Organisation, It's a damn good thing

Life seems to get busier every year.  No matter what I do time seems to be getting away from me.  I'm student, a domestic, a re-enablement therapist, and a fundraiser.  This already sounds like a full schedule to me - and it's my life!  When I'm not at one job or the other I'm having to do basic house hold chores such as cooking, cleaning and budgeting!  This workload means that things can get quite stressful at times because it feels like there's not enough time in the day.  Especially if I want to sleep.

To cope with this there's a few things I find myself doing.  I prioritise.  I schedule.  I organise.

Prioritisation

This is essential to coping with any workload.  If you don't know what your most important jobs are then no amount of scheduling or organising will help with your work-load.  The most important things on my scheduled are my degree and my job.  I love my work fundraising and as a therapist but these simply to not bring any money in, so they come in second to my degree and my job.  The tricky part is how do I prioritise between academic work and employed work?  Thankfully, I don't have too - as I only work part time; this leaves me plenty of hours in the day which I can use for academic work.  After this is sorted I allow myself the equivalent of a day with the two other jobs (fundraising and therapist) as these are worth doing.

Scheduling

Scheduling for me goes hand in had with planning and organising to some degree.  However it is still it's own singular category in the essence of creating a time-line picture of my week.  The first time slot to got on everyday is my paid employment, the second thing is my lectures and seminars.  After this I keep everything as flexible as possible.  Only thing that need a fixed date and time will go on this schedule, i.e. a doctors appointment.  This is not to say I don't plan to use the rest of the time - the rest is broken down into task lists, tips for which will be in the following section.

Transport - this is an important thing to remember when designing a schedule. Keep in mind when writing up a schedule how you are going to get from point A to point B and how long the trip will take.  Give yourself extra time for this - it will save you so much stress and hassle!

Organising.

Organisation is often under rated.  It is so very integral to getting work done.  I organise myself with tasks lists.  They are so easy to write up and it is useful whether you are recording a shopping list or writing a to-do list.  The first thing to remember, though, is that you need time to eat, relax and sleep - I would ensure there's regular spots on your schedule for all of these.  The second thing to remember is be realistic.  I know that sound incredibly funny as a suggestion but the quickest way to feel like you're failing at your task is to give yourself a workload that is not simply doable.  Look very carefully at the schedule you have created for yourself as you create a task list for specific days.  Start by adding the most urgent tasks to your list first.  Continue adding only the tasks that you feel you can get completed in  the time you have available in that day.  The other aspect to tasks lists is to complete tasks at a time of day that will be ideal for the, such as doing shopping on your way too or from work.  Always allow yourself plenty of time.  This will save stress for things you really need to stress about.