Time Strategies; My planner obsession!

Time management is a struggle I think most people understand. Whether it is for day to day life or a specific project, I bet everyone reading this has struggled with feeling like they didn't have sufficient time to complete a task at one time or another. There are so many elements that go into poor time management. Some people, for example, have no motivation to start a project. Others may have no idea where to start. Some people have a poor concept of time, feel like they have "plenty of time" to finish a task, and end up rushing to complete it before their deadline. 

For me, time management is a struggle because I have such a busy schedule that it often feels like I don't have enough time in my days or weeks to complete everything I set out to do (often because I literally don't have enough time). I work full time and I'm a full time student. I live in Tuttle and commute to Norman for school and to downtown Oklahoma City for work. I work 10 hour shifts, with an 8 days working and 6 days off schedule and I usually have classes 5 days a week. My husband and I are also currently in the process of buying a house, so now I've got to find time to pack and take care of all the details involved with that (there are a lot! Lol). So, my lifestyle demands a very meticulous schedule to keep everything sorted out. The only way I can survive my week is by laying out my week in a very detailed fashion so I know exactly what I need to do when! I'm kind of a craft junkie and I fell in love with fancy planners a while ago, so I started combining the two. I customize my planner and do a bit of scrap book decorating throughout to make it fun and give myself a reason to want to open it every day (photo example below)! My favorite is the Erin Condren planner (check out these products, here). They are a bit pricey but I think my sanity is worth the price. :) There are also other cheaper versions if you're on a more strict budget. The cheaper, very similar version to the Erin Condren that I really like is the Happy Planner or create 365 Planner (check out these products, here). What I really like about both of these planners is that they're very customizable, so it is really easy to make them perfect for your own needs. I break down my planner into "reading", "homework", & "studying / review" and I write exactly what I need to do for an assignment. For example, I may write "Sam Noble Museum write-up; complete rough draft". Then, I don't mark off the assignment until I am 100% done with it or have made a choice to move the work to another day and noted it down. I also put any due dates on the monthly overview for double assurance that I don't miss anything! Finally, I color code my planner. Each subject has it's own color and I highlight anything for a certain class in its specified color and test days are blocked in red as well! I have misplaced my planner in the past and joked about my entire life depending on finding it. 

(Personal photo; Scrap book create 365 planner, taken by me)

This morning I read "The Psychology of Checklists" (check it out, here), by Lauren Marchese. I chose this article, because I use checklists very often to help organize things in my life and I thought it would be interesting. Occasionally my planner will even have layers within a page. I have sticky notes that are sized proportionally to fit the squares in my planner so, sometimes when I have too many things to do in one day I will use them with, you guessed it... CHECK LISTS!! I can't honestly say that I got any new ideas from this article but I'm okay with that, because I have a pretty solid grasp of how to manage my time at this point. It did however, give me some insight into what chemical processes are going on that make my methods for time management a success. People often ask me how I manage my hectic life and I tell them that diligent organization is my secret! 

For this class in particular, I think I will use the same organization that I've been using for a while now (described above), because it is what works for me. I really like that our weekly assignments are laid out in a very specific manner, because that makes it easy for me to break down my daily work and keep up with the course work.