It’s Saturday, and I’m stunned. How does this happen?
Seems it is Sunday, and I am sitting in church with the week ahead of me, and the next time I look up, it seems to be Saturday and the week has whizzed by. I’ve gotta get a hold of my time!
So, here’s what I did. I made a random list of all the things I do everyday, every week, every month. I laid it out where I could see it and added to it whenever I thought of anything. It looked like this:
homeschool
read scriptures
laundry
meals
write
read
carpool
teach a Bill of Rights class
do my job at church
grocery shop
talk to my husband
housekeeping
go to the library
talk to friends
garden
email
grooming
organizing teen ballroom dance class
doctor/dental appts
run my homeschoool support group
meetings
phone calls
keeping connected with my mother, sisters
training kids on life skills
put on birthday and holiday parties
etc.
After a few days, I felt my list was pretty well complete, with daily and occasional activities on my list, as well as things I really want to do, but haven’t been able to get to. Next, I carefully assigned a priority number to my activities: #1 for top priority, #2 for medium and #3 for lower priority. I thought about this for awhile, because I realized I was choosing what to do with my life.
Next I made a grid of all the days in a week, from 7:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night. I blocked out the time for meals, and set a bedtime (a very hard thing for me to follow). I looked at all the items marked with #1 and found a place to put them into my week. What a revelation! I realized how much I do daily that fills up my time that is not top priority (or even medium priority). These lesser priority activities often crowd out the more valuable ones leaving me feeling less satisfied.
After I got all the #1 priorities placed on my weekly schedule, I tried to fit in the #2′s. Guess what? I was out of time in my week’s schedule before I could even get through half of my list. How in the world do I do all that I’m doing? No wonder I’m tired!
I got my daughter Louisa to chart out her weekly schedule too. She put her chores, her activities, her homeschool subjects and music practice on it, and it suddenly became clear why she can’t get all her schoolwork done! Not having ever counted the hours out before, I was shooting from the hip, overloading her.
Then we came up with a self-correcting system. We folded a column of paper and paperclipped it next to the day on her schedule. Whenever she followed her self-scheduled time slots, doing the assigned activity, she left the “Actual Schedule” column of paper blank. Whenever she did something else than her schedule dictated, she wrote in on the column of paper. At the end of the day, she could clearly see what she did instead of what she had planned to do. Shocking reality! Instantly she improved. She could see what she was putting off, and was able to discipline herself to do it.
Just creating a plan, and monitoring it, gives one a huge sense of control! Ooh, this feels good. I have a handle on my time. I can choose what to do with it. I can make sure those things which are most important aren’t at the mercy of those things which matter less. I can be realistic with what really fits into one 24 hour day, and not overextend and over-commit and end up overtired.
I’m liking this!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
What a great idea! I am a middle school teacher of at risk students (many of whom have illiterate parents and no written language in their native culture) and I would like to use this to help them (and me!) learn to manage their time and set priorities.
Diane as always your post was very needful at this time in our home. I am getting ready to plan our new family schedule after having moved and your ideas are really helpful.
Can you clarify how your daughter did the extra paper when she didn't follow the schedule. Something I will need for sure
Thanks
Wendy Roberts
http://www.homeschoolingwithusborne.com
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Let's see if I can clarify:
The schedule is written out on a piece of paper, 8.5 x 11" with vertical columns, one for each day, Monday through Sunday. Now, fold a blank piece of paper fan-like into 7 vertical columns so you just have a skinny stick of paper the width of a column. Paper it clip it on top of the schedule, next to the day you are working on. So if it is Monday, paper clip the blank folded column onto Tuesday (next to Monday) and write on it (all the things you did instead of your schedule) as you go through the day. Next day, fold that Monday column under revealing the next blank column and slide it over into Wednesday's place, allowing the Tuesday schedule underneath to show. At the end of the week, unfold the fanned paper and you will have a record of the week's activities that you did instead of your schedule!
Best success!
Diane
I really enjoyed reading your latest Heart to Heart. I especially enjoy reading your articles on schedules, etc. They really help me with my children.
I was wondering how you fit all the things in your priority list. The idea of doing the priorities is great. Something that I have heard of before. It’s just the implementing part that gets me. I am just not sure how to do it! Could you explain further? Perhaps even share your schedule?
Thank you! And I appreciate you sharing your homeschooling knowledge and experience.
I think part of the “a-ha!” of this exercise was realizing that I was under the illusion that I was “doing it all”, when in reality, I couldn’t possibly do all the things I felt were important to do! I made my brainstorm list of all the things I do everyday, week, month, year. I also found a need to list all the things I want to do, because some of the things I want to do, but never get around to, really belong in high priority! So after I got my list completed, and assigned a 1 (high priority), 2 (medium priority) or 3 (low priority) to them according to my own values, then I plugged in all the #1′s in the appropriate time slot. I only had room for my number one priorities plus a few of my number two priorities. The rest can’t fit in a 24 hour day!
Let me give you an example. I think it is important to get daily exercise, but I have been rather lax through this cold winter. So, I gave that a #1 priority and put it right after breakfast, which is not exactly the best time (with food in your stomach), but it was the time that would work in my current family schedule. Prior to creating this priority schedule, I was using that after-breakfast time to catch up on email and make phone calls before the school day began. So I had to evaluate how much time I was spending on email (too much) and phone calls (more than I wanted to), and since it was less priority than my health, daily exercise bumped out of that important time slot and cut down the amount of time I spend on it.
My schedule looks something like this:
7 AM Scripture Study with the family
7:30 Family Prayer
7:30-8:00 Family Chore Time
8:00 Breakfast
8:20 Go on walk
9:00 Shower
9:15 Homeschool
12:20 Prepare lunch
12:40 Eat lunch
1:30 Answer emails, write blog or read
2:00 Nap (kids do schoolwork, reading, research, etc.)
2:30 Afternoon routine: talk with kids, housekeeping, help kids with projects, errands, run kids to lessons, church work, make phone calls, work on my projects, sew, garden, bake, research, write, visit, see my grandkids, call my mom, grocery shop, etc. (in priority order)
5:30 Dinner Preparation
6:15 Eat Dinner
7:00 Clean up
Evening routine: do things with family, talk with kids, read, attend meetings, write, study, projects, etc. (in priority order)
10:00 Talk with my husband
11:00 Bedtime
Saturday is my favorite day! We sleep in a bit, do a family work project together for an hour or so (work in the garden, clean up the playroom, get the 3 cases of strawberries ready for the freezer, build something, etc.), then do our individual chore assignments until noon. Often we’ll picnic or have a BBQ or some fun food like homemade pizza or scones or something. And in the evening, we do something fun together like watch a movie (I’m into watching all the Christian science videos I can right now, plus I love Jane Austen) or read quietly all together in the same room, or discuss things, play games or dance.
Schedules definitely change with the age of your kids. When you have a baby, that little one takes up most of your #1 priority time slots. Now that I no longer have a baby, I spend a lot of time talking/listening to my teens. Life has seasons, but I think there is never a time when we feel like we can get it all done! So priorities really help me be more sensible in my time commitments. Can’t add any #3 priorities if I can’t fit my #1′s all in. ; 0 )