Welcome back to Lavendaire.

It's Aileen.

Today I'm going to talk about time management and organization:

how to make time for everything you want to do.

And I know that sounds pretty daunting

because I'm sure a lot of us want to do a lot of things.

If you're anything like me,

you probably have a huge list of to-dos, but also list of things

you wish you could do if you had the time for it.

Today I'm going to share some tips and also an exercise you can do

to help you organize your schedule to make time for everything that you want to do.

By the way: I'm doing another giveaway with Skillshare.

You guys loved

the previous Skillshare giveaway, so I knew that I wanted to do it again.

Stick around to the end of the video for more giveaway details.

My first tip on how to make time for everything you want to do is to cut down distraction

time.

I think that, most of us, we feel that our schedules are so full, we have no time for

anything,

when in reality there are so many parts of our day where we lose track on social media,

whether you're on Facebook, Instagram, wherever.

You don't notice it

but sometimes you just trail off, and there goes fifteen minutes

and another fifteen minutes there.

You actually waste a lot of time getting distracted.

So the best thing is to learn how to focus and make the most of your time

with what you're doing, right now.

Some techniques are: You can use a Pomodoro timer,

which is a 25-minute timer to set, and then you focus down for 25 minutes.

You can't really do anything else for 25 minutes.

Start to take note of where your attention goes throughout your day,

whether you're actually being productive or not.

If you're getting distracted,

if you find yourself trailing off, opening new tabs, and just looking at random things,

then I highly recommend you either go on a social media detox

or download those apps that block certain websites.

Or find some way, Pomodoro technique or something else,

that will help you use your time more wisely and focus down.

Also: Studies have proven that you're more effective when you focus on one thing at a

time.

Multitasking is a myth.

It's actually not more effective or productive.

It's so much better to focus on one thing at a time,

instead of constantly switching between different tasks.

Next thing I'm going to share is this exercise that I use for myself

to plan out my ideal day and my ideal week, filled with all the things that I would want

to do.

This is just an exercise that will help create a guideline for your schedule,

because it actually helps to see how physically things can fit into your schedule

and how you can actually make it work.

Even though it might seem rigid to some of you,

just remember that this exercise is just to be used as a guideline,

not like a strict schedule that you're supposed to follow every day.

First step is to decide on your non-negotiables.

These are the things that you have to do

or the things that you absolutely want to do, you need to do.

Decide on all of those.

Most likely, it's school, it's work, and then maybe you have

some other things that you're like, "No, this is non-negotiable.

I have to do this thing

in my life in my schedule."

Make a list of all of those non-negotiable things.

Next, bring out the dreamer in you and write down a list of all the things that you want

to do

in your ideal life, in your ideal week.

While you're making that list,

estimate the amount of time that you want to spend on each item on that list,

per day or per week.

For example: I love to do morning pages.

That's something that I want to do every day for twenty minutes.

I also want to meditate, but I would say I would meditate at least five to ten minutes,

minimum.

I'd also want to spend an hour or two a week doing yoga.

And an hour or two a week learning, taking online classes, like on Skillshare.

Now it's time to design your ideal week.

We're going to map out

all of your waking hours in a week, from the moment you wake up

to the moment you go to bed, Sunday through Saturday–or Monday through Sunday,

however you want to count it.

What you're going to do is:

First, you're going to put in your non-negotiables.

Schedule them,

whether it's your school schedule, your work schedule, whatever you can put in there.

I know some things are very flexible, but just do the best that you can.

Next, we're going to look at your list of things that you'd ideally want to do.

And then we're going to see if we can incorporate them into either your morning routine

or your evening routine.

The reason I think it's best to incorporate these things

into your morning or evening routine is because, in the middle of the day,

some many things could come in and out.

You might have errands you need to run.

There's just life responsibilities.

Usually, you can carve out time for yourself

in the morning and in the evening, whether you want to wake up earlier

to write morning pages and have your coffee or whatever.

Or in the evening,

when you're winding down, that's when you have a lot of me time.

That's the method that works easier for me.

Sometimes it works out

to put something in the middle of your day.

For example: exercising.

If you're taking yoga at a studio and your favorite class is at this time, then that's

your time.

You know?

You know what's best for your schedule.

But my recommendation is:

If you can fit it into morning and evening routines, do that.

But if it makes more sense to put it in the middle of your day, then do that as well.

But just do your best to build out your ideal week.

