Learning to Say No: Time Management Series

Good Morning! 

Today is the last post in my June series on Time Management and I feel I saved the best for last.  You can catch up on the other posts about spending less time in front of the TV here, Planning Ahead and Setting Goals here and Getting Up Earlier here.  

My final post on Time Management centers on making conscious choices on how you want to spend your 168 hours.  Many of us spend a lot of our time doing things for other people or participating in events that aren't something we would chose to do with our time.  Granted not everything we do day to day is going to be fulfilling and meaningful, we all have to clean our toilets at some point.  The point I am trying to make is that if you say YES to all of the things that come your way you will begin to lose your focus on what is important to YOU.  

I think most people want to be reliable and help others, we all want people to like us and therefore feel we have to say yes a lot.  I am working on learning to say no and making my yes more meaningful.  I am the queen of over commitment and I am working on saying no more than yes.  It is important to remember that the people we care about want us to be honest with them.  I would hate if someone told me yes and then quietly resented me the whole time.  Saying no can be really hard and I still have a difficult time with it.  There are times that I hear myself saying yes when I really do not want to do it.  As much as I love being out and about I also crave my time at home.  This year has been a very full year and I don't see much of a slow down in the near future.  If I continue saying yes to everything that comes my way I will end up not actually enjoying anything that I am doing.  

I am working on signing up for less races and saving my time and money for half marathons.  The half marathon is my bread and butter and my favorite distance.  I decided this year I'll be signing up for less 10ks (my least favorite distance) and keep my race calendar to no more than 2 per month with 1 being ideal.  My weekends are precious to me because it is our time as a family and when I am doing a race every weekend I begin to resent running.  

This is what happens when I begin to hate running, it isn't pretty

All of this is a learning process and I know there will be things I still have to yes to because sometimes we all have to do things we aren't crazy about.  The important thing for us all to remember is that saying no doesn't mean you are being selfish. Saying no makes your yes much more powerful.  I don't want to be a yes girl, I want to be a good mother, wife and friend who values not only my time but also my family's time.  I want my friends and family to know that when I say yes I mean it and they can trust I'll be honest with them at times and say no.  Also I hope those closest to me know that I value their no just as much as their yes!           

As promised it is GIVEAWAY time, I'll announce the winner next Tuesday July 2nd.  There are lots of ways to enter to win Laura Vanderkam's book 168 Hours, good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Edited to Add**
I am giving this book away because I really enjoyed it and plan on reading it again and again.  The author probably doesn't even know I exist but maybe one day she will! :) so no this isn't a sponsored post.

Getting Up Early : Time Management Series

Hi! 

When I started this series the end of June seemed like a world away.  Every month seems to go by quicker than the last doesn't it?  That is one of the reasons I decided to do this series, we all have the same amount of time and we all can agree it goes by so fast.  I realized as my girls started to get older and sleep through the night I could get up early and accomplish some things before they were awake.  

Granted since I've been in Montana the last few days I haven't been setting my alarm for the usual 5:15 wake up call, but I am on vacation right?!  Getting up early was a struggle and it took me a long time to finally get use to it.  It was hard for me to get to bed before midnight and that made the mornings challenging.  Now that we are getting into summer and the sun is up when my alarm goes off I can get out of bed a lot easier.  I love being able to drink a cup of coffee and head out for my run before anyone else is awake.  Being able to get in 5-8 miles and be home before 8 sets me up to have a good day.  

The morning for most people is a very quiet and peaceful time of their day.  There aren't many phone calls to take, emails to respond to or disasters to fix.  The morning is a great time of day to get yourself both mentally and physically ready for the day ahead.  My best days are the ones where I am up at 5:15 and in bed by 10:00, go ahead and say it, I live like a retired person (Grandma).  

Tips to Help Ease Into Early Mornings  

- Set a bedtime alarm to remind you it is time to wind down (Laura Vanderkam's Advice!) 

- Set your morning alarm 10-15 minutes earlier each day till you are at your desired wake up time 

- Try to avoid stimulating activities at night so you are able to fall asleep earlier 

- Do not hit snooze!  Do not pass GO!  I put my alarm in my bathroom so I have to actually get up to turn it off.   

