Handling a Full Plate

A full plate is better than an empty one, right?

Today’s post is about time management (thanks to Audra for kicking this topic off!) but I’m going to stick to the food analogy for a few minutes, first.

At our church we have carry-in meals once a month. (Fellowship time is important!) When I go through the line, I’m always dazzled by the many choices! Casseroles, salads, breads, sometimes a pot of soup on a cold day, sometimes a delicious brisket (we live in ranching country.) Occasionally a main-dish salad, too. And then there are the desserts…

 
Do I hear any “Amens!?”

We all know that there is no way even a small spoonful of each one of those dishes is going to fit on our plates, but we fill them up anyway.

After all, a full plate is better than an empty one.

Except when the plate starts tipping and a bit of the jello fluff slides onto the floor…or the dinner roll perched on top takes a nosedive for someone else’s plate…or the tuna noodle casserole’s sauce insists on mingling with the oil and vinegar dressing on your lettuce….

Maybe there can be too much of a good thing!

My life is a bit like that. I know I’ve said “yes” to too many responsibilities, and when fall comes I’ll be adding another huge one back onto my plate. And then there is the possibility of a grandchild (or two) arriving in the next year or so. Each of those important things needs a spot on my plate.

How do I give all those responsibilities the attention they need? How do I keep any of them from falling off the plate? How do I make sure I accomplish what needs to be done WHEN it needs to be done?

Time management.

My favorite tool for time management is a planner. And my favorite planner is my Bullet Journal.

Why a planner?

Because our lives are full of details that need our full attention.

I used to just list the things I needed to do on my planner page in no particular order and without a lot of thought, but that could be so disheartening. My list was just too long, and what about the things I didn’t really want to do? Well, it’s easy to just move them to the next day’s list, and the next one, and the next one…

Then I discovered a new strategy: Divide and conquer!

Here’s a picture of my Bullet Journal page for last Friday. It takes me less than five minutes to put this page together in the evening and finish it up the next morning.

 
Do you see how I listed my priorities at the top? There are three of them. Keeping that list to three items is my #1 rule.

Then I divide my tasks into three areas: personal, home, and writing.

I try to list no more than three things in each of those areas, but sometimes the day is extra busy.

The colorful column on the right is where I divide my day into blocks. (I use color-coding to make everything easy to keep in order.) The numbers in that column correspond to the time of day.

If you look at the column, you can see that I’ve scheduled my writing tasks in three separate time blocks. 6:00 am to 7:30 am, 9:00 am to 11:30 am, and 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm. That’s a total of 6 ½ hours spent on writing and writing related tasks.

Now look at the items I’ve listed under “writing” on the left. I usually spend my first writing block putting words down in my WIP. My goal is 1000-1500 words during that block.

The second block is for more writing or tackling a sticky technical problem with my website or publishing.

The third block is for a variety of things. Sometimes I use that time for research. Sometimes for listening to podcasts or reading craft books. Sometimes for writing my newsletter content. Sometimes for writing a blog post.

The key? I know I’m more creative in the morning after my first cup of tea, so I use that to my advantage and do the most important thing first. I also know I tend to be a bit draggy in the afternoons – so that’s when I take care of tasks that require less concentration.

I do the same for the “personal” category and “home” category. I do those planned tasks during the times with the matching colors in my schedule.

Is this method perfect?

No, but it’s as close to perfect as I can get for me. You might find that a different kind of planner suits you better, or that a bunch of sticky notes on your computer screen’s frame is the perfect solution. The idea is to plan our time so that it doesn’t get frittered away.

 

Do I schedule every day this way?

Nope. I schedule my working days like this, but never Sunday, and I usually take another day off during the week for our “Saturday” chores and time off. This is a tool I use to make my work days go more smoothly.

Does this method work?

Yes, it does. When I have my day planned out like this, I tend to get most of the tasks accomplished, just like when I have a reasonable amount of food on my plate!

How about you? Are you a planner?

And here’s an interesting question: if you’re a planner, are you also a plotter in your writing? And if you aren’t a planner, are you a panster in your writing?

Let us know in the comments!  

And by the way, yesterday was a VERY SPECIAL DAY!!! My dear husband and I marked our 40th wedding anniversary. We're spending today enjoying some touristy things and enjoying time with each other. I'll be in and out to respond to comments, though!

Here's a picture of my mom and I on our special day:

I'm so glad the photographer took this picture, although I thought it was a little silly at the time. I had more important things on my mind, right? And I thought my mom would always be there...

Retirement, Part 1: Time Management

by Audra Harders

I am retired from my day job.

There, I said it. Actually, I’ve been saying that to everyone who will listen, including the dog, my spring planted deck flowers and, most of all, myself. I no longer need to protect my weekends, count down the days to vacation or scramble to clean the house - among so many other things that competed with my 8:00 - 4:30, M-F, for my time and head space.

When I realized I now had time to blog in Seekerville - rather than just handling a few administrative duties - my stomach dropped as I searched for topics. Composing a post on writing didn’t seem wise when, like the Tin Man of Wizard of Oz, my writing joints and muscles are rusty and in need of a bit of exercise and oiling. Trying to bluff my way through marketing and trends was a foolish idea, as I need to learn them myself before I can pass along secrets. Personal growth and insight? Well, I have a lot, but it centers around the realm of 4-H and everything Extension Office (my life the last 25 years) with very little left over for discovering the aha moments of characterization, theme, or story truth.

