Compartmentalizing Time
I am trying to introduce an element of conscious self development into my life to keep me focussed on my goals and ambitions. The first book I read was The Sedona Method, which I reviewed (albeit briefly) last week. I have just finished another book – How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be: The 25 Principles Of Success, this has provided a lot of food for thought and I want to try and apply the principles, specifically, to motherhood, parenting, juggling work and home, basically to the kind of things we deal with day in day out to see if we can find more time, more peace, more happiness in our hectic lives.
Compartmentalizing Time
My life over the past few months has become increasingly busy. Here’s what I need to try and make fit.
Full-time Parenting – What I mean by this, is that I look after Erin full time, Alex is out the house for between 45-60 hours a week, Erin doesn’t attend nursery at all yet, my family live away, Alex’ family are on hand to help out but we don’t have a regular arrangement, so much of my time is spent directly caring for Erin.
12 hours of work per week – This is a ‘proper’ job where I am contracted to do 12 hours a week from home, the hours are flexible but need to be completed between 4pm and 9pm or on a Saturday.
Housework – Alex is pretty handy and we split this 50/50, unfortunately in times of crisis (time crisis) it’s probably the first thing to go.
Studying – An open learning maths course which I should probably be committing a few hours a week to, but have yet to get started, I must rectify this.
Multiple Streams of Income – Doing things that earn income other than directly trading hours for money. This includes blogging (which just so happens to be a hobby), ebay and the like.
These are the main things but obviously house management (finances etc), relationship time, ‘me’ time etc all need to find their place too.
Most mothers, and, indeed fathers have similar ‘line ups’, and from speaking to friends and reading other parenting blogs it’s apparent that most manage by multi-tasking.
Compartmentalizing
In the past I have been a whizz at multi-tasking, increasingly I’m finding that it simply isn’t conducive to the current line up. Each task seems to need 100% concentration or focus to achieve accuracy/safety/productivity. I have begun compartmentalizing my time and trying to focus 100% on the job in hand.
I have taken this approach from a quote – “do more of what is working, do less of what isn’t” – from the first principle – Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life – of Jack Canfield’s best seller . Obvious really, but it’s amazing how many of us have destructive habits and systems. Smoking, drinking to excess, watching too much tv (one of the major time suckers), and, in my case, multi-tasking to increase productivity which is having exactly the opposite effect.
I’d be interested in how everyonelse manages – if you are willing to share…
Hi! I understand about the full-time parenting while working at home. My parents take care of my daughter for about 15 hours a week. Other than that, it’s all me. Day and night, night and day!
How do I do it? I’m not sure! I’ve started using a timer to get housework done and to make myself focus on tasks. I work when my toddler’s asleep (if she takes a nap, and definitely after she goes to bed). I’m often up quite late.
And we have our favorite lineup of TV shows, which keep her occupied for maybe 10 minutes at a time. And I have a few DVD’s when I need a break other times of the day.
Since your husband comes home in the evenings, even though he’s tired, I would power-work for an hour (set the timer).
I don’t cook a whole lot (there’s only two of us), but if she ate more I would sometimes buy a prepared roast that might last us a couple of days. I’ll let you know when we get to that point.
But try a timer! Setting it for just 15 minutes helps you stick to a task, or at least pause it when the baby interrupts.
I do the timer thing too, I find that (for the most) it stops me getting sidetracked.
I have compartmentalized into hour long increments, ie 2 hours for work, then an hour for dinner and catch up with husband, followed by an hour of studying.. wish me luck
I struggle with this too but I think getting yourself and Erin into a routine now is going to be a whole lot better than plodding on like I did and only now trying to impose routine on me and a 6 year old! It’s no fun but we are getting there!
A tip for organising your study time (not my own idea, it’s off an OU study guide) is to make a diary and record when, where, what and how long you study for. Try different ways, different times of day, different anything and note down how it goes. I started out religiously doing my study at a certain time each day but when I looked hard at what I was doing I found that snatching 10 minutes throughout the day was a lot more useful, made much better use of the time and I didn’t go planning next year’s holiday half way through my study time! It did mean I needed to leave everything easily accessable rather than tidy though.
The diary tip sounds good, I think I’ll try that. Now, I just need to get started!
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