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Juggling 101: Part II

by Candyce Fulford

Previous: Juggling 101: Introduction

Putting Time on OUR side

We all have the very same 1440 minutes every day. It's up to us to spend them wisely, because once spent, we can not get them back.

So, where do we start? For me, answering that question was simple. I would start where I loved spending the most time ... right on my computer.

So, let's begin our time management lesson for this week right where we are ... on our computers.

I have Windows operating system on my computer, so everything I talk about now will be based on what I know about Windows. I don't own a Mac, and therefore am not familiar with them. I apologize up front to the Mac users.

My computer *is* my daily planner. Without my daily planner, I am totally lost. When I was working in the "real" world, I carried around a Daily Planner, and became so familiar with its ins and outs that I adapted the techniques to use here at home. I track everything now on my computer. Of course, once again, this takes some getting used to doing every day, until it becomes habit. But, that's what these lessons are all about, right?

When we think of a Daily Planner, we think of a 'book' to help us keep track of what we need to do, when we need to do it, use the phone book section to store the names, addresses and phone numbers of contacts, friends and family members. We use these books to keep track of our daily activities. Most of us even use these 'books' to carry our check books, credit cards and cash.

So, how can we do the same on our computers? There are two ways: one way is by using the programs already on the computer, for most of us, and the other is by getting a program which is just like a Daily Planner. More about the program I use later.

In order to get a handle on a beginning point for *you*, try doing the following exercise. Bring up a spreadsheet program and create one that will let you enter activity, time in, time out, and total time. Then, beginning with the time you first arose in the morning, enter into the 'activity' column everything you did that day. The best way to accurately do this would be to choose a day that you know you can fill out the spreadsheet with activities, times in and out, (just like you were punching a time clock), and then the total time for each item on the list. Then, before you go to bed, add up all the time you spent during the day. In order to get a handle on just where your time is going, this spreadsheet needs to be filled in as accurately as possible.

When I first tried doing this exercise, I was so shocked to see the results! I won't tell you today what the results were for me. I'd like for you to see for yourself just how you spent 24 hours of your life. You will be amazed, I assure you. And that amazement will lead to one of the best building blocks in the foundation of good time management.

That's it for this week. Try the exercise as outlined above. If you like, email me with your results. I won't share them unless you'd like me to do so.
Just mailto:candy@beremembered.com.

Next week: Making priorities with our Daily Planner.