Now more than ever, the value of time has become clearer for many of us. I’ve been reading posts from friends and the bigger community that many people are taking this time to revaluate what matters most for them. What if. What if you started thinking about your time differently after all this? Or heck, starting today. Today on the blog I’m going to share with you one way to organize your week using this one simple method: time budgeting.
What is time budgeting?
I remember reading a blog years back from Sarah Mackenzie about time budgeting. And that we are not “airplanes” in that the sky is not the limit on our time. We are given so much time and we can only do what we can within that time (and no, that doesn’t mean fill every minute of the day with things we view as “productive”).
Budget our time like we budget our finances
What if we started treating the time we are given like we do with our finances? Budgeting our time. From litemind.com on time budgeting:
“Setting a time budget means proactively allocating shares of time for the things that matter to you. Similarly to a financial budget, you define the ideal amount of time to invest in each of your important life areas, and then stick to that budget for the duration of its allocated time.”
“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau
Write down your priorities
Write down the most important things for you and your family. How much time do you want to set aside for…rest? Reading? Grocery shopping? Family movie night? Sitting down and looking at your time realistically with a LOT of extra space for breathing room. It’s a neat way of looking at things! I hope this helps you out today.
I hope this was helpful for you. If you’d like to dive in deeper, I have a time budgeting simple template worksheet you can fill out and start budgeting your time. Send me an email at simplehomemom@gmail.com if you’d like that!
Hi, I’m Kelly! I’m a mother of four children - three boys, one toddler girl - and our family lives on the beautiful east coast of Canada. I’m a past elementary teacher, turned stay at home, work at home mom eight years ago after I had my second child. I’ve found that the busier I’ve become and as my children age, that it’s become even more important to figure out what is most important to me and us as a family. Living a simpler lifestyle has helped us in so many ways in our home life - from better routines to faster tidying up times. It has been through my children that I have been inspired to learn how to effectively manage my time and to simplify in all areas of my home and life. I enjoy helping busy moms simplify home life by teaching flexible planning methods and skills. Enjoyed this blog and think it would be helpful to others? I'd love if you shared it. Thank you!