This post is from my friend Michelle Whitley. She discusses how to balance family, work and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Her website is http://www.coach-chelle.com/. She is very inspiring and is a terrific example of someone who has transformed their body and wants to help others do the same..
The Juggling Act
Being a work-at-home mom who is actively involved with my children, teaches fitness classesand investing time in my own fitness routine can be quite a juggling act!
Let’s just face it, moms, no matter full-time working, stay-at-home, work-at-home, we’re ALL
busy!! We can ALWAYS find something to which we devote our time!
So how do we make the most of our time and accomplish all that we need to every day?
Prioritize! It’s really simple, yet can be overwhelming and seem really difficult at first!
Let me just make a confession right out of the gate. I am NOT by any means a time
management expert but I am learning and getting better at it every day out of necessity! And I’d
like to share with you how I find balance in a totally insane schedule.
I block out the time in my day and prioritize those most important things that MUST get done!
EVERYTHING goes on my to-do list, not just things I need to do for work.
I schedule everything! I mean absolutely everything.
So the time that it takes to get the boys ready for school in the morning gets a chunk of time.
Taking them to school gets a chunk of time. Getting in my personal workout gets a chunk of
time. And so on and so forth through the rest of my day.
Are there things that don’t get done every day? Of course! And I have the HUGE blessing
of having a husband who comes along beside me and picks up where I can’t finish!
We are by no means a “typical” family....but we love our family! And we have found a balance
that works for US!
So I encourage you to do some evaluating.
First of all, plan your goals. What are your goals for your life? Work? Family? Write them down!!
Don’t just “think” about it and leave it in your head! Get it down on paper! And look at them
OFTEN! I can’t stress the importance of this step!
Secondly, write out the things you do on a daily basis....down to the minute detail and evaluate
things you could trim from your day. If it isn’t effective in helping you reach your goals, let it go!
For me this meant, not sitting and watching TV in the evening and spending far less leisure
time on the computer goofing off. Look at the things you do that can be eliminated in order to
free up time for more productive activities.
Once you’ve trimmed the “fat” from your schedule, begin filling the gaps with things that you
want to accomplish but just haven’t had the time. Be VERY intentional with your time and track it
religiously!
For example, if it’s exercise you haven’t had time for and you only have 15 min in the morning
and 15 min in the evening, find an activity that you can do during that time that will get your
heart rate up and get moving!
The point is, we will MAKE time for things that are important to us! So what’s MOST important
to you? Start a list of priorities and number them by importance and start planning TODAY how
you can implement a plan for accomplishing your goals.
Lastly, BE PATIENT!! It will be a learning process and you will have to make adjustments but
you’ll get better and better at time management. And you’ll be amazed at what you can get done
when you have a laser focus on your goals!!
Happy juggling!!
1 comment:
I like the idea of considering your goals. In my coaching circles that I facilitate we do two "lifelines" ~ one focuses on where time goes, the other one values. Often when people see the disconnect between the two they are able to clearly see where they need to make changes where time is spent.
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