On Monday I had the day off, so I spent the day shopping with Chris and then planning and doing school related things for the rest of the day. Waste of time? Besides the shopping, I'd say so, yes. A lot of the school related things are probably truly unnecessary, but they're getting done now, rather than later.
On Tuesday, Chris and I went out for dinner after work and then came home and decided to play board games together rather than get anything else done. Pro: I spent some much needed time with Chris. Con: I got nothing else accomplished that night.
On Wednesday through Friday, every day after work I was consumed by Netflix, watching United States of Tara, with Chris. We fully watched seasons 2 & 3. Wasted time, again, by watching TV. But, I spent the time with Chris. On Friday I came home from school earlier than usual because I'm now sick with a head cold. Due to my sickness, my weekend time off didn't really help me accomplish anything. We did decide to go visit relatives last minute on Saturday, and spent the whole day with them...so on Saturday, I accomplished nothing. And on Sunday, I was feeling my worst, so I did some laundry (SUCCESS!), lots of blogging (I wrote some guest posts for another blog and this post), and school related planning for the week.
Overall, I've realized I'm super lazy and I'm not following my schedules and routines that I've previously established for myself. Time to reevaluate. It's a new time in my life with a new job and no schooling (college courses). It's a new year. I need to decide what is important to me and how I'm going to ensure that I'm happy at home.
This week we're going to look at what we consider to be important to ourselves. How exactly would you like to be spending your time? If you didn't download this week's printable last week, go ahead and do so below. Write down the things you'd like to spend your time doing on a daily/weekly basis.
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| how I'd like to spend my time |
I spend a lot of my time at school. I go in early and stay until 5:30 on most days. It's my choice to do this, and eventually it will cut down as I start to feel good about how my room looks. (I'm still working on the environment and organizing.) I chose not to include school on my time tracker because I know I'm not wasting time there. But now that I'm thinking about it, if I were to leave school even an hour earlier, I'd have more time to do things at home that I want to do. Chris gets home from work around 5:30, so I'm not missing out on time at home with him when I leave at 5:30 each day (I luckily only live 1/2 a mile down the street from my school).
My priority worksheet is below. I don't have a lot that I'd like to do at home each day/week. I listed everything, and then (in the right column) numbered each task/experience in the order of importance. I only wrote down things I want to do. I didn't write down anything that I felt I should do. The things I have to do will be placed into my daily schedule accordingly - these are all things I want to do because they're important to me.
I've been doing a great job with my first priority - spending time with Chris. Planning for school hasn't been an issue - but I do spend too much time doing this. I feel like I don't get to spend enough time blogging during the week. Cleaning and organizing my home hasn't been something I've been very good at lately, but I want to do it and get back into a habit/routine with it. I love being online and reading the blogs I subscribe to, checking my email, searching Pinterest...so I don't want to give it up. But it needs to be focused on a lot less in my day/week, so it's lower on the priority scale. And then lastly, I have reading (books and magazines). I never get to do this. I have so many magazines that end up going in the trash, unread, because I'm months behind. I want to read more, so I think it's important to put it on my list.
Assess what's important to you and prioritize the items on your list. I will be back on Wednesday (this week) with a post on creating schedules and routines. Save this worksheet - you'll need it for Wednesday's post. (You may also want to save the time tracking worksheet as well.)
If you have any questions, please comment or email! (Make sure your email is linked to your profile or leave it in the comment if you'd like a response!)
I have realized one important thing from tracking my time. My husband has always said I spend too much time browsing the internet and/or playing on my phone. What I learned was he wastes as much time as I do! I get on my phone or the internet when he does. I'm not sure who starts it, if he gets on first so then I think I can play on my phone, or if I start playing on the computer so he does as well. This is something we need to work on. We did have a wonderful weekend together spending time with family and friends. I need to do more of that!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this exercise. What I learned is that I don''t waste as much time as I thought, its just that there is so much I want to do..This is where the priority list will come in handy because something will probably need to get shifted around. Thanks for the task, it has helped clear my mind
ReplyDeleteExcellent - I am a huge list maker and everyone in my home has to see the lists. Love figuring out how to prioritize!
ReplyDeleteI am loving this challenge! Thank you so much for helping us all get more organized. I found your blog via Pinterest, and challenged myself this year to become more organized. Its a big problem in our house. I am also following your challenge on my own blog. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteTotally love this. I realized that my time is CONSUMED by school. Going to school, being there, coming home from it. Majority of my day is just WORK!I definitely can't wait to prioritize my time.
ReplyDeleteI need to do that this week when it's a normal week again. Bless you for staying at school that long! I just can't do it. It's a 35 minute drive each way to school for me so the minute I can leave, I'm gone. Especially in the winter when it's pretty much dark by the time I get home anyway. For me school is done at school and home is for home. Of course it took me a couple of years to get to that point. Plus I do enjoy time at home (or I will enjoy it again) when husband is still at work.
ReplyDeleteYes! Thank you for this! I loved the activity- I also realized that I didn't waste as much time as I thought I did- at least not during the day when the kids are awake! After they go to bed is another story. . . I think I will definitely be putting "sleep" on my priority list so I can get some more of that done!! :) Thanks again for your awesome blog!
ReplyDeleteYou are a pro! I am the worst at wasting time... I am catching up on blogs instead of working out... wasting time or learning not to waste time? hmmm haha ;) Great post!
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