Strategies To Improve Time Management

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Strategies To Improve Time Management

Let’s be real for a minute

We all struggle with time management.

At least somewhat.

As a Wife, Mom, Business Owner, Homeschooler, and all the other hats…

There’s never enough time in the day.

But I have 3 strategies that I use to maximize my time.

So I can enjoy a few more cuddles from the kids or have some me-time after they go to bed!

Watch this video below where I share the 3 strategies that have been the most valuable

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Transcription of Strategies To Improve Time Management

0:05
Hey there how are you doing this afternoon? I wanted to share quickly. Three ways that I maximize my time, I am sure that you’re busy. I mean, here we all are.

0:20
How many of us are moms and you need clones of you to get everything done today, right? So, I’ve got three different ways that I utilize to make sure that I’m maximizing my time. But before we jump into that if we’ve never met. Hi, my name is Aimee Cerka super excited that you are joining us today.

0:47
Let’s go ahead and dive in then. Three ways that I maximize my time. So the first thing that I do, which is probably been the biggest help overall for me, it’s really part of my planner, but I’ve created a daily action sheet is what it is what I call is my daily action sheet, and I did customize this I made all of this myself and, it’s really my planner so I bind this. I print three months at a time but you don’t have to do that this is just kind of the concept here.

1:23
So what my daily action sheet is is you fill this out. The night before so today is Sunday, or today it’s Saturday, sorry. So tonight, I would fill this out for Sunday, and what the daily action sheet does is it helps me to make sure that I know what I need to accomplish on Sunday so what are the actions that need to take.

1:45
I’ve got a variety of categories on there. The first one is the kind of self-care category. I also list on there some of the routines that we have to go through so our morning routine, making sure that it all got accomplished. We’ve got an afternoon routine that involves supplements and other things that we do to help our health and then an evening routine as well. So like those are listed there and then self-care for myself. That’s where a shower goes when I need to be able to take a shower. And that is literally written on, take a shower tomorrow.

2:20
And the next category that I have is kids and homeschool, so we do homeschool our children. Right now the only one that’s officially in school is William and he’s going to be in third grade now about that. So, there’s only two of them that I’m planning for but kids taking baths, homeschooling, the homeschool prep, things like that that I have to take care of for the kids. Those will get written on there. Maybe I promised to take them to the park or something that could go there, there is another category that we’ll cover in a minute because that could go in as well.

2:57
It’s just kind of keeping track of your responsibilities what actions do you want to take today, the next category is going to be Household so in my household category. That’s taking care of the house so emptying the dishwasher, laundry, vacuuming, finances, cleaning bathrooms, whatever it might be. Definitely not all of those. Like for tomorrow mine will have laundry and empty dishwasher, just because I know that we run our dishwasher about every other day so we didn’t run it today, which means I’ll run it tonight and empty it in the morning. So that’s your household category.

3:41
The next one that I have is phone calls. You need to make a phone call… When something comes up. I try and focus on what I’ve already planned, instead of just reacting to everything if something needs to be added to our plate. I plan for it for the next day so that I can get done what I’m actually working on accomplishing versus just putting out fires all the time with the urgency. Now of course, with the kids. Nothing’s ever going to go perfectly according to plan, but that’s how you try and keep track of your time because if you’re constantly stopping and putting out fires, you’re not gonna make any real progress.

4:23
Okay so this week I had gotten a Zip Cash notice, which is our toll tag thing because we had got a new vehicle and we ran the tolls with paper tags, and it came and it wasn’t attached to our like our regular plate on our car because it had a paper tag with different car, different cars supposedly.

4:45
So I had to call and get that added in so added onto the account so that it would take care of it and pull from our toll tag account. So when I got the notice I added it to make the phone call I think I did it on Tuesday, but instead of taking care of it right then, even though it was really simple to do. I plan to add it to my day the next day. So when I’m working through things and not just putting out fires. So phone calls email stuff like that had a UPS package that was lost. Submitting the claim on that was on that, in that category because it was a web-based thing that I was going to have to submit.

5:21
And then the next category I have is errands, so technically the park, like I mentioned earlier with the kids could go in that category. But just breaking down what errands, you need to run so that you’re aware and you can plan your day accordingly.

5:36
Then of course for myself, I do run a business so I have my business category on there and lists like my daily method of operations and the different things that I’m working towards in my goals, which we’ll get to in just a second.

5:49
Then the last thing I track on the sheet is my water intake. Because when you were drinking enough water, then you’re going to be that much healthier you are going to have that much more energy and focus so many things so I track every time I do finish my water cup, a 20 oz cup I think it is. So I get an X. Just keeping track of making sure I’m staying on top of my water intake, as well.

6:15
I fill that out every single evening for the next day that way I’m aware of what I need to accomplish. And I’m focusing on the right things instead of getting in that reactionary mode.

