Control Your Time: Time Management Techniques To Schedule Your Priorities
Nov 09, 2021
Do you ever feel like you don't have control over your calendar? That you don't have enough time? If your answer is in the affirmative, we get you. You either wish you had more time or more of you to do all the things that need to be done. In this episode, Yanet Borrego shows you how to bring back power into your hands so you can do the things you're passionate about without the unnecessary stress and overwhelm. Yanet pulls back the curtains and teaches specific time management techniques on how to prioritize what is really important and make everything happen. Don't miss out!
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Control Your Time: Time Management Techniques To Schedule Your Priorities
I'm deeply excited about this episode because I'm very passionate about this particular topic, which I call Empowered Time Management. There is nothing more stressful and overwhelming than feeling that you don't have control over your calendar and time. Often, you say to yourself, “I wish I had more time.” Often, we say to ourselves also, “How can everyone expect me to do everything that I need to do?”
The reality is that our calendars and everyone else's agendas are driving our agenda. When you feel that you don't have control or power into defining your agenda, then you start feeling overwhelmed because you are not allowing that space to put the gas back in your tank to refuel, rest and recover and truly do the things that you are passionate about and you have an intention and purpose for.
In this episode, I'm going to open the curtains and let you know what specific techniques and approaches I follow to make everything happen and prioritize what's important. A lot of people always ask me, “Yanet, how can you do many things at the same time? How can you do so much?” I'm going to reveal every step of the way that I follow in order to get there to live my days with intention and drive every single minute of my day with that intention in mind. It is going to be very systematic. I like systems and easy-to-implement approaches.
If you follow these, I promise that you are going to start regaining control of your calendar. Not only that, you are going to feel empowered because whenever you feel you don't have control of your time, you feel powerless. You feel like you are going through life without a why, intention and purpose. You are letting everything drive your time and agenda. I don't want that for you and I'm sure you don't want that for yourself. This is going to be deeply helpful.
Whenever you feel you don't have control of your time, you feel powerless.
You don't have to wait until the end of 2021 to do this. I did it in April 2021. One of the things that I like to do every single time is to ask myself, “What are the key milestones that I want to achieve in 2022?” What are the key milestones that you want to achieve in 2022? I know you don't have to wait until December, but this timing couldn't be even more perfect. December is coming up and each year is a new opportunity to live life on your terms.
I want you to ask yourself, “What are those key milestones that you see yourself achieving and having in 2022?” Not only that, but with each key milestone, I want you to be specific and assign a date to that milestone. For example, for me, one of the things I wanted to have was to launch this show. It will be in October 2021, but I wrote earlier in 2021, “By September 2021, I'll be launching With Clarity & Purpose Podcast.”
All those milestones that I set for one year, I literally have them in front of me. I have them in my office on a big board that I see every single day. Those are the key milestones that lead my monthly, weekly and daily goals. I want you to do that first, “What are the key milestones that you want to achieve in 2022?” After having those, because you have specific dates, all of these dates will be in a specific month. What you do other than the annual planning is to do the monthly planning.
At every start of the month, I erase my calendar. I have an awesome calendar and I document the key milestones that I want to achieve for that specific month. For example, in September 2021, I knew that I wanted to launch my podcast. I also knew that I wanted to work on the creation of my LLC and start hosting webinars, which will start in October 2021. Based on that, I started to plan my weeks. Now that I have a view into my yearly goals and monthly milestones, we are going to go into the weeks.
Every month has 4 or 5 weeks. What I would recommend is that every Sunday, take twenty minutes of your time to plan your week. How I do it that works perfectly is, every Sunday, I dedicate 30 minutes and look through the upcoming items I have that week. From those upcoming items, I set 2 to 3 priorities to complete every single day. I want you to be mindful because sometimes your tasks or goals may be a very big picture.
For example, when I was trying to create my website, that was a huge goal because I ended up creating 4 or 5 different pages. How I did it is that I divided creating a website into 4 or 5 different goals, “Today, I'm going to be focusing on creating my testimonials page. Tomorrow, I'm going to be focusing on creating my coaching overview page.” Not only that, other than establishing those top 2 to 3 priorities every week so you can plan ahead, you can practically prioritize what is important to you. Be intentional and purposeful.
