Today, I am going to share with you how to take control of your time.
By planning purposefully, you will show up better for the people you care about while also taking better care of yourself.
There’s this old saying you might have heard: “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.”
Well…
Show me your calendar and I’ll show you your priorities.
And serious people protect their priorities.
If you had a young mentee shadow you for a week, would he or she say “wow, my mentor is really dialed in both personally and professionally”?
Most, if honest with themselves, would embarrassingly say no.
And most also wonder why they just can’t get more out of their lives.
I was that person for a long time and would keep hearing about the importance of time management.
Well, I have a newsflash for you:
Time management is really self management.
You manage yourself first in order to manage time.
Let me explain:
Recently, I asked a group of Loan Officers to rattle off their top 5 personal priorities and most answered:
I then asked the same group to rattle off their top 5 professional priorities and most answered:
I then asked them if they purposely planned out their week ahead around these personal and professional priorities…
…and most answered no.
It was a powerful and thought provoking discussion.
We’ve all heard the various poster worthy buzz statements from books like “Atomic Habits” that read:
“Losers have goals, Winners have systems.”
BUT, very few talk about how our calendars support our desired disciplines!
Unfortunately, most people have very basic “calendar mapping” or otherwise commonly known as “time-blocking”.
Not anymore.
It’s time for you to take the time to plan your time (cool word play, I know).
I developed a SIMPLE 3-step system that will 100% help you proceed with purpose.
And if you take this seriously, your chances of achieving more both personally and professionally will greatly increase.
This is an absolute game changer.
I carve out an hour every Sunday night (time blocked as a recurrence) to review the week prior and preview my week ahead.
This tactic was taught to me by Michael Maher, the Author of “7 Levels of Communication” (which I highly recommend).
This time is used to plan time.
I hate coming in Monday morning scurrying to catch up on everything from the weekend, it’s stressful.
Use this time to purposefully review your calendar from the week before to honestly assess yourself.
After a quick review of the previous weeks’ calendar and my activity tracker (more on this in a future LO Launch Letter), I prepare my week ahead by focusing on all my personal and professional Actions That Matter (ATM).
I’m not talking about the money machine, although this step is a money making machine in its own right.
It stands for “Actions That Matter”.
Think through your top priorities that will build and deepen all the important parts of your life.
For example: my marriage is really important to me, happy spouse, happy house.
So, each and every Sunday night, I confirm date night with my wife. We’ll sometimes time block an evening walk or even a “fun” night where we’ll spice things up by participating in a fun activity together (cooking class, art exhibition, etc.).
We are also committed to marriage counseling once a month (which has been a game changer, by the way).
Now that you know WHAT needs to get done, it’s time to plan out WHEN it needs to get done.
On your calendar, map out every activity that is important for you to get to your goals, both personally and professionally.
For example, I plan out the following personal items:
You can even plan out when you review your family finances or that weekly phone call to your parents.
I then begin to reflect on all my professional priorities:
With this system, I'm not just making a calendar or your average to-do list.
I’m building a schedule that’s intentional and actionable.
I’m able to deflect any distractors by creating boundaries and bunkers to focus on my most important tasks.
Here are your action steps for today:
Tomorrow (if you’re reading this on Saturday), set aside an hour to conduct your first Sunday night ritual.
Quickly determine your Actions That Matter.
Time-block your week ahead around these ATMs
And remember…
As good ‘ole Abraham Lincoln once famously said:
“Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I’ll use 4 hours to sharpen my ax.”
You got this my #go-getters!
Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you!
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