6:24
So then the second thing is going to be the goal setting, so I do set those daily goals like I mentioned on the daily action sheet like that’s kind of my goal for today, I got everything marked off my goals.

6:39
That does not always happen, kind of have an order of priority in my head like okay, this is what I need to get done and this is what I want to get done. You could break it down, but it seems like that might be overkill so just kind of working on accomplishing those things. When you do that though… What rewards, do you have set up for yourself like when you have an awesome morning and awesome afternoon, what do you have that you do for yourself for accomplishing this stuff? Um, so for a while, what I was doing, is like during the week. If I had gotten done everything that I needed to write before like after the kids went to bed, I would take 45 minutes to myself and watch a TV show or whatever it might be, take a bubble bath something like that, something small, something that doesn’t really cost a lot of money but rewarding yourself for taking the actions that you need to.

7:32
The same thing with your weekly goals set weekly goals. Part of the reason I’m doing the video today. Though I didn’t really want to. I knew that I had a goal that I had to get another video this week. So, here we are, we’re doing the video right.

7:46
So, setting those goals and little rewards for yourself when you hit those goals. It just helps you push yourself a little bit, if you can hold yourself accountable, then it’s just that much better because you got those rewards set up for yourself.

8:02
And then there are monthly goals that you can set and then a little bit more longer-term but those typically I don’t set those with her time on with this is just my overall goal. And that’s what I’m working towards instead of putting a deadline on it. And if you don’t hit it creating that cognitive dissonance.

8:21
So, and the last thing that I use to help make sure that I’m maximizing my time is actually an app that I put on my phone. So it’s called atimelogger, and I am an Android user but I think is available on iPhone, as well. So, atimelogger and what this does is it helps me keep track of my time.

8:45
You have different categories and you start the timer when you’re working on one thing and then turn off, start another timer when you’re working on something else so like sleep errands driving around. I’ve included a medical, doctor’s appointments, we used to have a lot more of those with my son Wyatt, but the running errands, spending time with family. I have a family category that’s for like me my husband and the kids, I’ve got a marriage category for when my husband and I are getting time together. And then I have an extended family category so like for hanging out with, grandparents, aunts, uncles, whatever it might be, we’re hanging out with people outside of the five of us that is our family. That’s the category that I use, but it’s just been. And then there’s a housework category and several business categories as well.

9:38
I typically don’t divide the housework and the cleaning because I work my cleaning in throughout the day, which you can really break it down as much as you want. Because if you’re losing time during the day. I know that Facebook scroll can be a time suck for a lot of people, or we just lose track of time so if you’re using something to help you see what. “Okay, wow I spent three hours a day doing this,” then you’re more aware and can make more conscious decisions with your time.

10:12
You have to remember it turned on, but you can also review then like Okay, look I didn’t get enough time with the kids this week, intentional time with the kids. Like I need to do better next week or next month, depending on how often you’re reviewing that, and I really like having that app, because it helps me to reflect on the choices that I made and to make better choices. Make sure that I’m taking actions that align with my priorities and spending time with my family and God, and friends and those things that are actually important to me and that they’re actually getting done, instead of just thinking about them.

10:49
I’m sure that we’ve all done that before that we think about something and they don’t actually take action on it. So when you’re using this app efficiently, you’re able to see the difference there when you’re actually doing something like that.

11:01
There we go, three tips on how or three ways that I maximize my time quick recap.

11:07
So the first one was using the daily action sheets and you can create these on your own if you want, like I did mine in Canva and print these off like I said but keeping track and knowing ahead of time, like tonight. What are you going to have to work on tomorrow so you’re waking up, ready to start your day instead of being in that reactionary mode again?

11:27
The second one was setting goals, daily, weekly, monthly, and beyond, and giving yourself rewards, depending on what the task is that you’ve accomplished will depend on how big the reward itself is, but giving yourself rewards when you do that.

11:41
And the last thing, number three was an app that I use to keep track of my time making sure that I am using my time in a way that lines up with my goals and my priorities so that app was called atimelogger. If you want to check that out.

11:58
Hey there, I hope that you found this video helpful and valuable, and especially if you did, I’ve got a special gift that I would love to get to you. And what this is, is I have a Financial Action Guidebook to help you Jumpstart Your Finances Quickly. So, have you ever had a goal or set a financial goal and then didn’t hit it and didn’t quite know why like, what was the whole what happened what went wrong and if you want to be able to efficiently, effectively set goals that you can actually attain in your finances so you can move forward in your finances, because I know if you were taking the time to watch this video, you are somebody who wants to make a change. And I know that you can do that and this guidebook is going to help you walk through those steps on how you can set those goals that you can actually achieve so I would love to get this into your hands. And depending on where you’re watching this video. The link is either going to be located in the description below or above, somewhere in the description. The link is going to be listed, or you can go directly to https://aimeecerka.com/guidebook, get your hands on that Financial Action Guidebook to Jumpstart Your Finances Quickly, and we’ll see you later. Bye.

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