- Plan your favorite activity for the morning hours so you look forward to the wake up.  For me it is my cup of coffee and my run, nothing else takes up that time, minus a sick kid.  

If getting up early is something you've been wanting to add into your daily routine but you feel like you just aren't a morning person at least give it a try.  I was anything but a morning person my entire life up until this pass year.  Just like anything new it takes time, practice and patience.  I am sure you will be hating me and my perky morning attitude but trust me you'll be there soon too!  

In other fun Time Management Series news at the end of this series I'll be doing a GIVEAWAY!  I'll hold a random drawing to see who will win a free copy of Laura Vanderkam's Book 168 Hours.  Get excited!  

Honesty is the best policy, what time do you get up in the morning? 

What time you do wish you got up in the morning? 

Remember Google Reader will be closing down in a few weeks.  If you want to be able to see my new posts and updates you'll want to follow me on Bloglovin'.  Thanks!

    

Planning Ahead & Setting Goals: Time Management Series

Good morning!  

I hope you are having a productive month and working towards your goals!  I unknowingly had a couple days last week with no TV and didn't end up realizing it till I was going to bed.  I also didn't end up tracking my No TV Day like I thought I would but I know I was pretty busy those days!  I hope you were able to see the advantages of cutting back on your time with the tube also.  You can read last week's Time Management post here.

This week is all about planning ahead and setting goals.  A lot of us probably have at least 10 goals we can think of off the top of our head.  Many of them may be related to your health and fitness, some related to your family and I am sure you have some for your day to day life like staying on top of the laundry.

For the last couple of years I have been using an Erin Condren Life Planner and it is my brain.

I write everything down in my planner from what is going on that day, my workout and anything funny Sarah and Katherine said or did.  It is my daily planner but it is also my daily journal because I jot down so many notes about our day.  It is something that never gets put away and I always have a pencil attached to it.  I use a pencil because plans change and I want to be able to erase and move things around easily.  I chose the Erin Condren Life Planner because I love the weekly layout and I was able to put our family picture as the cover.

On the side of each new week is a column with the title Goals, love that.  As many of you know I am a big fan of Chalene and her philosophies on goals and fitness.

Chalene stresses how important it is to actually write down your goals and not have them just floating around your brain.  By writing them down they become real and become a daily reminder of what you are working towards.  Since my planner has a column just for that at the beginning of every week it is a reminder to not only keep up with my goals but also to be setting new ones.  Certain goals can take years to accomplish but there are many things you can do everyday that will help you get there.  At the beginning of each week and before I go to bed I take a look over my planner and see what is still ahead.  I plan out my runs and cross training for the week along with rest days, if we have yummy bucket at preschool, play dates, Katie lunches, errands, Jesse's travel, blog and column ideas, etc.  You can tell we have an extremely stressful life, it is a hard life but someone has to do it.

Long-term goals are: 
- Write blog posts that contain less fluff and more meaty material
- Have my monthly columns written a week ahead of the due date and spend the final week on editing
- Start sending article ideas to magazines and newspapers
       
Short-term goals: 
- Get caught up on the 1st 6 months of 2013 in our family album
- Finish all of the books I've started
- Sign the girls up for summer swim lessons

Writing down your goals will be your first step towards achieving them.  By planning ahead and having a structure for your days you'll be much more successful in those goals.  I am a pen and paper girl but if are more comfortable using technology I am sure there are a ton of apps and calendars for your phone.  I urge you to find something to help you get organized and help you keep track of everything you have going on day to day.  Sometimes I'll start to feel overwhelmed by everything and I need to take a minute to process it all.  When I do sit and write it all down a lot of times I realize it isn't as much as I had thought and I actually feel better.

Your mission this week is to find a way to start organizing your days and write down your goals.  I think the Dollar Store even sells little planners and calendars you can use.  It doesn't need to be anything exciting or fancy, just something to help get you on track.

*I buy this planner every year with my own cash-ola, Erin Condren has no idea I even exist**

Do you think using a planner/calendar is something you would do?  

Are you already using a planner to keep you on track?  

How do you think it is working for you?

            

The TV Time Suck : Time Management Series

Hi! 

