What You Need To Know To Balance This Schedule Thing Effectively

Prioritizing Time For Less Stress

You feel tension rising as you realize your schedule is blown yet again.  There's an emergency load of laundry to run and everyone is running late.  You’re frustrated, your husband is frustrated, and you wonder how it will ever work.

How DO successful business women manage to do it all?  The dirty secret is: they DON’T!  

Growing into a schedule that works for you and your unique situation is messy.  So is building a business and keeping up with the most important relationship you have.  The man you chose to marry deserves even more careful consideration than you give your business.

I think something I learned this past week will reduce some of that messiness.

I’m assuming you already have your husband’s buy-in on your new adventure.   Your stress level will be different.  You may be distracted with various tasks of starting a business.  Details effortlessly covered slip off your radar – but not his.

A neglected marriage in favor of your business may develop an emptier nest than planned.  Your husband might not admit he feels neglected, until it's too late.  If you do your best to understand and take his needs into account when planning your day, you may save your marriage – and your business, too.

After reading Sacred Influence by Gary Thomas, I asked my husband what one thing he would have me change.  It wasn’t about cleaning.  It was about my excessive use of social media.  I’m working to re-prioritize to spend less time there and avoid it past a certain time of day.

Over and over, I hear the message that we all have the same 24 hours in a day.  I want to throw my hands up in the air.   I get that I can’t do it all, yet it’s still waiting to get done.  I always feel ... behind. That wears on me.  I bet it wears on you, too. 

 

That's why I got excited listening to Brendan Burchard talk about dealing with priorities.  If you have trouble figuring out AND balancing your priorities, there's hope. 

Up until now, my priorities have to do with urgent tasks/chores and things that make me feel self-respectable.  So grocery shopping has a higher priority than mopping the floor.  However, ignoring a dirty floor drives me nuts.  It doesn’t feel self-respectable at all, and I’d be embarrassed if anyone came over.

I don’t have the funds to pay someone else to do that – yet.  I’m not willing to demand that my husband give up on his priorities and nag him about something he doesn’t care much about, either.  So what do I do in the meantime?  Get my priorities straight.

Brendon Burchard has four things to say about prioritizing.

      1.   Get rid of the unimportant.  

*Does this thing or activity have a benefit?   If it brings me joy, it serves an outcome.  If it is useful and I use it, it has value. 

*If not, it requires maintenance, tying up space or time.

2.  Know the value.

*When evaluating the cost - money or time, is there a short-term or long-term benefit? 

*Is it a big enough value to be worth the cost/effort now? 

*Can the same benefit be achieved without buying or doing this?

3.  Evaluate and Prioritize.  Score each activity plus those under consideration.  How does it score in:

*character/values/personal growth 

*relationships

*health 

*spirituality 

*wealth (making or giving money)

4.   Schedule accordingly.

We understand that we can’t do every good thing.  We can’t read every good book, make every appealing recipe, or pass the white glove test at all times. 

 

When you know the score of your activities, rank each item based on how they fit with the first two qualifiers.  Some things aren’t worth doing when stacked up against others.  

Know what you value.   Knowing where something ranks makes it much easier to say no to good things. You are crystal clear on what you have time to accomplish.  You know that over-filling your schedule won’t produce the results you are looking for.

Your valuable time and energy is available for what you value most.  Your life will be more enjoyable without the unnecessary stress of misplaced priorities.  Your husband will enjoy his unfrazzled wife, too.

What things do you need to let go to make room for your highest value activities?  What one thing would your husband ask you to change?