12 Things NOT TO DO...
Issue 6pt 2
Do NOT waste one minute of your time... Live On Purpose.
Welcome to Part 2 of our Issue of Do NOT waste one minute of your time... Live On Purpose,
from the 12 Things NOT To Do... In Part 1 we discussed a few schedule myths, and focusing on controlling what you can control. We also went through he exercise of creating a MUST Accomplish list and a DESIRE to Accomplish list. And last we discussed set timeframes for each item.
Today we're going to look at what to do with this information. First we need to look at a blank daily schedule and a generic Time Block schedule. We will then fill it in and you will learn how to do this on your own and customize it to your own needs so you can be off and running by tomorrow.
The Calendar
First let's look at a blank calendar. The example we will use in this article has time from 7:00am to 12:00am, 7 days/week. (The day of the week and date in the images is not revenant to our discussion). OK, here is our blank starting point.
Lists
Now let's review my lists from last week. I have times next to both MUST and DESIRE to Accomplish:
I Must Accomplish:
Prayer/Meditation/Stretch (Daily) - 30 min
Workout (M-Sat) - 45 min
Shower/Dress (Daily) - 30min
Breakfast (Daily) - 30 min
In Between Meals (Daily) - 5min as needed
Lunch (Daily) - 30-60min
Review overall business (M-F) - 30 min
Review studio recording/mixing schedule (M-F) - 15 min
Review meeting agenda (M-F) - 15 min
Record/Mix in Studio (M-F) - 6-10hrs
Attend all scheduled meetings (Client, Board, Misc) (M-F) - 1-2 hrs
Attend all scheduled Phone/Video calls (M-F) - 1-2 hrs
Answer Emails (M-Sat) - 30 min
Write (for Blogs and other commitments (M-F) - 30 min
Read (to continually study my wheelhouse (Daily) - 60 min
Misc. Business (Vlogs, Interviews, Meals, travel, etc.. (M-F) - TBD
Family Time (Daily) - 60min
I Desire to Accomplish:
Personal Recreation (M-F) - 60min
Music Practice (M-F) - 30min
Read More (M-Sun) - 60min
Talk to Family & Friends (Weekly) - TBD
Have at least one Family Meal (Daily) - 60min
Recreate with kids daily (daily) - 60min
Adult Family Time (daily) - 60min
Home Projects (Weekly) - 2-4hrs
Misc. Errands (Weekly) - 2-4hrs
Quality Sleep (Daily) - 6hrs+
Time Blocks
Ok. So Step one to filling out the calendar is to look at your day in terms of Blocks. These Blocks are meant to start with generic titles, then have you detail them daily. What I do is have a template for Weekday, Saturday, and Sunday. I will show you my templates below. This is how my calendar days look out in the future before I modify them for specific items each day. I recommend you do something similar that fits your lifestyle. For the sake of simplicity I have taken out my 11 calendar colors and simplified this to Green for Personal and Blue for Work. You can get more detailed when you want to. (it is easy to create a template in an iPhone. You just choose the calendar item to repeat forever. Then when you alter it for that day you say "only change today".)
Work Day Template (Mon-Fri)
Saturday Home Template
As you can see, both templates have a general structure that I tend to fall back on if nothing different is going on. Basically the idea of a template is "this is what I'll be doing if nothing else gets scheduled'. Most of us are creatures of habit and have a general routine. This was mine for a time, you will be creating your own.
Ok, now we are going to take the detail items from our list and from any given day and I will modify these templates to show you an actual day. You'll notice it is OK if the time's change like a Work Block may say 1-2, but you schedule a meeting 1-2:30. That's fine, just change it in your calendar. The idea is the template is just a starting point to make sure you DO schedule every hour of the day, ON PURPOSE. Or maybe a better way to say it is that everything you do, every minute of your day, should be on purpose.
"Everything you do, every minute of your day, should be on purpose."
Work Day Filled Out
Saturday Filled Out
And just to show you how simple it is to start with a template and change it a lot, here is a Saturday where I worked. And I'll show you my Sunday template as well.
Saturday Work Filled Out
Sunday Filled Out
Ok. So as you can see, it is very simple to create a basic template of how you live your weekdays and Saturdays, and Sundays. And you can see how simple it is to swap out times, days, and items. It may seem like a lot of work, but it is not. I can create my calendar for tomorrow in less than 5 minutes per day. I do it at the end of the day when checking emails, and review it in the morning. SOOOOO simple. And I guarantee that you will get more done with this system than you ever have in your life. My productivity went up over 100%. That is why I sear by Time Blocks.
Now my schedule is a bit odd as you can see I used to work a pretty standard 11hr work day. So lets take a look at what your black template might look like if you work a 9-5 job.
Standard 9-5
And now let's add some made up details.
Looking at those last 2 you should be able to discern how to create your own template to fit your life and schedule, then how to simply and easily modify it daily to be accurate.
Now there is one more example I want to show you. Let's say you have a day job, but are also working very hard to invent a product, or get a new idea off the ground, or start your own business. Then your daily schedule might look more like this:
Starting a Business - Weekday
And if you are starting a business or some other project, chances are your Saturday and possibly Sunday will also contain Time Blocks for that project. That is totally fine. The Time Block Templates are just a starting point to help you take the action items you know you need to take, from your written Plan, and put them into your daily calendar so that your calendar can remind you of them, and you can hold yourself accountable to them. This is the beginning of the Discipline you need if you wan to achieve great goals in your career and personal life. You MUST live on Purpose. If you do not, you are missing fun and productive moments left and right.
Hopefully this 2 part article on creating Time Blocks in your schedule has opened your eyes to the possibility that you could be even more productive in you days and weeks with this thought process. Hopefully you will take the time to create some templates, and take 5 minutes each day to adjust your schedule details so that you can hold yourself accountable to take the actions you decided on in your Plan and make the most of every minute of every day. I hope you learn to Live every minute On Purpose.
In our next issue we will explore how to get more done by focusing on less.
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