We’ve all heard the cliché, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
When it comes to our health and fitness, it’s so true.
Each week consists of 7 days … or 168 hours.
Assuming we should be sleeping at least 7 hours/night (ahem), that leaves about 119 waking hours.
Now, with all the responsibilities that we have … work, school, kids, running a business, or all of the above … it’s easy to become overwhelmed and believe the following story that we tell ourselves.
“I don’t have enough time.”
So I wanted to share something that’s been helpful to me and has made a huge difference in my productivity … and frankly, my mood, because it’s amazing how great it feels to know exactly how much time you have so you can spend it more wisely.
I highly recommend using a paper planner or calendar for this. I don’t know about you, but my phone and laptop are constantly beeping and buzzing with endless distractions, and it’s easy for those Google calendar notifications to get swallowed up in the abyss.
Here’s all you have to do once a week (I prefer to do this on Sundays):
- Block out all the times you’re spoken for during the coming week, i.e., appointments where you need to be somewhere at a specific time. These could be work meetings, appointments with clients, school drop-off/pick-up obligations … any block of time that’s non-negotiable and when you literally cannot be anywhere else.
- Make a list of the three most important things that you want to accomplish that week. These should be things that will move your personal life, professional life, or healthy lifestyle forward.
- Identify the blocks of time that are not spoken for and schedule specific and manageable action steps that will move you toward those accomplishments.
Give this a try for the coming week. I think you’ll be amazed at how much weight is lifted off your shoulders when you can actually see the time that’s available to you … and you specifically define — and choose — how you’re going to spend it.
Decisions and choices are empowering.
You see, when you’re just flying blind, it’s easy to be pulled off track and allow time-wasting activities that don’t serve you to swallow you up. But once you’ve got your non-negotiable time mapped out on paper, you may be surprised by how easy it is to identify:
An hour here for grocery shopping.
An hour there for meal-prepping.
Three 30-minute windows where you can get a workout in.
Once you’ve got this mapped out, I recommend “checking in” with yourself every evening before bed. This will ensure that you’re staying true to your plan, and it’ll solidify and reinforce the specific things you’ll be doing the next day to move yourself forward.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Your innie friend and coach,
Paul F. Sweatt CPT PN1
Train Smart. Train Hard. Train Safe. Train to Sweatt
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