Working Out Your Salvation: 8 Ideas to Plan Your Days
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.—Phil. 2:12-13
I’ll confess—it’s a lot more fun to plan than it is to work out. But unless we actually do something, those plans are worthless. How do we actually find the time to work on those habits and projects that get us somewhere?
Enter…the time map.
What is a time map, you ask? Basically, it is an “ideal map” of your week. Looking at things weekly allows you to hit about 90% of your life. Setting aside time to plan helps to hit the last 10%.
This time map is flexible, not set in stone. I usually rework my time map whenever I feel like things are falling through the gaps, and most definitely when my life seasons change. At the very least, I review it annually to fine tune it, even if things are going well.
Here’s how to get started:
Create a Blank Weekly Time Map
This is relatively easy to make. Create a table, using Word or Excel, with the days of the week across the top. You can start with Monday and end with the weekend or start the day with Sunday and end with Saturday. It’s up to you.
Then down the vertical side, write the hours of the day, starting with your wake up time and then list the 24 hours after that. This will allow you to include your sleep time, which is important to visualize.
Start with Your Time Audit
Remember how we did a time audit earlier on? Now is the time to get that back out and look at our time usage and figure out how we can make things happen.
If you’ve haven’t already done so, evaluate and do a little tidying and tightening up by deleting, moving, modifying, and delegating. This will help consolidate and free up some more space.
Block in the Rocks
You know the oft-used illustration of the rocks, pebbles, and sand in a jar?
If we let the pebbles and sand fill the jar first, we won’t have time for the rocks. However, if you put the rocks in first, the pebbles and sand are then able to fill in the cracks.
The same goes for your time map. There are three main types of “rocks” I fill in first.
Time for essentials for self-stewardship
Interestingly, the first thing I do is determine what are the things that I will need to make sure I include so that I don’t run myself ragged. These are the spiritual, physical, relational, and personal activities that help me to steward the life God has given me well. These can be important things I practice daily, weekly, and monthly.
For me, this means
Daily, I make sure I spend time with the Lord and get enough physical rest. This means a regular quiet time in the morning plus some time to pause mid-day at lunch for some physical exercise after I eat and some time to be quiet. In the evenings, this means having a hard stop time early enough to get a good night’s sleep.
Weekly, I make time to have a Sabbath day, a date with my husband (usually just at home to talk), and time with a friend—after church or during the week.
Monthly, I make sure I have an extended time with the Lord to course-correct and then plan for the next month.
I put these first in my time map so they don’t get crowded out. It may seem self-indulgent, but I like to view them as investments to keep me close to the Lord, in touch with my loved ones, and rested enough to be of the best help.
What are the things that you have noticed help you function best? Put those in your time map first.
Time for commitments
The next “rock” I add are my other key responsibilities and commitments. Think about things like
Work: Mark down any paid work hours you have, plus the commute time. For me, these are my counseling appointments, homeschool co-op days, meetings, and even writing for this blog!
Weekly commitments, standing meetings or classes, or priorities: church, Bible study/small group, appointments, kids’ activities.
Relational priorities that are important to you that may not have a set time: one on one time with each child, date night with your spouse, a standing lunch with a friend, an hour to read each week. Add some margin for the commute or some wiggle room to transition if you notice that you tend to run from one thing to another.
Time to plan
The last rock is time to plan—which I’ll share more about this in the next post, but for now, schedule in a time to plan weekly. I generally like Sunday night, but some people may want to do this on Friday, before the weekend begins, or some other time during the weekend that makes sense to you.
Create Four Main Routines
Routines help cluster tasks together in a sequence that takes the decision making out plus ensures that you don’t forget key things. I write about creating routines in another post so I won’t repeat it here.
In a given day, there are four key times where routines have really helped me:
Wake up routine
Workday startup routine
Workday shut down routine
Bedtime routine
These may already be in place for you, but even if they are, I’d recommend fine-tuning them each year so they really work without a whole lot of thinking. Look to see if there are any regular things you keep having to remind yourself to do every day and see if you can insert them into an existing routine as a habit goal.
