I am constantly struggling with time management. I thrive with routine and as a part time work at home mom it is VERY hard to find a routine that works and stick with it. Recently I received a book to review, Living Well Spending Less by Ruth Soukup, and it has been very helpful in so many ways!!! Full review to come!
The most recent chapter I read spoke to priorities and time management. She referenced another book that I am going to read soon called The Power of Habit. After reading this Soukup said “If I could make doing all the things I needed to do in the morning a habit, something that happened without even thinking, the autopilot portion of my brain would kick in and I would have more discipline stored up to tackle the rest of my to-do list.”
This is my goal. To plan out my days and try to create a routine that works for us. With small children and a variable schedule this is pretty difficult though. Already this morning things have had to be adapted. One of my goals this week is to consistently go to sleep by 11:00 and wake up at 7:00 before the boys wake up. Last night I didn’t get to bed until 11:45 (partial fail) and then both boys woke up last night so I didn’t get a good night sleep and when my alarm went off this morning I bypassed the snooze button and just turned that sucker off! Monday’s are our free days most of the time. Bryce doesn’t have school and we rarely have anything scheduled. So right off the bat I was not building a routine. This is where being self-disciplined is tough!
Also, we had two things on our to do list. Go to the YMCA and the grocery store. Both scrapped because it is raining cats and dogs outside!! I think this is all God just laughing at me trying to control my life. 😉
Regardless, I have decided to conduct a little experiment. I am going to spend this week trying to create a pretty detailed plan each day and see how that goes. Next week I am going to create one plan at the beginning of the week that allows for a lot more flexibility and then compare. I always struggle with exactly how to much to plan and tend to overdo it or do nothing at all. Hopefully this will help me find a happy medium. We have been kind of flying by the seat of our pants lately and it is NOT working for us.
I’ll try and post a few updates through out the week. If I’m organized and productive this shouldn’t be as much of a challenge as it normally would! 🙂
Do you struggle with self-discipline and time management too? Have any tips to share?
*The book Living Well Spending Less was sent to me by the publisher to review. All opinions are my own.