Your Time Budget -
Saving Revolution Lesson 3
This week take 15 minutes to set up a Time Budget. We are all blessed with the same 24 hours in a day, it’s what we do with those hours that makes the difference in our lives. I know many of you work to lists and that is fantastic, I love lists and have a To Do list for every day of the week, for both home and work. But if your lists are massively impossible and leave you feeling overwhelmed instead of in control then they are not working and you need a Time Budget. Just as when you don’t have a plan for your money it slips through your fingers, so too does your time. You may be busy from daylight to dusk and yet feel as though you haven’t accomplished anything and it is because you don’t have a time budget.
Start with the time you have (yes, those 24 measly hours). The first thing you do is block out at least eight hours for sleep. You may not sleep for eight hours but block it out. You do need rest (and it’s good for your figure – science has proved that folk who sleep eight hours a night find it easier to control their weight).
Now schedule in two hours of break or margin time. This is essential. You’ll fill your time right up and leave no room for Murphy, and he will come calling. We’ve all had days when everything goes right and then there are the days when absolutely nothing goes to plan: the alarm doesn’t go off, the toast burns, the washing machine overflows, the kids’ leave their lunch at home, the car gets a flat tyre and you forget to take the roast out of the freezer. With your time filled back-to-back you have no room to manage the unplanned.
You now have fourteen hours left. Prioritize them in blocks. If you work outside the home you’ll need to block those hours out immediately. Then take the remaining time blocks and assign them a task.
Use your Time Budget to plan your Daily To Do list if you use one. Creating a Time Budget isn’t magic, it won’t suddenly make life easy. What it will do though is give you control over your time and allow you to get done what has to be without feeling overwhelmed.
And remember, as with all budgets, it’s not written in concrete. It’s meant to be adjusted and refined as you work with it.
You can print off a Time Budget template here.
Start with the time you have (yes, those 24 measly hours). The first thing you do is block out at least eight hours for sleep. You may not sleep for eight hours but block it out. You do need rest (and it’s good for your figure – science has proved that folk who sleep eight hours a night find it easier to control their weight).
Now schedule in two hours of break or margin time. This is essential. You’ll fill your time right up and leave no room for Murphy, and he will come calling. We’ve all had days when everything goes right and then there are the days when absolutely nothing goes to plan: the alarm doesn’t go off, the toast burns, the washing machine overflows, the kids’ leave their lunch at home, the car gets a flat tyre and you forget to take the roast out of the freezer. With your time filled back-to-back you have no room to manage the unplanned.
You now have fourteen hours left. Prioritize them in blocks. If you work outside the home you’ll need to block those hours out immediately. Then take the remaining time blocks and assign them a task.
Use your Time Budget to plan your Daily To Do list if you use one. Creating a Time Budget isn’t magic, it won’t suddenly make life easy. What it will do though is give you control over your time and allow you to get done what has to be without feeling overwhelmed.
And remember, as with all budgets, it’s not written in concrete. It’s meant to be adjusted and refined as you work with it.
You can print off a Time Budget template here.