My Take On Time Blocking: Thanks Goats ;)

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*Disclaimer: I am by no means any kind of expert on time management. In fact, as I’m writing this, my husband just walked by and saw the title and let out a substantial laugh. And then we laughed together. He sees my daily struggle and I discuss it with him often.

But recently, I’ve been trying out a new way of doing things. And for the first time since embarking on this homestead journey 5 years ago, I’ve had a breakthrough in getting some much needed to-do-list-fatigue relief! It’s was no surprise to learn that time blocking is the time management method of some of the most successful people in the world!

No Badges of Honor Here

I don’t see being perpetually busy as some kind of badge of honor. In fact, taking the time to care for yourself and enjoy quality time with those you love is truly honorable IMO. But what happens when you feel so passionate about so many things?

I’m certainly not the only one who feels overwhelmed trying to balance a very full life. It seems to me that most people that I know at the same stage of life are feeling like I do most days. But many are handling it visibly more gracefully than I am.

I want to be like that. And I am so happy to say that I am starting to see that it really is a possibility. It’s not just the “social media effect” lacing my mind with unrealistic expectations.

Spinning Plates

Yes, I do have a huge list of responsibilities, as many people do. And despite my many scheduling fails, I am often asked two important questions.

1. How on earth do you get it all done?

2. Why is it so important to you to do all this?

Legitimate questions for sure. If you’re curious here’s a quick glimpse of my life:

• 2 soccer kids
• a wonderful husband whom I love to spend time with
• church involvement and scripture study
• a house and barn to clean and keep stocked
• goats to milk and care for
• several flocks of chickens
• caring for family and farm holistically
• a big garden
• a food forest in the making
• continually learning a little botany and herbalism
• a consistent gym schedule
• cooking everything from scratch (& keeping a sourdough starter and kefir grains going)
• making all our soap, moisturizer, deodorant & toothpaste etc. (although my husband buys the stuff he likes for himself and I don’t fight him on it)
• creating this blog: researching topics/photography/videography/social media presence

Dropping Plates

In response to question 1, to be honest, I haven’t been getting it all done. I’ve felt like a complete mess trying to do this all my way for years. I’ve just been checking off the boxes as fast as I can, hoping for some mythical moment when I’m able to look around and not find things that “need” to be done. Then I could finally take some time for myself and do some yoga or reflect on how my life is going.

It’s no surprise that this method of doing things was leaving me empty, frustrated and anxious.

Why Not Take The Easy Road

So to answer question 2 about WHY I feel like I need to do all this, well, I’ve asked myself that over and over. And it all comes down to the fact that what we do in the kitchen, garden and home has a profound influence on our family’s health for generations!

I’m not about to let myself minimize my role as a primary factor in my family’s health. Yes the responsibility feels tremendously heavy at times. But every time I check in with myself I get a resounding “YES of COURSE it’s still worth it”.

And if I’m going to be a stay-at-home-mom I want to make the best home economic choices I can make. It’s the only way we can afford to feed our family nutrient dense foods without pesticides and not go broke.

Tipping Point

The biggest thing driving my willingness to change is realizing how sad it would be if all this busy-ness costed me precious memories of time relished being with my family. I’m seriously terrified of that.

Actually even worse, would be seeing my children live a miserable existence because of the poor example I set. Or maybe they would steer clear of a holistic or self-sufficient lifestyle because they don’t want to struggle like I have. Ouch, right?!

Time Blocking..phhhhhh

M’kay let’s not fall into the paralyzing pit of self pity, guilt or shame. Let’s move on to the incredibly simple concept that is making a huge difference in people’s lives shall we?

The other night I was burning the candle at the wrong end 🙃 and I came across a YouTube video talking about “time blocking.” I’ve always fought the idea because I can’t stand feeling like I have to follow any type of rigid schedule, so I blew it off.

Gazing @ Grazing

But the next morning as I was watching my goats on the pasture it dawned on me that I’m just like a goat. If I let them out on a huge pasture, there will always be parts that never get grazed, and other parts may get over grazed. On the other hand, if I rotate them on smaller paddocks, they clean up the pastures nice and evenly.

Ok, so what if the same holds true for you and I, and how we get things done?

So what the heck, I decided to calendar all that I wanted to accomplish for the day and give myself reasonable time limits for each thing. For me, the fun and essential part was that I could block in time to be sure and do something nice for myself like read a chapter of a book.

The Verdict

Surprisingly throughout the day I could hardly believe how much more time I felt like I had. By the time my kids got home from school, instead of feeling frazzled, my cup had been filled enough to give them my genuine presence.

Holy toledo! It worked and I didn’t even feel restricted. In fact, time blocking had quite the opposite effect. I’m realizing that sometimes my expectations for what I should get done in a day aren’t realistic. Spacing things out with more reasonable expectations has turned off the frustration and anxiety I used to feel and brought peace into my home.

I’m also finding when I limit my time on things, I get them done a lot faster. Especially when I promise myself that I’ll use any leftover time in that segment to read about goats, plants or recipes. Ha!

The most surprising thing to me has been the feeling that my relationship with each family member has grown stronger in a short amount of time. My mind is more present and I can actually connect without thinking about all the other things I “should” be doing. Once it’s calendared I can let it go until its time comes.

It’s going to take some practice to get into the habit of doing this daily, but it’s become clear that there is something almost magical to this.

How To Time block

So the simplified version is that you just make a list of what you want to get done and calendar it in. Here’s how I’m doing it. I’m no expert and I’m sure there are lots of interpretations of how to time block. This is just mine.

1. Take a day to figure out your goals for the year and break them down into lists for each season and then each month.
2. Automate: Make a master list of reoccurring tasks like hoof trimming, de-worming, planning birthdays etc. and make reoccurring reminders on your digital calendar. {Just that alone helped to clear a lot of the static out of my head.}
3. For daily blocks of time, plan just a few days at a time, keeping the monthly goals in mind. {I’ve been doing this in the morning before anybody else wakes up if at all possible.} See if you can get this done in 5 minutes or less ;). I don’t take the time to put these details in my phone unless I’ll be out running errands all day. If I’ll be home I just make a sticky note including time blocks for each task. I don’t get too specific because that would drive me crazy and take up too much time. I just pick a few things that are the highest priority for the day and move the rest over to the next two days.

And that’s pretty much it.

Troubleshooting

When those feelings of too much pressure creep in, “down shift”, slow down and find some beauty in whatever you’re doing at the moment. Break your tasks down into smaller pieces.

I find some of my best reflection happens when doing simple tasks like pulling weeds.

Find what truly fills your cup. I’m learning to take feelings of overwhelm as a cue to schedule in more time to fill my cup. Even a 5 minute call to my mother or a quick flip through a recipe book can fill my cup in a time crunch. But honestly nothing beats a good workout and a replenishing meal with my husband as a “day date” while the kids are in school or with grandma and grandpa.

Be honest about boundaries so you can better serve others without resentment.

So what do you think? Do you struggle finding enough time for balance in your life? Have you tried any time management techniques that have worked well for you?