During the month of June every Tuesday I'll be sharing a Time Management blog post.  While I was in the tundra Michigan this winter we had a lot of time indoors so I dusted off my brain and actually read a few books.  I don't know how I stumbled upon Laura Vanderkam's book exactly but it was just what I didn't know I was looking for.  That makes sense right?  

Okay hang with me here while I pretend to know about something important and not just how to embarrass my dog.  You are dead inside if you don't think this is hilarious.    

I think most of us would say we could use a few more hours in the day.  I know there are times at the end of the day when I think to myself where exactly did the day go?  This was becoming a reoccurring theme for me and I was becoming frustrated with my growing to-do list.   

Taking my desk down and purging everything was the Best. Decision. Ever. 

Like everyone else I have a lot of items everyday that need to get done but I also have a list of things I would like to do.  After I started reading 168 Hours I realized like most people I was watching too much TV and wondering where all of my time was going.  It wasn't like I was just sitting in front of it all day eating bons bons and painting my toes but it was the little bits that were taking up too much time.  For example when I fold laundry I would turn on the TV, no big deal right?  Wrong.  I would turn it on, flip to the On Demand and scroll through reading descriptions for something that sounded interesting.  By the time I decided on a show I had wasted a good 5-10 minutes, the laundry would have been folded by then.  

I learned from reading 168 Hours that the average American watches 20 hours of TV a week, seriously people that is a part time job.  Another thing that she touched on in the book that really stuck with me was how TV doesn't actually refresh and recharge us like true recreation should.  Often times TV will beat out activities that would bring a lot of joy to our lives.  That is what really got me to think about what I wish I had more time for and if I could be doing that instead of watching the Real Housewives fight over the last glass of Merlot.  So I decided to make my TV viewing almost zero and see how much I could accomplish in a day.  I haven't gone a full day of no TV yet but I am ready to take on the challenge.  

I decided I am going to pick a day in the next 7 days that will be a No TV Day for me.  I am thinking either Wednesday or Thursday of this week will end up being my day, just haven't nailed it down yet.  I don't want the day to just be a No TV Day but actually make it productive and have a plan.  

Tips to Make Your No TV Day Successful      

- Plan ahead for the day

- What do you want to do instead of sitting down to watch TV? 

- Look forward to it, if you have a list of things you'll do instead it won't feel so challenging 

- Don't pick a day where your favorite show is on if you can't record it, that is just mean 

What do I want to do?  Good question class!  For my time away from the tube I want to work on my photo books.  It is something I have really gotten away from and I miss keeping track of our day to day happenings.  

    Also instead of turning on the TV before bed I'll read one of the 5 books I have started on my Kindle.  Yes you read that right, I am currently "reading" 5 different books.  How about I actually finish one of those, m'kay.

OK so who is going to join me?!  In order to grow we have to get out of comfort zone, right?!  Right.

If you are willing to take on this challenge with me pick a day between today and next Tuesday that you'll go all day without watching TV.  Let me know in the comments, on Twitter or Instagram and use the hashtag #freefromtv.  Share pictures of what you are doing and how you think the day is going.  I'll let you know also when I decide on my day.  We'll check in with each other before next Tuesday and get a feel for what we thought about our No TV Day.  Good luck!!!

Challenge Monday!

Good morning! 

Started my morning off with a run and feel redeemed after Saturday's fail.  

I am really excited about this week!  June is the start of so many fun things like summer vacation and nice weather.  Today is especially exciting because it is the start of the Summer Shape Up Challenge with Fitnessista.  

I did a 60 Day challenge last summer and really got some great results and loved the group dynamic.  I have been missing the camaraderie of a group challenge so I jumped at the chance to join the Summer Shape Up Challenge.  Since I figure why not make June as fun as possible I also joined a Plank-A-Day challenge with Skinny Chick, if you want to join in on the crazy fun use #plankaday on Instagram and/or Twitter!  

Adding in the Shape Up Challenge along with increasing my mileage and everything else required in life will mean I'll have to work on my time management skills.  I am starting a series tomorrow on Time Management  and different way to make better use of our time.  I am mainly doing the series for myself because I want to utilize the hours in my day more effectively.  I have to make sure I am making time for the priorities! 

