Jo and I sat down in the café last week. We ordered our coffee and banana bread, rolled up our sleeves and rolled out the napkin… Things were about to get serious.
As we enter into 2016, we have 2 choices; bumble along and pretend we’re still living in 2015 or get savvy and make our schedule work for us. With our 3 young children who attend 3 different educational centres, 3 jobs between us that span every day of the week, our circumstances demand us to be smart.
How many times have you been sprung with a long weekend and not thought about what you’re going to do? Forgotten to organise annual leave? At the end of a long day, do you have 100 things you need to do, a recreational activity you want to do, people you want to see… and it just doesn’t happen?
We spent the next 2 hours armed with a pen, napkin and calendar mapping out our entire year and the shape of our week. We lay out our priorities and limits on the table, literally. Where we need to be, where the kids need to be, where we want to go in our breaks, who we need to spend time with to be energised, me time, date nights, professional development nights, morning runs, down time and more.
This is not some trivial exercise for couples but a blueprint to kick off our year so that there are no surprises. There are always moving parts so it’s not a finished piece, but there is structure and flexibility and a bit of space to be spontaneous.
At a glance we can see our priorities in action, we know who is important to us and we know what we need to do to function well and thrive in every avenue of life.
Kickstart 2016 with some serious napkin action (or just paper if you are a rookie)! Do this for your home life, your business life, your social life. It’s about being deliberate with the time that you have been given (so you don’t bum out in front of Netflix every night and kick yourself), and so you can make the most of the opportunities that are ahead of you.
Evan
PS. If you want any help with organising your schedule, identifying priorities and setting goals, I’d love to speak with you so shoot me a message and register for my workshops.