4 Steps to managing your time better!

Being Singaporean almost always = being BUSY.

We are always so busy and everything/everyone always demands our time. I always hear people wishing for more time for God/family/work/rest, and recently I've seen lots of people struggling to manage their time.

So.. I thought I'd share how I've recently learnt to manage my time and schedule :) The same thing doesn't work for everyone, but so far the people I've shared this with seem to find it very helpful, so maybe this might help you!

Step 1: List out all the things that are important for you to make time for in order of importance.

Don't worry! I know it's hard deciding which ones are more important than others, but just use a-garation (Singlish for 'guesstimation') because we'll try to find time for it all. The difference is in how much time we give to each priority.

Step 2: Come up with a rough schedule of your 'free' time. Fill it in with things that are kinda routine.

e.g. daily devotional, basketball with colleagues, Sunday family dinner.

I split mine up by morning, afternoon and evening because you probably don't have free time locked down to the minute anyway.

It doesn't need to be perfect! In fact I scribble it out and change it every now and then to find the optimum way to organise my time.

Step 3: Fill in fixed times to do stuff. 

e.g. Monday evening is always for chores, Thurs evening always for basketball.

You can also add in 'rules' like 'every alt Wed evening is cell group time', 'the other alt Wed is for Reading' or 'every first Sat morning of the month is for swimming with Mum'. 

It sounds confusing, but once you get to it, it's actually really simple and easy to do! 

Some tips for doing this:

1. Draw the frame in pen first, then pencil your stuff in till you're happy with it.
2. Be reasonable with yourself and activities. Also schedule in time to be alone and to rest.

Step 4: STICK TO THE PLAN, but not too much!

I've come to realise (through one of those 'things I wish I knew at 20-something' articles) that good habits make life balanced and great. So stick to the plan you've set out for yourself, but when you find that another good habit is more natural, re-work the plan to suit that habit. It makes life easier on yourself.

I also allow myself flexibility to move things around from week-to-week. Like if a friend wants to meet on Wednesday instead of the Fridays I've set aside, I just swap Wednesday's activity with Friday's for that week.

So there! Simple tips for managing time better. If you've questions, just comment or msg me and I'll try my best to answer :)

Hope this helps!