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Every person has 168 hours in one week to accomplish the priorities of life. To maximize these hours and to manage your daily routines efficiently, make it a regular habit to organize your weekly activities, schedule, and lifestyle.
STEP ONE: Make a list of all the routine activities you do in a typical week (and need to do), including things like sleeping time, meals (preparation and cleanup), personal body care, jobs, educational classes, driving time, shopping, spending time with family members, clubs and organizations, doing the bills, volunteer work, household duties, exercise, phone calls, watching TV, hobbies, reading, studying, and etc.
STEP TWO: Organize these weekly activities into general categories. Begin with the basic elements of your life and note the number of hours you spend on each. Interestingly, approximately one third of your time will be spent in the following bodily priorities:
SLEEP 49
PERSONAL HYGIENE 3 TOTAL: 60 hours
MEALS 8
Next, list and number the hours you spend with work, school, career, and business over one typical week. This will be another third of your weekly time schedule.
WORK 40
HOME BUSINESS 15 TOTAL: 60
TRAVEL TIME 5
Now include social and relational priorities and obligations you have, such as:
TIME WITH FAMILY 14
RELATIVES AND FRIENDS 5 TOTAL: 33
CHURCH, CLUBS, ORGANIZATIONS 6
KIDS' ACTIVITIES, SPORTS, ETC 8
With the last few hours you have in the week, fill in personal and domestic interests and tasks:
HOUSEHOLD DUTIES 3
EXERCISE 4 TOTAL: 15
HOBBIES AND ENTERTAINMENT 4
QUIET TIME, PRAYER, REFLECTION 4
You can break down these categories into specific activities that characterize your personal lifestyle. Students may want to list all of their classes and homework duties. Homemakers can list the various, specific tasks they do on a regular basis. Time with family and friends can be specifically separated into sub categories as well.
STEP THREE: Create a weekly calendar that is divided into 24 hourly (or 30 minute) segments
for each of the seven days. Fit it on one page or buy a small calendar book that divides the days/weeks into hours.
First, fill in the activities that take up the largest and most regular time periods, including sleep, work, meals, daily hygiene, and travel time. Color sleep, meals, and hygeine a shede of blue to highlight these elements of life. Color your work and travel hours green for money.
Follow these initial activities with the next most important tasks, obligations, and meetings. Usually, there is more fluctuation with these time commitments from week to week. These can be colored red and include time things like sporting events, rehearsals, monthly church meetings, special engagements, and etc.
Fill in the remaining time gaps with the social, relational, and personal activities that provide balance and wholeness to your schedule. Flux often characterizes this category as well so use a color like yellow for sun and fun.
Keep a master schedule with you at all times, post a copy on your desk or refrigerator, and make adjustments when necessary. As you gain experience in creating a weekly schedule in this manner, managing your time for the week should become a regular and easy habit.
It would be a good idea to expand your calendar to include other household members. A few hours of one day may look like this:
FRIDAY
Father Mother Son#1 Son#2
6 am breakfast sleep breakfast breakfast
7 travel/work breakfast school school
8 exercise
9 work
11 @ home
12 business lunch lunch
1 pm lunch lunch
2 run errands
3 business meeting
4 domestics homework homework
5 dinner @ home dinner @ home
6 work @ home business basketball practice
7 exercise business
8 pick up kids relax relax relax
9 help kids with homework homework
The key to organizing your time for the week is to just do it. Taking just a few minutes on a Sunday night to schedule your life will go a long ways toward developing an efficient lifestyle.
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