Thursday’s Time Tip: Color My World

I know, I’m borrowing Chicago’s song title, but it fits what I want to discuss today. The title, not the song.

So what do highlighters, crayons, sharpies, and outlook have in common? Lots of colors.

Several years ago I was having trouble balancing work life. (Currently having that same issue, but I am taking steps…) My boss, was also a mentor at that time. He asked to see my planner. I had it handy so I gave it to him. He opened it up and flipped through a few pages. I watched as he scanned page after page. He looked up from his study and said, “Where is a highlighter?”

“I don’t have one handy,” I replied.

He then explained to me that I should take the highlighter and mark out blocks of time that were just for me, or for the family. When I was setting dates and times for appointments don’t go into the highlighted areas. That was how to get a balance in life.

Then he said, “I just saved you $200.00. I learned that in a seminar and that was the cost of admission.”

Two hundred dollars to color your planner? Too easy. But then, why not?

So I started to block out times for myself. Block out times for the family. Block out times for work. I used different colors, but they were coded. When I started using outlook, it also had colors for different items. I could color code with it.

So, a simple tip for today. Color your world. Find your balance by blocking out times for events, and then discipline yourself to use those blocks for what you intended. There will be times when there will be interruptions, and plans go amiss, that is part of life. How you deal with them determines your character.