You may think you don’t have time for the things that you need to do, much less for the things you want to do.
But the truth is, you make time for what’s important.
This line either resonated with you or made you feel as if you were stabbed by a knife. If you tend to put work before everything else, you probably felt the stab. You may think it’s even unrealistic to make such a guilt-inducing statement, since you obviously do care about your family and friends as well as yourself – even though it seems on the surface you’ve put all that last. You just need the money.
However, the truth is, most of us really do tend to make time for the things that are important to us.
The problem is, sometimes we think one thing is more important than it is. For example, if you have a job, you probably think that your job should come first no matter what, just because you don’t want to get fired and you need the paycheck. This is what you’ve been taught your entire life and what is expected. The thought of missing work even if you have generous PTO is often very stress-inducing, due to the expectations that society puts on people today to be productive.
But the problem is – we need more than work and putting work first all the time is not very realistic. Your life is more important than that job, and so are your kids and family. Never missing work to see a game, or go to a PTA meeting, or even to just meet your spouse for lunch is really a sad thing and not a good thing to be proud of. Because your life is about those things, not about your work, with few exceptions.
If you are having issues aligning your lifestyle to meet your goals so that you can live the way that you desire, you have a little work to do. Most of it has to do with time management and reestablishing what is truly important to you in your life. You’ll want to set SMART goals for life and business, design actionable steps, schedule those actions, and then you’ll be working toward creating the lifestyle you want to live.
Establish Time-Centered Boundaries
For everyone, this is going to be different. What you value is going to be different than what someone else values. Not only that, what you enjoy doing is going to be different too. For example, some people love editing videos, others hate it. If you like it, and it is part of your business, you may place more priority on editing videos than writing blog posts, for example.
If you have kids, you may feel that certain times during the day are more important. Can date night with your spouse be interrupted or not? Will you miss your child’s performances, and if so, what reason is good enough? It’s all up to you.
Set Clear Expectations for Others
While you’re making expectations for yourself, you’ll want to set them for others too. For example, if everyone knows you’re going to go to your child’s games every single time, they expect it and will accept it. If it’s unusual, they might take exception if it interferes with what they wanted. Everyone from your dog to your child should know when not to interrupt you and when it’s okay to do so.
Set SMART Life and Business Goals
Learn how to set goals properly. When you do set goals the right way, you end up with something that can be used to track your progress. Your goals will be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. From those types of goals, you can craft your plans to ensure the goals are reached.
Create Action Steps from Your Goals
The good thing about making the goals properly is that you can create action steps from your goals. Then you can take those goals and put them into your calendar when it needs to be done. Don’t put just the due date in the calendar, put the actions you need to take on the day you need to take them in your calendar.
Set Up Automation, Systemization, and Outsourcing Goals
The more you can use automation, systems, and other people to do the work, the better. That means more time for you to come up with new ideas and make more plans that other people can implement and get out to the world.
Learn to Love Your Calendar (schedule everything)
Your calendar is so important because each day, it tells you what you’re going to do – from spending the morning with your child to date night with your spouse, to that awesome vacation you’re taking during the holidays and more. It also tells you what you need to do to generate income today, but that’s only part of it.
Stick to It Every Day
The main thing that is going to bring success is sticking to your plans for the long term. Having a business that runs itself takes a lot of work in the beginning to set up. Try to make your schedules for each day realistic so that you have a more balanced life today while setting up your more balanced life for tomorrow too.
Adjust as Needed
The great thing about making plans and schedules is that you can track your progress. You can directly see what is affecting your success and what is working to reach your goals and what is not working. Because of this, you can change and make things better as you go.
Aligning your life with the things you really care about requires an understanding of time management, a mindset change about what matters most to you, and how your actions affect not only today but the future. You’ll need to be able to work with the time you have, as well as the time you can afford to buy from others, and good organization skills to ensure that you have the time you need for the things that truly matter to you.
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