Book Review: Book 6

 

 

Book 6:

Tell Your Time: How to Manage Your Schedule So You Can Live Free

 by Amy Lynn Andrews

 

 

This book was an extremely quick read.  The author was very concise in what she was saying, not wanting to use much of your time for you to read it. (sorry, there had to be a time joke involved!) She starts by saying "if you want to manage your time, the sum total hours of your daily activities should be less than twenty-four."  Most of us would respond to saying "well, duh!" when we read that, but most of us also schedule way more into twenty-four hours than will ever realistically fit in that time frame. It really is a simple formula for managing time, the problem is we don't think of time the way we do of money, or calories, when we are trying to control either of them.  We just keep using it up, not giving it much thought until it is depleted, and we are are desperately trying to find more of it.

 

She suggests that we look at time in two ways and that we adopt both of these principles. The first one: Envelopes of time.  Like money and paying bills we can only use as much time as we have.  We were only given twenty-four hours in a day, so trying to use twenty-six or more will never work. (unless you live on Bajor-google it, if you don't understand). The idea is that we should list the number of activities we want to accomplish in a day and then divvy up the activities in the frame of the twenty-four hours. If there isn't enough time for one of the activities, then we have to either take time away from a different activity, or give up that activity that we ran out of time for.  Of course we are masters of giving up the activity we ran out of time for, usually at the expense of our sleep, personal time, or exercise time.

 

The second principle: Freedom within boundaries. The author suggests that we are wired and function better within boundaries. That too  much freedom can cause chaos, and too little can also be harmful.  The trick is to find the balance.  As a teacher, I find it interesting that the classes and students that tell me over and over again that they like when I'm their sub, are the same classes that I won't  let get away with anything.  The reason I keep coming back to is that I set very clear boundaries for these classes, as do their classroom teachers, and when they function within these boundaries they tend to feel more freedom to make good choices as they are clear on what is expected of them.  Time management really is the same scenario.  When we set boundaries for what we are trying to accomplish in a day, we are able to feel freedom to make choices as we go.  Somethings might have to get moved, but with the boundaries of time working for us, it is easier to adjust when things need to be shuffled around.

 

The author said that "stress associated with too-full a schedule has little to do with time at all; it has everything to do with our choices." and that we need to "take control. Tell time how to work for you. Don't be subject to it".

Yet, how do we do that.  She quoted Annie Dillard " How we live our days, of course, is how we live our lives".  I've heard it said if you take out your checkbook and look at who gets your money you would soon see what you value in life. The same really can be said, as Annie did, about our time.  Who or what are we investing in.  Obviously, there are some things that we have to do. Yet, why are we doing those things.  When we start by deciding what matters in our lives, and what we want to invest our time in doing, we will be more productive in our tasks.

 

We must find purpose.  Don't tune out now, I know that it can be overwhelming to think about our purpose in life. Still, what are the reasons we exist?  If someone was to look back on my life, what would they say I accomplished? What really matters?  In the book she says we need to start by looking at our roles.  Our first role should be "self" and we shouldn't feel bad about that. Guilt is a huge deal for people, and I think especially women.  We need to put our selves at the top of our list in roles, as if we are not healthy and functioning well, the rest of our roles suffer.  From there we should list our other roles, and also within those roles what our primary job is. After we do this we are then able to focus on how we want to get those jobs, that are needed for our role, accomplished.

 

It sounds like a lot of work, but really it isn't.  Stop for just a minute and think about your role as, for instance a spouse.  What is your primary job in that role?  What kind of person do you want to be in that role?

 

Primary job in that role for me, is to love and respect my husband, and to be his help mate.  How can I do that?  By making sure I take time to spend with him.  On a daily basis, spending time with him can be as simple as eating dinner together, sending brief texts throughout the day, and finding time to talk before going to bed.  On a larger scale, planning and sticking to date nights. 

 

Once roles and jobs for those roles are established it's time to plot them out into your day. She uses what she calls the grid.  Stating that all jobs fall into a couple of categories. Nonnegotiable or Negotiable, and also within both of those categories you have flexible or fixed time.  Things that would be nonnegotiable would be things that we will do, some of them are set in fixed times, such as our jobs, others are set in more flexible times, such as how many hours we sleep.  Then there are the things we might do, again either fixed in a time, such as my son's hockey schedule, or have a more flexible time frame, such as going out for an evening to a movie, or a coffee shop.

 

All things we do fit into these categories. Once we place them in the grid we then put them on our schedule by listing out the number of hours in the day and blocking in first the nonnegotiable and then the negotiable items.

 

I know I took a lot of "time" to write my thoughts down on the book.  I feel it had some great suggestions.  I try to manage my time by looking at what is really important, and this year already feel as if I've given myself more "freedom" in my schedule by not planning to many things for one day.  I would recommend this book for anyone, whether they are struggling to manage their time or not as it gives a fresh perspective for everyone to consider.

 

When we get to the end of the day, the week, month, year, or our lives, will we be able to say we invested ourselves into what matters?  Relationships are usually what is most important to us, and while I'm not suggesting we never dust the house, or vacuum again as we need to spend more "time" on those relationships, I am suggesting that we think about whether we are too busy doing those things in a frantic way that we aren't allowing ourselves time for the things that really matter.

 

I would give the book 5 stars.  Check it out on Amazon, as this was another one of my "free" books for my Kindle.

 

Happy Reading, hope you can find the time!