great number.
Step 3: Compare and Update
Now that you have your brand-new priority list, compare it to your schedule: Is there anything on your current schedule that doesn’t line up with your new list? If not the make some changes so you have the planned amount of time to do those things that are important to you instead of wasting your time doing nothing and succumbing to other people’s emergencies.
Prioritize your life and cut out the wasted time. Are you actually spending your day like your schedule says you are? If not then re-arrange to make your schedule work better for you.
Keep in mind that without application your schedule and your priorities are just words and thoughts. Don’t confuse lack of time with lack of focus.
Benjamin Wood said:
Shawn a great thing to maybe put on the download page would be the teaching Mike did, The Power of A Focused Life, that really brought definition to how much time i could be using and how much time i was truly wasting. It had a profound impact on me i am sure it would help some of your readers too!
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 7:46 am
{Shawn} said:
@ Ben: That is a good idea, and I’m already on it. But instead of making it public at the moment, I’ll be giving away that teaching as one of the prizes for the Reader Appreciation Week. You’re a step ahead…
I also learned a ton from that teaching. Much of my week-long series 168 Hours to a Focused Life was from that teaching.
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 8:44 am
Benjamin Wood said:
i am a smart cookie, see! maybe an oreo
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 8:45 am
loud said:
Good stuff. I’ve become a fan of simple GTD strategies which open up more time in the day, like replying to emails immediately if you know it only requires a short reply.
I am exceedingly bummed that I’m missing the onething leadership summit this weekend. :/
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 9:43 am
{Shawn} said:
@ Loud: There’s another summit this fall. Maybe we’ll see you then.
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 10:03 am
Jo said:
It’s great that you’re re-visiting this topic. Tyler and I are finding it very vital to our relationship and sanity to sit down together and create some time-management. With our busy jobs, family time and wedding planning (both ceremony details and pre-marital counseling) we want to be good stewards of our time as well as be sure that quality time for just US isn’t dismissed.
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 10:15 am
Ruth said:
i think this is the most practicle post you have written on managing your time isn’t it?
when we were there corey russell talked to us about this principle. we were with a really small group and that was a great opportunity for us the jump in and ask questions.. he said we should list the things that are vital (like you did..) sleep etc. necessary things would be school/work etc. sleep would take 56hrs a week, school/work 40hrs, church activities 3hrs and so on. and when you do the math (168-130hrs other stuff) you would still find that you have at least 30hrs a week to just pray…and so he taught us about that, and actually when you do the math you find that you have way more time than expected. now you only have to schedule that. anyways, the way he talked about that encouraged us to just go for it!
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 10:23 am
Ryan Couch said:
Shawn - Vital things are sleep, get-ready, personal devotions, eating, etc… Things that MUST be done every day or you’re screwed.
Wife-time isn’t in the vital or your screwed category? Yikes! It is for me!
jk - I know you love your wife, I bet yall had a great weekend birthday/anniversary!
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 12:40 pm
{Shawn} said:
@ Ryan: By Wife Time I mean date night, or dinner together or something focused like that. We always have time together. But I know what you meant.
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Benjamin Wood said:
Wife time is never in my vital category. I don’t think it is a major part of relationships… just kidding i hope Sarah does not see this because i would not be able make my sacred trust tomorrow on the account of my deadness.
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Armen said:
This is a word in season. Thank you brother!
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 7:14 pm
David said:
I really like the idea of the ordering of the list. Sounds like something to do in my free time tomorrow night. Thanks for another great post.
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Jacquie said:
I think the re-visiting of the schedule is SOOO important! I have been trying to use a schedule after listening to Mike’s “The Power of a Focused Life” series around 2 years ago and I have changed my schedule probably at least a half a dozen times since then. I’m constantly discovering things that don’t work for me & how I can make it better so that I’m using my time effectively and actually doing what I have on my schedule!
I think it’s so important not to get discouraged and giving in to the temptation to throw out the whole idea when you realize you’re only following it maybe 50%, but just asking Holy Spirit to help you make it better. My husband and I like to have what we jokingly call “re-start weekends” where we re-assess where we’re at and then “re-sign up” for the things God has called us to.
I also just recently discovered Google Calendar, which I love, since I can have it right at my fingertips using Google Desktop, and which feeds my fetish for being super-organized and using really colorful schemes for the various categories of my schedule.
(Sorry for the super long comment)
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Adam Parker said:
I’m a huge proponent of this. I’ve gotten other people hooked on using google calendar for creating a schedule, it just works great. I probably follow my schedule 75-85% of the time. I haven’t actually measured it, but I think thats a good guestimation. Do you actually measure yours to come up with that “85%” number?
Keep it coming Shawn. Great post and great idea to revisit it.
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 10:22 pm
{Shawn} said:
@ David: Free time? When do you have free time?
@ Jaquie: Not giving up when you aren’t quite there the right thing to do for sure. Nobody is going to get their schedule 100%. Even just having it on paper to help keep us aware of how we want to spend our time and our life is a step in the right direction.
@ Adam: You’re like my brother from another mother…
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Troy said:
Great post. It is about that time I should overhaul my schedule again, I think. I’m gonna use some of your suggestions, ’cause this seems a little more realistic than I’ve been overall.
Yep, definitely time for an overhaul…
Thanks!
Posted on March 29, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Emily Mea said:
Do you have any suggestions for an online calender program that will allow for a night schedule or swing shifts? Maybe a 24 hour calender for those of us on strange shifts at work.
Posted on March 30, 2007 at 5:14 am
{Shawn} said:
@ Emily: Have you looked at Google Calendar?
Posted on March 30, 2007 at 6:11 am
David said:
–>Tonight’s a unique night Shawn.
Posted on March 30, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Ryan Couch said:
@Everybody with Windows:
I seriously recommend MonoCalendar. As far as I’ve seen from using it, and from the functionality Shawn is describing for ICal, nothing else comes close.
Check it out here - http://www.monocalendar.com/
Posted on March 30, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Notes from the Trail » Assess and organize your day said:
[…] in need of perhaps some encouragement toward bringing order to an otherwise hectic life schedule, read this fantastic entry by Shawn. Bookmark to: Filed under: Snippets by Jeff @ April 8, 2007 | • There have been 1 followers of […]
Posted on April 8, 2007 at 7:33 am
Tour of My Mac: The (Free) Mac Apps I Use Every Day | The Fight Spot said:
[…] iCal keeps me on track and on time to my schedule and meetings. I put everything in here. From when I’m getting up, to when I’m in the Prayer Room to meetings to time with my wife. My whole life is scheduled inside iCal. In fact, I just re-assessed my schedule. […]
Posted on April 12, 2007 at 7:56 am
Follow The Blue Link Road : iffect.net said:
[…] I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but of late there appears to be an overload of bloggers discussing and sharing their routines and methods for productivity. Some set a 50 minute timer during their working hours to stay focused, some settle into a state of ‘flow’, and others live strictly to their schedules. […]
Posted on May 1, 2007 at 11:05 pm