GLIMMERING AT HOME

Learning How to Budget Your Time

Do you have any idea how you spend your time? I am sure at the end of the day when you are thinking back you can either feel like you accomplished a great deal, or you think, "where did the day go?"

Before I started to be more organized, I was usually asking myself “where had the day gone”.

Everyday is a journey that we travel. From when we get up until our head hits the pillow at night. It is your choice as to how far you will travel each day.
I am not trying to place a guilt trip (since we are talking about traveling) on anyone. In fact, there are still days for me that I don't follow my plan and it is time for me to start thinking about dinner and I wonder where the day has gone. However, I am trying to change and I may get off track, but each new day is a new beginning, a chance to start again.

So lets start to think about organizing and budgeting our time.

Most people when they hear the words, budget, and organizing start to turn a bit negative. Everyone has strong feelings about these words. One of the strongest seems to be a fear of being forced into some sort of ridged mold that will not let them have any fun! Nothing could be further from the truth.

The true definition of the word is: Being Organized means; you get everything done when it's due, or before and you find everything you need when you need it.

There is nothing in this definition that says anything about, working until you drop, having no time for yourself, and taking all the fun out of life. When you are organized you are able to put FUN back in your life, where is belongs!

We all get 24 hours a day. Many of us know someone that seems to squeeze every possible second out of their day. How do they do it? They organize and budget their time. They have a PLAN a goal in their mind that they are working toward.

If you have a job, your salary may increase, but unless you get organized there is no way to get a raise in the number of hours you get each day. This is the secret to having more time. You make the best use of the time that you have.

The definition of the word budget is: a plan for the coordination of resources and expenditures or the amount of money (here I am subbing TIME) that is available for required for, or assigned to a particle purpose.

Again, having an organized way to make the best use of your time is not about making yourself work until you drop. Just as with your money, you need to know what you are spending your money on before you can set up your budget to start to save. The same is true with time. Most of us do not have a really good grasp of how we spend that 24 golden hours we get each day. Therefore, we "plan" to coordinate our time, therefore making the best use of our resources.

When you open up a Christmas club account, you are making a choice to cut back on your spending in order to use this money for a special use at a latter time. When you budget your time you are achieving the same effect. You are making the best use of your time, so that you will have the time to enjoy your self latter.

Alike in Our Differences

That is why this plan is for you, whoever you are. It is set up to revolve around the time you have, be it hours or minutes. You set it up to fit your lifestyle. Each of us has a different lifestyle, family, work and jobs and personality. No one but you can set up your schedule. Too many systems out there seem to be set up on the idea that every woman is on the same type of schedule, and the same personality we are all different, yet at the same time the same.

That is why I will be giving you a starting point with your schedule, but you will have to determine the best way to do. If your time is limited by work, activities, or responsibilities of any kind, I do not want you to feel left out. The plan will work for you; it will just take a bit longer to reach your goal. The important part is to make a plan and follow it, and not get discouraged.

My primary goal is to help you achieve the level of home organization (which we will get into later) which is the first function of your Cleaning Budget. The second function is just as important, if not more. It is to find time for you! Yes you! The person who does the majority of the things that needs to be done, either in the home or out. The one who not only cooks and cleans, but has to shop and plan for the cooking and cleaning; the person who usually is placed last on the list. This is the person who needs to be first.

Cassandra R. Cooper
© 2007