How do I put my boots on the ground when I can’t find my socks?

I believe that there are a great number of people who would love to get involved, become more effective and make a greater impact on their communities helping to secure the future for their families but they are “so busy” that they don’t see how.

We may often wish for more time but each of us only gets 24 hours, 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds each day. How we use that time and spend our money reflects where your heart is. If you want a real clear picture of where your priorities are then go through your checkbook and your calendar for the last six months and you will see.

I get all the time “man you are so busy how do you get it all done?” So I decided to share some things that have helped me to maximize the 24 hours I have in my day to be the most effective for my beliefs.
Not only am I a political junkie but I am also a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) enthusiast. As a matter of fact this is my morning video . Okay, just kidding.

Priorities

First and foremost I HAD to make a list of priorities. This helped me
discern the urgent from the important. I like to refer to this chart~ The Time Management Matrix.
Although I need to get both urgent and important activities done, I should spend less time on activities that are not that important (regardless of their urgency). If I want to gain greater control over my time I must focus on the important activities reducing those that become urgent.

Here’s what my list of priorities looks like~ God, family, friends, country, work, me. About twice a year I have to look back at what I have spent my time, money and energies on to see if it lines up with what I say and want my priorities to be.

To Do List

What helps me most in keeping priorities in line and using my time wisely is making a to-do list and calendar. I keep a calendar that has a view of the year, month and day on me at all times. As soon as an invitation comes in or a scheduled event, I write it in my calendar and then on our family calendar on our refrigerator. Each member of our family is responsible for making sure their “events” get posted.

I started this habit with my children early, each had a color and when school calendars came out they each wrote down what they had to do.(makes for a lot less confusion and missed events).
Each evening, I make a list in my planner of the next day’s
schedule. I use letters to prioritize A, B or C. For instance getting my bills paid is an A, going to the grocery store is B and getting my nails done is a C.  I know that I work Monday thru Friday 9-5 with an hour for lunch. So that means if I need to get my dogs to the vet I plan to take them in at 7:30 and stop at the grocery on the way home, then back to the house by 9 and off to work. Knowing what I have to do the next day (opposed to what I WANT to do)makes life so much easier. When I have something that is due a long time off, for instance: Taxes, I write in my calendar April 15th, but then I go to April 1st and write down “taxes due in two weeks”, then I go to the middle of March and write down “taxes due in one month.” Doing so means no surprises.

Get the gook out

Getting my life organized meant getting rid of a lot of gook. I Now have three bins in my office. Number 1: The must-read or get-paid Number 2: What I’d like to read or donate Number 3: Off to the trash can. It took lots of discipline, but some mail or communications I don’t open anymore because I know they will only be time suckers. If it isn’t something that will help me be a better Christian, wife, mother or citizen, then out it goes.

Eliminating the gook doesn’t only mean all the paper and mail. But I also had to get rid of other “time suckers” like TV, computer games, and fictional reading. It’s not that I don’t enjoy or participate in those things anymore; I just limit that to discretionary time. If I get all my A’s and B’s done then I feel I can reward myself with the C’s like having my nails done, or playing pogo games.
I’m a firm believer in the fact that that each of us has only so many minutes on this planet and what we do with each of those minutes we also will be held accountable for. So I try not to waste too much on what I construe as “frivolous.” I sincerely want to make a difference in my community and the lives of my children. Watching hours of TV a day does nothing to help me achieve that goal. It doesn’t mean that others who delegate their time differently aren’t good and concerned people. It only means this is my perception of how I view what I can do during my own brief lifetime.

Goal Setting

After I set my priorities it becomes important to set some
goals personally, as a married couple and as a family as well as goals for work. For instance, personally I had several books that I wanted to get read, in our marriage we like to play golf, particularly playing together in couple’s tournaments. But that eats up three full days and hundreds of dollars. So we had to choose the ones we liked the best, get them on the calendar and budget for them.

We also wanted to be completely out of debt (which, outside of our home we fortunately are). And as a family we like to travel, so we have to coordinate calendars well ahead and budget for that. For work I wanted to have an average of two trainings each month while also making make a certain number of new contacts across Arkansas. I also prefer to set short-term, mid and long-term goals, which also helps keep me on track. The bottom line is that we all have to find our socks before we can put our boots on the ground and begin making a difference in whatever ways we might choose. I’ve found that it’s crucial to get myself organized and prioritized. And I promise it will work for you, too.