[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If you are on my social media feeds, you would know by now how a whirlwind my life can be. From a minimum of three appointments a day to taking care of the household (cooking and cleaning included), having time for this, my community, courses, family, friends and some exercise, I also often have people asking me how I manage to do it all.
There is no magic but a simple practice that I adopted after a Kinder Brothers VCR video (old school alert) when I joined the insurance business some 15 years ago. It is called The Structured Day, and it is about putting things into sections (with time slots) with some principles in mind. Since then, this is how I function every day and here’s a sample of my typical day in action!
8 am: Rise and Shine
8-9am: Wash up, dress up, makeup on pointe (link to my beauty tips article), breakfast taken
9-10am: Prayers and then start work from home
11 am – Leave home for 12 pm appointment (continue to do administrative follow-ups in transport)
12-2pm – Lunch appointment
3-5pm – Tea appointment (when these get postponed or not filled, it is “me” time!)
6-8pm – Dinner appointment
8-9pm – Get home, wash up (clean and laundry on alternate days)
9 pm – Start cooking for tomorrow (While soup is boiling do 30 min of exercise)
9.30pm – Put soup into thermal pot ( put frozen meat to chiller to prep for next day)
10 pm onwards – Hug the dog and chill and also watch or read something interesting.
11 pm – Try to go to bed
Note: Thursdays post lunch appointment are for volunteer work and spiritual nourishment. Also, some nights are for spending time with le husband. There will also be incentive trips and personal ones now and then. *New plan alert* 2018 Mon evenings & Sat mornings (for five months) will be for a course I signed up, and this is where I will make an effort to slot yoga in between and get up earlier than usual.
I also apply the following “principles”, and I hope it helps gear you towards to achieving so much more as you deserve it!
- Always find time to declutter. Get rid of anything that you find discomforting or malfunctioning, and you will find that with less “baggage” (in every way) you can run faster.
- Organize stuff in a new way: Organize the useful items, data, application, files, papers, in a new more coherent, promptly available way. Get help if this is something you hate to do ( Feeling blessed with super-efficient assistance both in office and home)
- Change your routines, habits, beliefs, attitudes: It is always refreshing to change the ways you do things or even the concepts you have believed in and replace them with something new. A new approach can provide you with strength.
- Learn something new and you can incorporate it into your work life or life itself.
- Provide enough and quality time towards the people you care about. You should devote more time to your significant other, your children, your family, your friends, your relationships (the ones you have chosen to remain in your life).
- Be loyal to yourself, family, friends, relationships, your goals, dreams, and principles. And, always, try to be yourself.
Then again, not forgetting that it is not all just work but there is always time for play. Always schedule that dinner with the girlfriends and date night in! Note of caution: things may not work as plan, and if they ever fail, please remember not to kick yourself too hard but to embrace what the universe has to offer because everything happens for a reason!
Off to refining this art. Till then my friends! Stay structured![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