Also, for those activities that you decide you want to do once a week or twice a week,

assign those activities to specific days.

Carve out a space in your schedule to do that thing,

and make that time non-negotiable as well.

For example: If a friend calls you

and asks you if you're free during that time, you're like, "No, that's my online class-taking

time."

You have to set aside that time and act as if it's a part of your real schedule.

By the way, you can download this weekly worksheet that I created for this exercise.

Just click right here in the upper right corner.

Or down below, you'll find the link, as well.

As you're creating this ideal week, make sure to leave some time for rest, okay?

It's always important to have space between these events.

Don't pack it super tight, because you know, in reality, things don't always go according

to plan.

So just keep that in mind, schedule time for self care, social events,

and just space, in case anything happens.

Another thing I want to bring up I learned from Tony Robbins, called "N.E.T. time".

"N.E.T." stands for "no extra time".

We all have to do things that are pretty mundane,

like driving, doing chores, showering, going to the gym, running errands.

That's time that you can actually use to do something else at the same time.

I know earlier, I said no multitasking, but this is like the one exception.

It's when you're doing something that's kind of mindless.

Like when you're driving,

you can use that time to listen to audiobooks, listen to a podcast,

or listen to language learning tapes, which is what I've been doing lately,

and I've been loving it.

And I also play podcasts when I'm showering.

And when you're at the gym, you can save that time for watching your favorite TV show.

Think about ways that you can incorporate N.E.T. time, where you're taking advantage

of

your time, doing something that's enhancing your life, while you have to do those

mundane things like cleaning and washing the dishes, because life is life.

You have to do those things, but you can also listen to something else, while you're doing

that.

Alright, now that you've scheduled your ideal week, most likely,

you'll be able to see that it is possible to fit all these things that you want to do

in your week,

if you just manage your time better.

That's how I felt after doing this exercise.

But I know that some people out there might be a little real ambitious,

so maybe your schedule is looking a little packed.

So be real with yourself here.

Does this schedule look doable?

Did you leave enough space for yourself?

If not, then it's time to go back and cut out more tasks.

Decide what is something

that you can let go of, decide what's something that you can save for later,

because remember: It doesn't mean that this is the schedule you have to do

for the rest of your life.

You can do this now, focus on these items now.

And then maybe in two months, you can switch it up and learn something else in two months.

You can try out a new hobby in two months, but maybe you don't have that time

to fit everything in your schedule now.

You can also do this exercise not on a weekly basis, but on a yearly basis.

Maybe you want to plan out your months, and maybe you want to have themes

for your month where you want to focus on learning Japanese this month,

and next month is learning watercolor.

Who knows?

But I know that we can make time

for the things that we want to do.

It all comes down to time management

and actually scheduling that time in your planner to make it happen.

Because so many times, we're like, "Oh, I really want to do this," but that day never

comes.

You know, if we don't schedule it in, it most likely will not happen.

This whole exercise is just about actually taking time to sit down and schedule in

all the things you want to fit into your schedule.

Do your best to make it work.

Obviously, it's a guideline.

It's not a strict schedule to follow.

Just do your best.

Alright, I hope you liked today's exercise.

And I hope that, with better time management,

you can make the time to do all the things that you wanted to do.

I want to give a special thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video,

and for giving us a really good reason to make time for learning,

because Skillshare is so awesome.

If you don't know: Skillshare is an online learning community with over 15,000 classes,

and there are classes in such a wide variety of area.

There's so many classes

on art and creativity, but also: branding, marketing, video-editing, business.

Just anything you could possibly want to learn, you could probably find on Skillshare.

I currently love the classes that are geared towards my career, classes that could help

me.

I love Seth Godin's marketing class.

And Gary Vee also has a good social media

strategy class as well.

If you're interested at all, you want to check out Skillshare.

You can click the link down below.

The first 200 people who click on that link will get

two free months of Skillshare Premium.

So if you want that, act fast.

But if you don't get to it in time, don't worry.

We're going to be doing another giveaway.

We're going to be giving out a free year of Skillshare Premium to two lucky winners.

It's the same as last time.

What you have to do is: Follow Skillshare on Instagram.

Follow my Instagram @lavendaire.

And then comment on this Instagram photo,

what you would like to learn on Skillshare.

Winners will be chosen on September 10.

I will personally DM you on Instagram if you won, so be on the lookout for that.

But in the meantime, act fast.

Click the link down below to check out Skillshare Premium

for two months, for free.