Local Experts: Plan your way to success part 2 – The 8 areas of your life

by Robert Whipple

Yes, again, obviously one of my passions is delivering a great painting experience.  At Southern Painting we have been doing that for 25 years plus.

But, as we addressed in the first article, we are going to talk about one of my other passions and that is the Art of Effective Time Management.  In part one of this series, we covered the Three simple rules in effective time management:

1. Every evening spend approximately 15 minutes planning the next day.
2. On Sunday evenings spend approximately 30 minutes planning the next week.
3. On the 15th of the month spend approximately 90 minutes planning the following month.

Those are three pretty simple rules. Then we also talked about three types of time management:

1. Your future scheduled appointments
2. Your to-do list
3. Your goals

It is going to take some discipline and focus but if you start organizing your life, you will actually see that you can get more done each day.  Organizing a system with a written blueprint in all areas of your life is, at first glance, difficult to comprehend.   I am convinced you have eight areas of your life.

You may be thinking out loud, “Great, I am having difficulty in just one area, much less eight!” Here is a simple truth, as I have studied people in all different fields, I have found that the truly successful people have a focus on several areas of their life rather than just one or two.  At this point in time, I want to introduce the eight areas of your life. Please note, these are not listed in order of importance:

1. Your health plan – You should have a routine exercise plan as well as good eating habits.
2. Your family and friends plan – In some cases, friends can be closer than family.
3. Your career, job or school plan – In many cases, this area may take more time in the beginning phase.
4. Your spiritual plan – God’s wisdom is paramount.
5. Your financial plan – Develop a strategy to build your wealth no matter where you are currently.
6. Your rest plan – Adequate rest is paramount to a successful life.
7. Your self-improvement / powerful learning agenda plan
8. Your hobbies plan – This is something that may take some creativity in your life.

All of these areas have three things in common:

1. They are a chosen priority by you.
2. They will take a certain time commitment.
3. They will intertwine with the other areas.

Your next step is to sit down and develop appointment times for each of the eight areas.  This is also going to show you that there is not enough time in the day to accomplish everything you may want to do. So what does that mean?  That means you have to learn one of my favorite phrases, “No thank you.”

In our next article, we will get into even more details about each area of our life and the practicality of how to have a wonderful life that most people only dream about.