I want to be a Master of Time.
Let me break it down.
A few weeks back I wrote about my goals for the new year. It was a hard hitting, tough love, letter to myself to basically get my sh*t together and start to own my time. Because if there is one thing 2020 taught us, it’s that our time and lives are precious and easily taken for granted.
So, I decided that in the spirit of leaving busyness behind, I needed to make a change to how I manage my time and make clear what my priorities are:
i) In the long-term (i.e. who do I want to be and how do I want to be remembered by the people that matter to me?)
ii) In the short-term (i.e. what are my goals for this year?)
iii) In the immediate term (the weekly tasks that will make i) and ii) a reality).
I’ll be the first to say, answering those questions is not easy! Especially when you’re someone like myself, who loves to take on everything and often that doesn’t lead to even half of what you wanted to do come the New Year.
So after writing that tough love piece, I recognised that if I wanted to get the best out of my time, I needed to start valuing the time I had in reality rather than just in thought. In other words, I needed to get smart about how I spent each hour; from the moment I wake up to the minute I put my head on the pillow.
This is not my comfort zone. I am a lover of spontaneity, I love to follow my gut and I hate being dictated to about how I should spend my life. That’s not to say that I avoid scheduling things, but prior to the new year, it has always been a needs-must type of scheduling. Irony of ironies, I now find myself succumbing to the planning and scheduling lifestyle (you can’t hear him, but my husband, “the planner” is laughing in the background).
“Why succumb?” you ask. Well honest truth is: if I am not taking control of my time it means I am – by default – allowing everything else around me to control me. It means, I effectively have no control over anything. It means I am ruled by the schedule, deadlines and priorities of other people – people who probably took the time to schedule their work load and their weeks.
No thanks.
I can hear the intuitive, prospective personality types already: “but why would you want to lose your spontaneous character?” I don’t and I won’t. Rather, by being intentional about which goals I focus on within each timeframe, it means I am proactively giving myself the time and space for the activities that are birthed out of my spontaneous side.
For instance, in a week I can give one hour a day to boring admin type tasks, but I can also plan in a couple of hours (or more) to do the things that I love – like writing for this beautiful platform. So, if I know that my creative time needs at least 5 hours to get the best result (say from concept to product), then I can literally block out 5 hours of a Saturday or 2.5 hours of a Friday and another 2.5 the next day, to do what I want in that world. However, if I don’t plan in that time (and stick to it) then anything else has room to get in the way. That being said, I also allow myself a degree of flexibility because I know that too much rigidity also stifles my love for life.
So there you have it, my goal to be a “Master of Time”.
I know this isn’t the sexiest of goals – it definitely doesn’t sound it to me (hence the feeble attempt to make it more entertainin... “Master of Time”)! But I do think down the line it will help me do the things that I previously struggled to get done.
It will help me...
1. ...say ‘no’ to requests more comfortably, because I know how much time I have and by planning my weeks out I’ll be able to see quicker when something will have to be sacrificed to take on the next thing.
2. ...do the things that I love more frequently. Therefore, always having moments in the week where I am getting filled up rather than pouring out of my tank.
3. ...“eat the frog”, which means do the things I don’t enjoy very much and get them over with!
4. ...reach my goals, step-by-step, day-by-day. I will be getting closer to where I want to be because I know I am actually making time for it.
Provided I stick to it!
What do you think? Could you become a master of your own time? Plan to do the things you love, intentionally and not just “when you have time?” Because if the latter is your answer, you may be letting other circumstances rule what you do and when you do it… but who am I to say, I don't really know you and I would hate to assume!
Drop me a line on IG, I would love to know what you think! Keshiamf_
About the Creator
Keshia MF
Indecisive, laughing happens after coffee, finally clawing my way out of writers block enforced by grief.
IG: keshiamf_
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