    

I'll be hosting a giveaway at the end of the series of one my favorite books by Laura Vanderkam titled 168 Hours : You have More Time Than You Think.  I loved this book and realized a lot about how I can use my time better and get more things on my goal list accomplished.   

Let me know if you decide to follow either of the June challenges! 

Did you get in any training runs or a race this weekend? 

What is your favorite part of summer?  

Sunny Sunday!

Good morning!  

I haven't been on here in almost a week and I miss my little baby blog!  I am going to keep this short and sweet because the sun is shining and we need to get out today and enjoy it.  

Workouts 

Friday - 3 miles 

Saturday - 14 (awful) miles 

Sunday - Rest 

So I am really pumped up to start a new challenge tomorrow with Gina over at Fitnessista!  

The challenge starts up tomorrow, June 3rd, so today I'll be gathering everything to make sure next week is a success.  If you have been looking for something to get you motivated or out of a rut check out her blog!

Yesterday's long run was suppose to be ran with Katie but due to some personal issues Katie wasn't able to meet me for the run.  It probably worked out for the best because the entire 14 miles was one long crap-fest (not literally).  I kept waiting for the moment to finally hit when it started to feel okay and not a struggle with each step.  That moment never came and I was never so glad to have a run be done.  As soon as I came home I stretched and jumped in an ice bath because my body just hurt.  

{Instagram Pic}

As the day went on I started realizing I was dehydrated and that was probably a large cause to my awful run.  Today and from now on I have to start focusing on getting more water during the day.  I try to drink water throughout the day but it isn't nearly as much as I should be getting.  

Next week is a full week for our little family full of lots of good stuff.  It will be a good lesson in time management and on Tuesday June 4th I'll be starting a 4 week series on just that, Time Management.  I am by no mean an expert in the subject but I have picked up a few things that have worked for me.  I'll be posting a new blog post on different areas of Time Management each Tuesday during the month of June and hopefully we can all learn something from each other's experiences.  At the end of the month I'll be doing a GIVEAWAY of Laura Vanderkam's book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think.  

OK the sun is shining and it is time to get this wagon train moving!  Enjoy your Sunday and don't forget to check out Fitnessista's Summer Shape Up Challenge!

I leave you with our Saturday night crack up 

{Instagram Pic}

Keeping Track of my Book Lists

Hi!  

I wish I had a workout to share with you this morning but I let excuses take over my brain this morning.  Not proud of it but feel I should keep it honest.  As much as I hate hearing excuses I hate letting myself give into excuses even more.  We are 2 weeks away from heading home and I am falling into a bit of a funk. I chose my mood so I am working on getting into a better one before the day is over! 

I consider myself self motivated but sometimes I need a good pick me up and love to look for a new book to get me there.  I need/want to be reading more and there are so many good books out there that I want to get into.  I am currently reading 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam.  

So far I love it, I love a book that spells it out for you and this book does just that.  I haven't finished it quite yet but when I do I plan on doing a review.  I try to just read one book at a time otherwise I'll never finish them.  I am always getting book ideas and reading different reviews on books and finally found a good way to keep track of my reading wish list.  I bought a Kindle a few years ago and have been smitten ever since.  I also have the Kindle App on my phone so I always have all of my books within reach.  I like to download the sample version of a book before I'll order the full version to be sure it actually is something I'll be interested in.  When I come across a book that I think is something I'll want to read I download the sample.  This works out really well because I am constantly adding to my want to read book list but I don't have to try and keep track of little notes.  Since it is already in my Kindle library it is easy to find and I can read the sample before I make the purchase.  

I don't know about you but I have a hard time remembering things and if I don't keep a record somewhere its *poof* gone.  I really like having a running list of books I want to read and I like that with my Kindle they are usually a little bit cheaper.  You can also borrow Kindle books from your local library, which is a double score!  There are some books that I would like to have the real edition, but most of the time the Kindle edition is just fine.  OK I should get off of here and hit the books!  Ya right, who I am kidding.  I have to get ready to pack for our trip to Chicago this weekend!  Heading out tomorrow afternoon, we are super excited around here!  

If you run on a treadmill are you able to do any reading? 

- I cannot run and read, I would fly off the treadmill  

Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?  

Have you ever been to Chicago?  Any must see/do's?