I love what one of my favorite authors, Stephen Covey, says, “Do not prioritize your schedule. Schedule your priorities.” Now that you have your annual goals, they don't have to be a bunch. Keep it simple at first. Based on those annual goals, you plan and prioritize your monthly milestones, which are your monthly goals. From the monthly goals, you go to weekly. Every Sunday, dedicate time to plan the top 2 to 3 priorities per day. Every day, I look at those priorities and I also estimate, “How long do I think these priorities are going to take me?”
For example, when I was creating my website, I estimated three hours for the first task, creating my coaching overview. I kept measuring those three hours. If, for some reason I couldn't finish that one task in three hours, I moved it to the next day and then I dedicated two more hours. It is okay if you don't finish a task, but be consistent and keep dedicating some time to that task every day until you are completely done. Be intentional with those daily tasks.
Part of life is asking more questions, so you can discover yourself even better.
One technique that I love using for productivity that you might have heard of is called the Pomodoro Technique. The theory behind the Pomodoro Technique is that it is important to dedicate uninterrupted times of focus to your task. You are doing that task in 25 minutes chunks of pure, focused, interrupted time. What I do when I estimate the timing of my task is I estimate it based on Pomodoro, “How many Pomodoros will this take me?” For example, one hour is two Pomodoros because 25 plus 25 equals 50 minutes. Two hours equal to four Pomodoros.
I find this very helpful because if I say, “It is going to take my coaching overview page three hours,” and I start with, “This is going to take three hours,” it tends to be overwhelming at first. If you focus on, “I'm going to take 25 minutes first,” making those 25 minutes happen and then on the next 25 minutes chunk, you'll get more wins and instant satisfaction faster. It is important to break down those goals. Not only that, break down the estimated time that it takes. You can do that with the Pomodoro Technique.
My clients have tested this and they love it. Every time they follow this approach, they feel that they are in control, more empowered and living life with intention. I want you to try it out. If it doesn't work, then it is great, but at least try it out consistently. Set your goals for 2022 because you've got to have a direction. You wake up every day. What are your motivation and direction? For example, I woke up and I was like, “I cannot wait to record these two videos because I want people to take control of their lives and live on their own terms so they can make their dreams happen.” That's my motivation.
Another part of defining these goals is finding your motivation. In 2022, you are going to have 5, 6 or 7 different goals. What is your motivation behind those goals? What is the thing that every morning when you wake up, you are going to be like, “I'm going to do this because this is the impact that I want to create?” What is that thing for you? That's important in order to chunk down or get more granular with the tactical items I was talking about.
Some tips for you, I described the how. I want to summarize it. It is important to make sure to not prioritize your schedule, but schedule your priorities, as Stephen Covey says. The first thing is, find your motivation. In 2022, what are you seeking to improve, grow and make an impact on? What is your big motivation? Choose a theme. It is funny because 2021's theme for me was building the foundation. What is the theme in 2022 for you? Based on that theme, what are the key milestones you want to achieve within 2022? Define those. Those are your annual milestones.
Based on those annual milestones, what are the things that you need to start planning, prioritizing and monitoring on a monthly basis? Now that you have your annual milestones with a specific date, you know the exact month when you need to achieve them. Plan for it. Every month, beginning of the month or even ending of the previous month, look at, “What is next for me? What are the things that I need to start planning for?” Plan for that month.
Every week on a Sunday, dedicate at least 30 minutes to defining the top 2 to 3 priorities for each one of the days. If you are planning and prioritizing, believe me, your life is going to feel like it has a flow to it and direction rather than trying to go everywhere without any direction, so you end up nowhere. With this strategy, I promise you are going to find a new direction in your life. I always leave you with one question because part of life is asking more questions, so you can even discover yourself even better.
The one question is, “What is the one Empowered Time Management tip or technique that I've given that you are going to start implementing now? What is that for you? How is your planning and prioritization process going to look like?” I cannot wait to hear from you. Please comment on the podcast, social media and YouTube. This will be everywhere. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with everyone else. Have a great day.
Important Links:
- Pomodoro Technique
- YouTube - With Clarity & Purpose
- TomatoTimer
- www.YBCoaching.com
- Instagram - Mindset & Clarity NLP Coach
- Yanet Borrego Coaching - Facebook
- Yanet Borrego Coaching - LinkedIn
FREE Resources:
Starting your day without direction? Start your morning on purpose with my go-to 5 mins routine.
Need Clarity? 3 Simple Questions to boost your clarity and make authentic decisions that lead to fulfilling outcomes. You also have journaling space for each question so you can capture your insights.
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