Life Organisation
One of my favourite things, organising! Not quite Monica Gellar realms, but I love to organise, whether it’s a drawer or my week, I enjoy that feeling of accomplishment when there’s a colour-coded, alphabetised system in place.
Most Sundays, I take the time to put my week into an excel spreadsheet; starting with my non-negotiables; shifts, events, the things I have to do. Then I put in my clients, this is also a time to double check I’ve got everybody’s sessions in and that I haven’t given myself too long a day, or a strange break somewhere. This then leaves me with what time I have for my business and myself, when am I going to write session plans, classes, my blog and any other projects I have going on that week. From here I put in my training times, when am I finding time to chase my own gym-based goals. Giving myself a visual of my week allows me to see what is happening, where can I make more time for my personal life, where can I meal prep and get in the occasional Netflix binge; where is my time to just be.
Having a visual of my week is the most helpful tool I’ve used. I find diaries to be a little too cramped, and it is easy to focus on filling a diary, whereas, a visual of your week allows you to see where you have time to relax and fit in your own life. This simple flip of priorities, focusing on you, is so liberating, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Give it a try; see how it goes!
Organising your week will be the easiest part. Start with the non-negotiables, then the things you need to do, the things you want to do, then look at your spare time. I always schedule in at least two hours of down time a day, and often it’s not just downtime; it’s catch up time. Day to day, how often to things happen that are outwith your control that mean you stay late at work, or put off that ‘want’ for ‘non-negotiable’. Life happens, so make time for it! I know that when I pop for a coffee I’ll end up chatting away to people and then I’m twenty minutes late in leaving the gym, so now I’ve only got forty minutes to run errands – totally doable but not the hour I had scheduled! By making time each day where you have nothing planned, you use that time to look at the ‘to-do’ list. Where do you need to spend time, what will benefit you?
It is so easy to lose track of what you need, so make time for yourself, whether that blocking out an hour or two in the Google Calendar, or just in the diary for yourself, flip the focus, the priorities are the same, but your focus is on you.