Motivational Monday's (9/23/19) Topic: Time Management

Hellloooo and happy Monday to you! 

I have a question for everyone today… Take a minute to think about your answer before continuing to read this (maybe writing down an idea or two). 

How do you use your “time management skills” to help you lead a healthy lifestyle? 

When most of us think about health, we often think of the facts — what vitamins do I need? How much protein should I be eating? For most questions of this nature, we can simply research the answers or seek out individual advice from a professional (aka ME). 

BUT what happens once YOU have the facts? For most, putting these facts into practice is undoubtedly the hardest part. I have come to find that when it comes to sustainable behavior change and leading a healthy lifestyle, developing effective time management skills may just be the key to that long-term success.

PSA - I am WELL aware that there are only 24 hours in a day, and sometimes when we’re juggling work, relationships, kids, social lives, healthy eating, self-care and everything else — 24 just doesn’t seem like enough. Good time management skills are what will keep you on top of your health game without feeling uncontrollably overwhelmed or stressed. 

Sooooo how should you manage your time effectively to keep your health in check? Let’s talk about some of my top time management skills for leading a healthy lifestyle.

1.      Start A To-Do List: I am serious, this is step one, important and the bare minimum — create a to-do list for yourself. The key is writing down everything you would like to get done. Record it in the notes section of your phone, an app, your journal or your daily planner, wherever works best for you!

Our chances of forgetting something are so much higher when we keep everything in the form of thoughts. As soon as you write something down you create a tangible representation of the task — your mind no longer has to work to store that information. 

When we constantly rely on our memory to keep all of our tasks and thoughts in line, it’s very easy to become overwhelmed, stressed and unfortunately forgetful.

Recording information also forces you to actually think about the task and mentally process it. Let’s take grocery shopping for example. When you write down “grocery shop” on your to-do list, your brain automatically kicks into gear and pictures grocery shopping, you may even think about where you want to go or when; therefore increasing your chances of actually completing said task. This is LEGIT stay with me here! 

2.      Prioritize Your List: So you sat down and recorded all of the things you wanted to accomplish, now what? Take a look at everything you’ve written down and asked yourself — what do I really need to accomplish first? Prioritize the items on your list in a way that will help you to complete them in a logical, timely manner. 

Prioritization is key. Without it, your list will most likely be unproductive and unorganized. The purpose of the list is to allow you to manage your time in the best way possible, start with priority number one and work your way down.

3.      Take It Day By Day: Now we have a prioritized to-do list telling us step-by-step what we need to do, great! But it’s three pages long and you only have four hours left to finish it, not so great.

Organize your tasks by day in a realistic way. Even if your list is prioritized accordingly if you’re constantly leaving it unfinished your chances of feeling discouraged and calling it quits are pretty high.

This is particularly important when you’re making changes or adjustments to your usual routine (aka changing your lifestyle and comfortable nutrition regime). We so often find ourselves in autopilot, going about our daily activities without really having to think about what it is that we are doing.

When you want to add a new task to that daily routine, autopilot just won’t cut it. By including those new tasks in your daily list — be it to meal prep on a Sunday or add a run in on Monday morning — you’re reminded that these new tasks are important for your healthy lifestyle and must be completed.

4.      Learn How To Say NO (This one is HUGE): Once again, we can’t do everything, it’s just not possible. Sometimes that simply means we have to say no.

If you’ve reached the point where there is so much on your plate that you barely have room to take a deep breath — I am speaking directly to you. We all, of course, have things we need to do but don’t necessarily want to do, it’s somewhat unavoidable. But often times there are so many things we say yes to that we don’t have to do.

Before saying yes, think about you. Consider your priorities, what serves you and your healthy lifestyle – how do you feel now and how will you feel after agreeing to give your time and energy?

Learning to say NO when you need to can make all the difference in your time management. You’ll be able to spend the majority of your time doing things you really need or want to do… this is KEY. 

There you have it sunshine’s. Now, please do not have a heart attack. Take baby steps! If time management skills and organization altogether are not already “your jam”, start small and build your way up.

Building NEW habits takes time. When we try a bunch of new things at once on day one, sometimes that leads to a big crash and burn on day two. Hence my “tools to the tool belt” or “poco a poco” mantra that I have each of you practice and preach. Slowly but surely let us try to implement some new mental and physical health conscious routines into our daily life. Before you know it they’ll be full blown habits and you won’t even have to think about them!! 

Lastly, let us not forget the power of writing your long- and short-term goals down!! Record the goals you are working towards and be sure to display them somewhere you can frequently see them. You want to be reminded of what you are working towards and why all the little steps really matter. 

Make SURE your goals are realistic and specific. Really take a moment to think about what it will take to get you where you want to go, and the effort it will take you to get there. Never forgetting how worth it the short-term sacrifices will be for the long-term gain! You are strong, you are capable, but are you willing? 

All my love, per usual.

Coach B