So, where does that leave me? 

Square One on the checker board of the next phase of my life. 

Retirement. It’s a concept we work toward our entire career. Think about the stereotypes of playing golf all day, letting that inner social butterfly free to meet friends over coffee or lunch and squeeze into the latest Bunko evenings, or even sitting back with popcorn in a bowl and catching up on all those shows you’ve recorded over the years. 

Me? I’ve been working on cleaning up the clutter of 32 years of family life in our house. Throwing away precious mementos, I can’t even remember why I saved in the first place; dumping out closets and realizing the fashions I’d saved look a bit dated and really, will I ever fit in that again?; digging out my home office, throwing away old how-to-write books and awful manuscript fragments, and creating a room that invites me to write once again. It felt good to de-clutter, but my life remained off-kilter. 

Hmmm, why is that?

Over the next few months, join me on my journey as I discover what to do with that brass ring called retirement and how I return to the author life I had to set aside just as the carpet of success was being rolled out before me.

Whitney Nichols @therandomvibez

I will not get into all that right now. Let’s just say, God’s timing is so perfect all I had to do was obey and His plans for me would all come together and it would be better than I ever imagined.

So, back on track. To truly enjoy retirement, one must realize there are some rules I recommend following. This month, let’s talk about TIME MANAGEMENT. 

• My first month seemed like a long vacation and I enjoyed it.

I retired from the Extension Office on March 31 and the entire month of April felt like one big vacation. By the end of 4 weeks, the stress had left, and I could tackle the world again. The problem was, my vacation mindset had also suspended little pesky tasks like paying bills, setting appointments, remembering events, etc. I scrambled to catch up on all the things I had overlooked because my routine of checking my calendar at work first thing in the morning on my computer was no longer in place. 

TAKEAWAY: Find a method of accountability that will work for you and keep you on task. Since snipping the strings tethering me to the computer, I wasn’t in a hurry to recreate the Outlook calendar system at home. Instead, I opted for a simple little planner by Moleskin that lets me look at a week at a glance on one page and the opposite page allows me to list my to-dos so they don’t stray far for me to get them to-done.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

• My days grew together.

From the time our children were born until my eldest got her driver’s license and I went back to work, I kept a central scheduling system in the kitchen - a calendar chosen at Christmas with large daily squares displayed next to the refrigerator. If an appointment or task wasn’t on that calendar, it would not get done. That habit of looking at the calendar on the wall may have gone dormant once the kids no longer needed parental assistance, but within a day, my brain recaptured the habit of glancing at the calendar to see what was on tap for my day.

TAKEAWAY: Though the refrigerator has changed (twice!) and the wallpaper upgraded with the times, I need a focal point to ground my day. I’m making do with my Weeds of the West freebie calendar, but next year, those daily boxes are going to come in size XL!

• Sleeping in is great, but…

You’ve heard the term, “when you rest, you rust,” right? Just because no one is essentially calling the shots for you anymore, doesn’t mean you can kick back and ride that banana boat through the canals of life for the next however many years. You need a plan; you need purpose; you need to claim your own sense of accomplishment!! There were 4 of us long-time employees who retired from the Extension office within 10 months. Of the 4, 3 of us had a definite goal in mind as we filled out the paperwork and began looking forward to “punching out” for the last time. My goal was to return to writing while the other two looked forward to “grandmother” duties and unlimited volunteer work. Our 4th compadre, retired without a plan in mind. She has not gotten involved in the community, she hasn’t discovered new (or long buried) hobby talents, she hasn’t explored the possibilities of her new phase in life. She was the first to leave 10 months ago and her outlook on retirement now is so much a burden rather than a joy. 

TAKEAWAY: Don’t let this happen to you! What’s your dream? What’s your heart’s desire? What’s your REWARD for all the hard work you’ve put in over the years? Embrace it now! Mold it, shape it, envision the joy it will give you. Have a plan! Remember how I mentioned the carpet of my dreams snatched away from under my feet just as I experienced the first euphoria of success? Oh, how that hurt! I just knew I was a one-and-done author. Well, God didn’t see it that way. He kept the fire burning in me to write. You see, I didn’t retire to fill my days with house cleaning or volunteering (though both are very honorable endeavors), I retired because stories in me are clamoring to be told. I’ve met untold sources along the way to feed reality into my novels. I’ve made dear friends and visited places that kept the creative flame alive in me. I HAD FUN!

What are your plans? Have you looked ahead to prepare for those dreams tucked within and waiting for the call action that is coming? Please share and let’s make some plans!

Audra Harders writes "rugged stories with heart" featuring fearless men who haven't a clue about relationships, rescued by ladies who think they have all the answers. In real life, she's married to her own patient hero, has two adult children, and a very strong-willed Corgi. She began writing right after her son was born and sold her first book to Love Inspired mere months before that same son graduated from high school. Surviving those years in between reminds her God does have her plan for her life...and that He has a tremendous sense of humor. You can visit Audra at:

Website: www.audraharders.com

Facebook: Audra Harders, Author

Twitter: @audraharders