Deeper Dive - Gaining Control in 2023 - December 20, 2022
2023 is just a few days away. Here is a quick tip to get 2023 off to a solid start and gaining control in your life (if you need it!)
2023 is just ten days away.
I will admit, this holiday season has just flown by. It was just this weekend where I finished up my Christmas shopping. I think taking a much needed week vacation right after Thanksgiving was the right thing to do, but it has come with some serious social consequences. Everything now feels rushed.
Add to that, the news that is dropping that a monster snow storm (they are evening throwing that “blizzard” word around) and this is going to be a week. I am grateful i don’t have to travel, but even zero degree temps, 40 mile per hour winds and inches of snow does not sound like fun.
But enough about my struggles, as I talk to nonprofit people there is always a sense of never enough time to do “all the things”. For many people, even necessary activities such as exercise and sleep are almost off the table; there just isn’t enough time.
Folks in our line of work get up too early, work too hard, stay up to late to work on things that occupy their mind, collapse into bed for a few hours just to get up and do it all over again. How do we get out of this rut?
Enter the Planner
Last week, my own personal 2023 planning went into high gear and I purchased a yearly planner and immediately took two hours to add the times, dates and events to this important and necessary tool.
But like every tool, it needs to be used properly and it’s only through discovering the best way to use this tool have I been able to maximize it. It took me a few years of trial and error to figure out how to use this tool.
It’s your life, it should be your schedule
My first piece of advice is get a planner that you actually have to write something down. I know some people that love Outlook and Google Calendars, I can’t use them. First, there is always something that leaks through that can easily be categorized in two ways: 1. Things I can’t control and 2. Things I often forget.
One of the selling points of online calendars is that other people can see your availability and commit you to their events. This is one of the reasons people hate their calendars. They are always under the tyranny of someone else’s needs and desires. At the end of the day, your schedule is your schedule, not theirs. You need to be strong enough to negotiate your time and your schedule to meet your needs, not someone else’s wishes. Having a written calendar in which you write those things down demonstrates that the event has some relevance to you and you can weed out those things that don’t have value to you as well.
Second, I often forget things that I don’t physically write down. Clicking an invite in an email does not have the same capacity to enter into my memory as opening up the planner, flipping to the right page and physically writing down the event.
Put Things Down that Matter to You
Building on one of the points above, too many people treat their calendar as an open door invitation to let other people monopolize their time. Someone sees an open spot on your schedule and they immediately think they can put their needs and desires ahead of your number one asset, your time. The crazy thing is we think nothing of it. We are always more than willing to give up our time for other people (even though they often waste it.)
I also hear people lament that they never have enough time to do the things that they need to do to take care of themselves. Time to read, exercise, reflect, etc.
What would it look like if you scheduled those things into your planner? What if you took time for yourself that becomes non-negotiable to the other people wanting to get on your calendar?
On the face, it may seem a bit selfish and self-centered. In reality, I have found that it leads to a more disciplined life. If you place a time in your planner to go exercise, your odds of exercising during that time and day, just improved exponentially. Things like taking care of yourself, don’t “just happen”. If they are going to be part of a lifestyle change, they must be planned for and scheduled. You need to create every opportunity you can to make it happen.
I can guarantee you that once you start scheduling things for yourself in your own schedule, you will quickly find that you have more than enough time to do the things you want to do while still maintaining your responsibilities at home and at work.
What do you want to work on?
Is there a piece of information you want to know that maybe I can help you? Shoot me an email at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com and as a paid subscriber, you are entitled to a free one-hour consulting session. We can sit down and talk and figure out where we can take you and your organization, including a deeper discussion on logic models!
Thanks for subscribing and be well!
Bill