Have you ever gotten to the end of your week, and said something like “What did I do this week?” or “I had 6 things on my list that I wanted to do and didn’t get to one of them.” When it comes to managing our time, being intentional about how we spend it is key. It really does affect our attitude and how we view our lives. Let’s face it, time is our life. Our lives are made up of how we spend our time.
We all have a set amount of time. It’s 24 hours a day. Everybody has the same 24 hours every day. Yet we constantly say to ourselves, “I need more time!” “I’ve got to find more time!” We can’t get more time, but what we can do is change the way we use it.
Time Wasters
Christy Wright, of the Christy Wright Show suggests these 3 categories of time wasters:
- People Pleasing. People pleasing leads us to saying “yes” to doing things that we really don’t want to do. And, they may be good things. Things with family and friends, the community or church. But, it’s too many things. And before you know it, you’re stressed and frustrated because those things took away from the thing that you really wanted to do the most.
- Being the Hero. This is similar to people pleasing but this is about your need to be needed. It’s about swooping in to solve everyone else’s problem whether they want you to or not. We want to fix it! And, we do it because being needed makes us feel good about ourselves. But then we become resentful of that person because helping them took time away from our own plans. Someone once said that there is a difference between doing something to be loving, and doing something to be loved.
- Checking Out. This is the category that most of us can relate to in some form. This is about spending too much time on social media. Or spending hours per day watching TV. Do you know that the average person checks their phone over 100 times per day? There’s a million distractions that will take our attention away from what we want to do.
The Big Rock Method
In order to be more effective with our time, we need to not only understand where we are spending or wasting time, but also determine what our priorities are when it comes to spending time. You may have heard of the “Big Rock” method.
The Big Rock Method is where you picture your calendar like a glass jar. Big Rocks represent all the important things you want to do. If you fill up the jar with sand (all the little bits of meaningless, unimportant things) you won’t be able to fit any big rocks into it.
On the other hand, if you put all the big rocks into the jar first, then put smaller pebbles, then some gravel and finally some sand, all the small bits of gravel and sand will fill in the spaces between the big rocks. You may even be able to fit a little bit of water in there too.
Create Your Ideal Week
Michael Hyatt created a tool called the Full Focus Planner which uses a concept called the ideal week. I don’t have the planner, but basically the concept of the ideal week is like the glass jar. You place all your “big rocks”, your big priorities, on your weekly calendar, then fill in the time with the other tasks. I like the idea of the ideal week because it provides a framework that you can use week after week for a particular season of our lives. As priorities change, the ideal week would change.
Currently my basic week looks like this:
Monday – Friday
4:30am to 4:50am: Wake up, weigh myself, feed horse and clean stall
4:50 am to 6:00 am: Make coffee, read and write
6:00 am to 7:00 am: Shower and get ready for work. Listen to a podcast or video
7:00 am to 8:00 am: Drive to work and listen to podcast or audio book
8:00 am to 4:30 pm: Work
4:30 pm to 5:30 pm: Drive home and listen to podcast or audio book
5:30 pm to 6:00 pm: Feed horse and clean stall
6:00 pm to 6:30 pm Dinner and dishes
6:30 pm to 9:00 pm Open
9:00 to 10:00 pm – TV time with hubby
10:00 pm – Bed
Saturday
7:30 am to 10:00 am: Ride
Sunday
7:30 am to 10:00 am: Ride
11:45 am to 1:00 Church Service
Being Intentional and Setting Priorities
When I look at this schedule, my two big rocks on it are work (and the commute to work) and the time I spend on Saturday and Sunday riding. One is currently a necessity (work), the other is a top priority (riding) for me.
There is a lot of space on this schedule to be more intentional about the way I spend it. For example, I’d like to better define the way I spend my mornings on weekdays. I’ve been wanting to add a Yoga routine there. In order to make that happen, I would need to prioritize it and put it on the schedule. I could fill in the time from 4:50 am to 5 am for a 10 minute yoga routine. So why haven’t I done it, you might ask? Beats me. I haven’t made it a priority.
I’d also like to set some productivity goals around the reading and writing I do in the mornings. I would need to be intentional about exactly what I wanted to read and for how long and make it a priority. I’d also like to be more intentional about how I spend time in the evenings after dinner. Could I add a mid-week ride? Probably. But I’d have to prioritize it and put it on the schedule.
Prioritizing Riding Time
Because at the time of this writing it’s summer, my riding time on the weekends needs to occur early in the day. But, in the winter, when it’s cooler and drier during the day, my riding schedule can change. If I had specific riding goals and things I wanted to accomplish during that time, I would need to prioritize how I’m spending that time with my horse. If I wanted to add a weekly lesson I could. But it would definitely eat up more time on Saturday but I could do it if it’s a priority.
I used to travel 3 hours one way every Saturday to take a lesson with a specific trainer. It ate up my entire day, but at the time, it was a priority. I used to have a monthly horse show that I attended and it took an entire 3 day weekend out of my schedule, but it was a priority and I did it for several years.
How Are You Spending Your Time?
How are you spending your time? What are your priorities? To help you identify this, here are 5 questions (also from Christy Wright) to ask yourself. Write these down:
1.What steals your time the most? What areas of your life do you find yourself losing time, wasting time or being guilted into?
2. Where do you feel guilt or resentment around how you spend your time? Where are you getting angry, disgruntled or frustrated?
3. What do you want your calendar to look like? What are your top priorities? What are the most important things in your life? Is it your horse? Is it time with your family or time with friends. Is keeping your house up a priority? Time for self care? List no more than 5.
4. Does your calendar currently reflect what you just wrote down?
5. What changes do you sense that you need to make? Do you need to stop doing something? Perhaps you need to start something.
More Resources On Time Management
Time Really Does Fly When You’re Having Fun
Time Management: Finding More Time to Spend with Your Horse
Final Thoughts
Creating a life you love doesn’t just happen. We can spend years doing the same thing over and over again then wake up one day and realize all the things that could have happened but didn’t. I heard someone say one time that graveyards are full of novels never written, inventions never created, dreams never fulfilled. Don’t waste another minute! If you need a place to start, you can get my free Focus on Your Dreams mini-course by clicking on the link below. It will help you clarify what you really want out of your life and your riding.
Enjoy the Ride!