How to Untangle Your Week
“You can’t steer a parked car.” -unknown
My Week Needs Untangling (reading time: 4 min)
Even with all the planning I have done, I am still feeling like this fish, caught in a web of everything in my life when it comes to each week. Family, kids, small business, work, hobby, reading, people and an assortment of other things are all calling for my attention and trapping me in a snare. I have slipped into the “one day at a time” mode or even sometimes the “one hour at a time” mode which is not working. Anyone feeling me? It’s even worse now that I have begun changing the course of Field Treasure (formally one of my third circles). To understand the 3rd Circle language I am using, check out my post about it by clicking HERE.
My mind has been in a dull haze the last two weeks as I have tried to chart a new direction for Field Treasure. Nothing in my life has slowed down or stopped to allow me time to fully process where we are going with FT, nor will it. I’m caught in the net. The good news is that I am not a helpless fish and neither are you. Let’s intervene.
Here’s how I am untangling my week and how you can too. Right now I am focusing on how to have a better weekly plan for ONE particular circle in my life – the Content/Blogging/Instagram for Field Treasure. Having a good plan and parameters in this circle of my life will also help me keep quality and consistency in my other circles (Personal/Family and Work/Pine Cove). So from here on, I will be focusing on sharing how I am planning on getting better during the week in regards to Content/Blogging/Instagram.
1. KILL. It’s extreme. I know. I am deleting anything that is not a priority. A big one is not having my iPhone after 9/10pm and first thing in the mornings. (I’ll write more on that soon.) In the diagram below, you can see how wasted time and non-priority things need to be eliminated. It will then allow each circle to function in its proper priority. You an see that the Work and Family Circles stay large and the new direction for FT remains smaller. That also means that I have little time to waste so I can focus on this little circle without hurting my other two main ones.
Here’s my question: What needs to be deleted from your week right now?
The orange circles need to be deleted to allow the red one some breathing room.
2. PLAN. I created a basic weekly planner to help me map out what I need to get done for the week. For me, Social Media and Blogging need to be thought out and consistent. I especially want to give more structure to my Instagram posting. It has needed some thought since I am not creating as much “visually” as I used to, and therefore don’t have much to share in terms of things that I have designed or created. I need to give more thought to what I want to post because of that. I also want my posts to be more thoughtful and helpful for my audience, for you! The consistency part is just like teaching a class. If the teacher doesn’t show up, everyone will start to lose interest and leave the class. So I need to make sure I know what each day is going to be or at least have a good idea. I am also adding a few things that I want to do everyday. I want to read every day (I am reading two books right now) and I want to work on learning SketchUp (a design software) every day for at least 15 minutes each. So that is 30 minutes carved out every day.
Here’s my question: What needs to happen this week? What goals do you need to hit either every day or by the end of this week?
Here’s an example of my schedule where I am focusing on social media and blogging:
Want to try this? Download my Weekly Schedule. I’d love to hear how you plan on using it!
3. DISCIPLINE. No plan works if you don’t stay on it with your own effort. I can plan to be a better free throw shooter but if I don’t actually practice and DO IT, nothing will happen. This sounds so simple but it has been very hard for the creative side of me to maintain discipline. Sometimes the reason we don’t get going with our plan is because we are perfectionistic and we fear it won’t be good enough. You can’t steer a parked car. The key here is to start moving and we can make adjustments later. I am sure we will!
Here’s my question: Where do you need to be disciplined in the coming week(s)? Are you afraid your plan isn’t good enough?
That’s my plan to untangle my week. Do you have any other tips to share? Are there areas that you are swamped in and need help getting untangled? Comment below so we can help each other!
