I really didn’t think I would ever be writing about having to schedule or plan tasks when I retired. Or if anything, I thought I would be scheduling outings each week!!! But sadly the pandemic meant that most of our time for a few years was spent at home and we found it difficult to schedule anything as days turn into weeks and then into months! It was easy to get lost in it all.
So we had to develop a few tricks to get us up and going each day and planning and scheduling is a very big part of it! And there is no reason why we shouldn’t continue with this as we get out there, keep busy and find our joy each day.
One of the most important aspects of successful time management and planning is to understand yourself i.e. how quickly you complete various tasks, your motivators and your key distractions We are all prone to procrastination – especially when we need to take on unpleasant or large jobs.
The thing is if we are not aware of how we operate we will either over or under plan our days and weeks. And trust me both of these approaches will mean that we get nothing done. If we over plan we will never finish our to do lists, become despondent and just give up. If we under plan our days we will also become despondent because there will be so little progress and we will rust out!
So here are some ideas to help you planning
Identify whether or not you respond well to detailed plans or whether you like the big picture approach to planning. Both are fine if they work for you. Don’t try to be what you are not!!! If your plan says paint your bathroom and you can fill in the gaps in your head then go for it. If you need more milestones then write them down. Personally I need a bit of detail but am fairly self driven and I hate mess so I would be motivated to get the bathroom job done even if I hated painting.
Think about planning out a week or a month rather than a day and spread out your tasks across the week or month at a rate that suits your level of activity or motivation. What do I mean by that? Let’s say you really do need to paint your bathroom but you hate painting and you have to remove wall paper first. It is very unlikely that you will have it all done in 3 days because there will be lots of prep required etc. But on the other hand, you don’t want to give yourself 4 weeks to do it because your bathroom will be a complete disaster zone for a long time and you may lose all your desire to paint it over that time…. Get what I mean?
Know yourself, be honest about your strengths and weaknesses and plan realistically. If you can’t get a handle on your procrastination habits or distractions then try recording your time usage over a week or so and think about where your time is going. Don’t just write down what you do write down whether the task/activity was important or not. It could be that you get out of bed too late each day or spend too much time watching TV or it could be that you really do need to rest while you are doing heavy jobs – and that’s ok, just take this into consideration when planning your days and weeks.
Develop a ‘to do’ list for the week and include fun things in it as well as the jobs that must be done. I did this during lockdown and it was helpful. We tried to get out for a picnic on a Wednesday ( if it was allowed), we walked morning and evening, I got up each morning to do a yoga class, we scheduled two – three days each week to work on long term plans etc. It was a bit vague but we put it up in the kitchen and it was a visual reminder that we had things to be achieved!!!
But once things started to get back to normal we found that we had to be a little more intentional and so we started setting some goals and being ready for action – all with those intentions in mind!
It is helpful to use some questions or a model to help you sort out your goals. Try using the Stop Start Continue approach to help you.
With your values and intentions in mind ask yourself the following questions:
- Is there something you would like to start this year? E.g. a new hobby or sport..
- Is there something you would like to stop doing this year? E.g. spending so much time on the couch…
- Is there something you would like to continue doing this year? Would you like to do this more or less?
- Is there something outrageous or completely ‘out there’ that you would like to try? Outrageous for one person might be normal for others – find your own thing and go for it.
When we applied this kind of thinking to our lives for 2022 we ended up with the following goals – (I use the word ‘goals’ loosely):
- We want to stop marking time and we want to start a new life in a new house.
- We want to be active – ideally taking regular walks on a beach somewhere for both our physical and mental health
- If we can sort out where we will be living then we hope to start some worthwhile work such as volunteer work and once more get stuck into blog writing.
These may not be SMART goals yet but it won’t take much to write those and then map out our path.
If you are not sure what SMART goals are they are goals that are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time framed.
Once you have your goals you can plan your next steps in a measured way. But of course it is important not to lose sight of those intentions. Keeping your eyes fastened on the big picture will help you from straying too far. For us it means getting very busy in our house right now so we can sell it soon and focussing our attention on moving and finding somewhere else to live. Whilst it might be nice to take a little break and have a holiday away for a few days that will only slow us down. Even stopping for Christmas was a bad thing for us – we both hit a bit of a wall for a week or so after the holidays.
So being intentional means keeping an eye on the big picture – your values, your purpose and letting these things guide your day to day decision making and actions. Life has its up and downs but if we can stay true to our values and our intentions we learn to weather the storms and stay focussed on our true purpose!
Happy planning in 2023. Let us know how you get on with it.
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Until next time,
Gillian and Andrew
