Managing your days takes deliberate thought and effort.  It starts with a vision, then a plan, and next is taking action.

Vision

First, do some thinking about how you operate best, what your values are, and what you want to improve.  Get a pen and paper and do some journaling on your unique-ness.

You might need to close your eyes and go back in time and remember what the best days were and why they were the best days.

What does best day even mean in your current life?  Journal on that for a few minutes.

Some aspects of life we can’t change, like the ages and stages of our children and how that impacts the days and nights.  We’re going to do work on doing the best we can with what we’ve got going in life.

Write down on your paper the following words What is True Today?  Make list of your truths and tasks.

Now, write down a list of things that you know in your heart of hearts will make your days flow better.  These may be hints, tips, and tricks that other have told you or that you read about in a book, maybe it’s just a knowing, or something that you used to do but somehow stopped doing.  Write for fifteen minutes on this.

Plan

Work with your grain, not against it.  Take your journaling notes and apply that to your days.

Some things on our To Do lists happen every single day of life.  You wake up, you brush your teeth, meals, baths, and the big list of home management work, child care if you have children, maybe you have a job or home business, bills.  There are some things in life that are unavoidable.

Take a sheet of paper and write down those unchangeable aspects of life on it and the amount of time that each item requires, just give it a good guess.

Add the list of things that you wrote about making your days flow better.

Fit it together like a puzzle for what has to happen when, can some items be done at the same time?

Action

Tomorrow, you will put your vision into action.  It probably won’t go perfect but do not get disheartened.  A lot of times that happens because we underestimate or overestimate the time something requires.  Keep track of the time and adjust your plan for the next day.

As you work your plan day to day, new rhythms will appear.  Flow happens, new habits develop, free time appears and the days go more smoothly.

As you discover a better day, use the time that opens up with a commitment to growth.  When you get to that growth place, spend a portion of each day journaling; it is one way that we can record our thoughts, dreams, memories, explore ideas and inspirations.

Reality

This is not a once-and-done activity.  Life happens: children grow and change, they move out, they move back in, maybe you move, the seasons change, you change, you start a new hobby or job or home business, your husband’s schedule changes, on and on.  Just remember to come back here to this place and do the whole activity again.

 

Do you want to know more about managing your days?