I am extremely busy. I am a mom of two, a hardworking accountant, and I run this blog. On top of that, I own a home I take care of, I have a husband to take care of, two large dogs that need my attention, and my own passions to keep up with. I’m guessing if you are reading this, you are a very busy person as well. So how do I keep up with everything? I plan like nobody’s business!
I am constantly being pulled in a million different directions. If it’s not one of my kids wanting a snack, it’s my dog wanting to go outside. Or my husband wanting to show my a new fishing video! Or a toy that needs new batteries, or a mess that needs to be cleaned up.
Things get really hectic, for everybody! If I am not careful, important things will slip my mind and not get done. Or worst, my passions (like this blog) will get pushed to the side. And when passions get pushed to the side, that’s when the burnout kicks in.
As if life isn’t hectic enough on its own, we then got hit with a pandemic last year that is still in full effect. Will things ever go back to normal? Who even knows at this point! I do know that life will always be crazy and that’s why planning is so important.
We all have goals, but if you don’t plan them out, what’s the point? I want to give you some helpful hints to plan out your goals so that you will reach them. If you want help setting goals, check out my blog post here!
Here are the three things that help me plan like I can’t fail!
Time Block
I can not stress how important time blocking is! When you time block, you know exactly what you are doing and when you doing it. It seems a bit tedious and restrictive at first, but it will keep you on track and help eliminate distractions.
When you time block, it is so important to stick to your schedule. Don’t set time to pay your bills and then get distracted by all the cool stuff you find on Amazon. Time blocking is all about focusing on that one task that you have set time aside for. At first I was not good at judging how much time I needed for each task, but now that I’ve gotten it down, I set more realistic time goals for what I need to get done.
To time block, I would highly suggest getting a planner with an hourly breakout. This makes it easy to pencil in what you are going to do when. If you need a suggestion for a good hourly planner, I would suggest the Day Designer Daily Planner. If you are more of a digital planner, you can find free templates on Pinterest for daily breakouts (don’t forget to follow me!). Also, you can simply use your calendar app on your phone to plan and time block!
Make a Realistic Plan
This is where I feel like a lot of people make mistakes when planning. I know I use to all the time. I would try to cram so much into one day and it just wasn’t realistic. By the end of the day I would see my to do list incomplete and feel like a failure. This is why you must be realistic!
When time blocking, I use to put down unrealistic goals like clean the entire house in thirty minutes. My house is small, but not small enough to clean everything in 30 minutes, especially with two small children. I had to adjust this plan to only a quick cleaning before bed and saved the deep cleaning for the weekends.
Another example of an unrealistic plan I see a lot of people make is with paying off debt. It will take time to pay off debt. You can not expect to allocate all your money to paying off credit cards. You still need money for food, gas, living expenses, etc. If you plan this unrealistically, you’ll burn out and end up giving up on your goals. We don’t want that!
Release the Date and Plan for Productivity
Sometimes you want to put a due date on your goals, and sometimes the universe has other plans for you. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a rough idea of when you want to achieve your goals, but don’t get caught up on the date rather than the productivity. When you plan your productivity rather than your due date, you will get a lot further.
Let’s take the example of paying off debt. Your goal might be to pay off all your debt in 2021. But are you really going to be mad at yourself if you pay it off two to three months late if you are taking all the steps necessary? When you plan for productivity, your plans go from:
I will pay off all my debt by the end of 2021, to:
I will pay off all my debt in 2021 by creating and sticking to a budget that I will review every week and adjust as needed. Then you time block a certain time every week to do these productivity goals.
If you have something you are working towards, it means you probably don’t know exactly what you are doing. No one sits down to pay off all their debt one day and knows exactly what to do. Chances are they haven’t had to tackle their debt before and if they did, they didn’t do is successfully the first time. That’s why the steps you take are so much more important then simply the end goal. You’re going to make mistakes. The difference is, if you know you are truly working toward the goal, you won’t burnout at the first sign of trouble.
I hope these tips were helpful and not matter how big or small the goals you are setting for yourself, I hope you smash them!!