168 — No More No Less

by Ray Reuter on May 16, 2013

HourglassTime … an interesting paradox.  We / I have ALL that there is and we / I NEVER have enough.  What’s up with that?!  A week is exactly 168 hours — no more no less.  That 168 hours is a fixed resource — ALL of your time is going to be spent, so why not be proactive in designing how you ideally want to allocate those 168 hours.  The result is what I call your MODEL WEEK.

Imagine an “ideal” or “model” week … what activities do you want to do on a daily / weekly basis?  Below is a structure to consider — and realize that your items must be meaningful and unique to you.

  • Spiritual …  For me, roughly the first 30 minutes of every day is devoted to checking in with God and talking with Him about my upcoming day.  Simply stated, I want to give God glory in all that I do that day and to follow His will.
  • Relationships … What are your most important relationships?  You are a steward of your relationships.  Therefore, allocate time towards those who are most important to you.
    • Spouse time.  Date nights and other activities you want to do with your spouse.
    • Family time.  This entails kids’ activities, 1-to-1 time, etc.  For example, right now I block out Fridays for “grandpa” time with my grandchildren together with my wife.
  • Work / Career …  This will be unique for each person.  Possibilities …
    • Business development — marketing, phone calls, emails, prospecting, networking, etc.
    • Appointments.  My Model Week calls for no appointments prior to 9:00am.  Of course, I occasionally choose to make exceptions, and I am very protective of my time prior to 9:00am so that I can accomplish things that are a higher priority for me.
    • Business meetings — meetings with your manager, employees, staff meetings, strategic planning, and so forth.
    • Work ON the business — those “important but not urgent” areas.
    • Personal development — training, continuing education, learning, research.
    • Client / customer service — this covers many things.
  • Self …
    • Exercise, health, working out, and so forth.
    • Eating, nutrition.
    • Hobbies, fun, playtime.
    • Rest and relaxation.  Sleep!
  • Community … This could include church, charity work, ministries, neighborhood, volunteer activities.
  • Operations … Don’t overlook all those tasks that are required to run your house / family.  Things such as home improvement / repair, finances, cleaning, maintenance, yard work, grocery shopping, laundry.

For each activity above, when do you ideally want to do that activity?  Be specific with day of the week and time.  Many activities occur several times a week — identify all of those times.  And then follow that plan / structure.  You choose how detailed you want your Model Week to be — whatever works for you, and there likely will be beneficial trial and error that will take place before you find what works best for you.

WARNING!  Please manage your expectations!  Rarely, if ever, will your week actually match your Model Week.  That is unrealistic.  There are simply too many things outside of your control.  However, that is not a reason to avoid creating a Model Week.  If you are aligned with 80% / 70% / 60% of your Model Week that is realistic and a victory.  You are utilizing your most precious resource — TIME — more on what you want, and on what’s important to you.  HIGH-FIVE!

One last bit of instruction … don’t ever ever tell yourself or someone else that you “do not have time.”  When you say that, you are lying to yourself and being deceptive to others.  Know and “own” that you have ALL the time that there is.  Instead, acknowledge for whatever reason, that “person, place, or thing” was not a priority and you spent your time elsewhere.  And the reason could be for things inside or outside of your control.  Things happen.  Now for things that are within your control, the key question is did you consciously / intentionally choose those priorities?!  If so, great — own that.  That is your truth.  Or did you make unconscious choices which caused you to feel out of control and thus lie to yourself that you “didn’t have time.”  Again, if so, awesome — embrace that awareness and know that you can make different choices next time.

So What?  Now What!  I encourage you to sketch out your Model Week starting with your most important items first.  Start.

And by the way, thanks for reading and giving me a bit of your 168 this week!

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Pat May 18, 2013 at 10:38 am

Ray, you absolutely nailed this thing called time. It is finite and to plan accordingly. You also categorized important aspects of life and how to to reserve some time for them. Nice job.

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Cornelia July 12, 2016 at 7:59 pm

Wonderful exnpolatian of facts available here.

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http://carinsurance.dynddns.us/imperial_fire_and_casualty_insurance_company_rating.xml July 20, 2016 at 9:32 am

dit :Moi qui ne suis pas trop trop fan de ce genre de trucs, j’aurais presque envie de me laisser tenter par l’aventure ! Tu sais, en temps normal j’ai le vertige, mais là, c’est passé comme une lettre à la poste !

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http://www./ August 12, 2016 at 2:55 am

This site is like a classroom, except I don’t hate it. lol

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