A new habit to include in your daily routine, is time to plan for the next day. This 5-15 minute task the night before (or before the day begins) helps me to keep moving forward. More in the next post.
Check for Margin
Margin is the “white space” that allows you to have some buffer between activities in your day and the breathing room you need in a week to recalibrate and recharge. Getting a good night’s rest, one of the first “rocks” mentioned earlier, is the first step.
As I mentioned in last week’s post, I often like to just double the amount of time needed to an activity so I can have some flexibility. Other times, I add margin by scheduling less in a given amount of time. Instead of trying to cram three appointments into an hour, I only aim for two.
Lastly, in particularly busy times, I intentionally block out an hour or more and protect it from other commitments. Sometimes I use that time to catch up on things I didn’t get done. Other times, I use it to spend extended time with the Lord and then do something restful and relaxing.
The best margin I have added on a more permanent basis is the practice of a weekly Sabbath and a daily “time out.” These are two habits I have installed in my own weekly schedule, blocked out to meaningfully rest so that I can abide in the Lord, meet with His people, and develop other areas of my life.
Identify Your Work Blocks
After you have done these, you should begin to see emerging the times in your day where you have solid blocks of time to work. Generally, this work time can be spent carrying out a work routine, developing new habits or knocking off tasks towards your projects. It is when I work towards my goals I’ve set earlier.
With that said, this can apply to your own personal goals you’ve identified but in a work situation, it can also be the things you need to do at your job. It could be the time you meet with patients or do charting, the time you meet with your team or work out your part of a project, the time you work with students or lesson plan. For moms at home, it could be the time you plan meals, clean, take your kids to class or games, grocery shop, etc.
Generally, I like to think of the time in blocks instead of actual hours and minutes. For example, in the morning after breakfast, I know I have between 2-4 hours, depending on whether or not I’m working with my son on his assignments. With that in mind, I slot in tasks until that time is about half full (because, as I said earlier, margin).
That way, I know how I’ll use those hours when I plan my day, but I’m not stuck on a time schedule. As long as I get them done in that block, I’m good. This has made things so much simpler for me.
At first, you may over-estimate (we all do), but learn from them and you’ll find yourself improving in how you fill your work blocks.
Match Your Work with Your Energy Levels
Identifying your time blocks is the first step, but if you want to make it even more helpful, consider your energy levels at those times of day as well.
Not all work blocks are the same. Depending on your personal makeup, you can be more or less energized at particular times of day.
I tend to be more energized in the morning, so I try to do the things that require more mental or brain energy at that time. By the afternoon, I’m winding down and by evening, I’m pretty much ready to shut down, so those times are for things that are more routine or involve less energy.
Of course, there are times when I will need to do challenging things, like being alert for dinner guests or small group meetings at the end of the day, but those are usually only on occasion or at most once a week.
So when you’re trying to decide what to do in your work blocks, use this as a help to make the best choices. This is one of the most practical things I have learned to do.
Planning for Different Day “Types”
Have you noticed that even though you have a daily routine, there are some days that consistently just work a little differently? Weekends vs. weekdays is one we probably all encounter, but there can be others: early out or late start days for kids in school, work-from-home Fridays, days with after school activities and days where you stay home, morning or afternoon shifts. Sometimes college students can have MWF schedule or a T-Th schedule.
For me, I like to have a routine for each of those types of days. You can have the same general routine, but do things slightly differently to accommodate for what happens. For example, when you know your kids have an early out day, you can take advantage of this and block all your errands after school instead of trying to squeeze it in throughout the week.
Looking at your days in terms of weeks will help you see these patterns a little easier and then adjust for them. On the days that you know will have more start-and-stop activity, then work on things that are shorter or easier to complete. On the days when life is quieter, then you can plan to do things that require more brain energy.
These eight ideas have helped me tremendously to wisely use my time, tailored to the particulars of my preferences, needs, and responsibilities. This is a slow process and needs to be tweaked on occasion, but over the years, it has left me with a strong sense of when I can do things each week. I hope they will help you too.
