If there’s anyone who can understand the difficulty of finding a balance between work, school, motherhood, and life, it’s me. As someone who has to balance home life between a job in the aviation industry with crazy schedules, college, and being a mom, I struggled a bit to have time for the rest of my life. I understand and have empathy for the difficulty of those who are keeping up with busy schedules and trying to make ends meet while getting their education, or any other goal they’re working on. It can get overwhelming and stressful to manage all your things at once. For this reason, I present to you five tips I’ve gathered throughout the years on how to manage a busy schedule.
1. Agenda
Having a planner, whether it is any technology device or a notebook, really helps to organize your agenda. Outlook and Excel are great programs to add personal schedules, meetings, or just about anything. It will remind you with notifications about incoming schedules and it’s less likely to double book yourself in one existing appointment. Another way to be organized is with a notebook planner. I’m classy and love to write, so I use them. Planners are a great way to have everything neat and all together in one location. Being organized is the first step to take in order to manage a busy schedule, considering it will be of great help in a variety of day-to-day tasks, such as planning time for an appointment and completing any homework or academic project with less stress, thinking about or even forgetting what was due.
2. Prioritizing
This step is all about prioritizing your appointments and activities. Sometimes we think we can manage everything and tackle every task at once, but this notion is actually far from realistic. The trick here is to prioritize your responsibilities. First, assess the importance of each task, focus on what matters first. Then, add all your to-do list in your planner but in priority. Making sure that your agenda is handled will help you not get overwhelmed, plus it is an excellent way to become more productive and organized.
3. Keep up- to-date
This is another way to manage your busy schedule. Try to have a routine of checking your planner and calendar every day. I do it every morning. You can use post-its and stick them in a wallboard, or anywhere to remind you of upcoming assignments. Reinforcing your to-do’s allows you to have an overview of all the assignments, and keeps you organized to plan ahead your week or month.
4. Avoid distractions
Sometimes it’s hard but it is very important to eliminate unnecessary distractions. This will delay your tasks and it can take a while to get your focus back.
5. Take a break
Managing a busy schedule could be tiring and overwhelming. Countless hours of work and the amount of energy we give in order to complete our tasks can be really physically and emotionally draining. Taking a break is both essential and important. It’s also always a good idea to add your “day off” to your calendar. Take time to relax, breathe, and enjoy the free time to regain your energy and focus for when it is time to work again.