As I enter the 4th week of quarantine with my family, some very valuable lessons are ringing true. I’m so blessed to have Chris as a partner, I understand the real value of a schedule and choosing to manage my energy and attention more than time. Here are the 3 big lessons I learned last week.
PARTNERSHIP IS DELIBERATE NOT INEVITABLE
I’ve said this before, but Chris is a really good partner. Yes, he’s a good husband, but he’s a crazy good partner. If he’s on your team, you will win. Being married is a lot of work, but it’s been a different level of work these last few weeks with us taking care of the kids around the clock and having little quality time. Trusting each other’s decisions, saying thank you even for the most regular task and filling in the gaps of where your spouse has overlooked or missed something is what partnership is all about. It’s certainly easier said than done. But knowing that someone is there for you at that level makes the quarantine a little less daunting. It also fuels an enthusiasm to be there for your partner the same way.
SCHEDULE YOUR PRIORITIES
The mistake I’ve made in the past and even these last couple of weeks is making my schedule a priority. Life has a really good way of showing you that having your 3 kids means that the schedule will often be thrown off. Not only should the schedule be flexible, your priorities should be scheduled. And only that. There’s many important things that we write down to get done, but most of them aren’t priorities. Plus, we often have laundry lists of things to do when we only have the bandwidth to complete 2-3 things. And if that’s the case, those few things should be priorities. I’ve learned that it’s way more effective to schedule the priorities than to prioritize the schedule.
MANAGE MY ATTENTION AND ENERGY
We hear about time management often, but the truth is you can’t manage time. 60 seconds will always be a minute and 60 minutes = an hour whether you manage it or not. But what I can manage is my attention during time and pay attention to my energy so I know what to give my time to. I learned this concept recently after reading The Productivity Project and it rang true last week. When I pay attention to how much energy I have at certain times of the day, I’m much more clear on what I should pay attention to and in what order. We can’t control anything but ourselves – our attention and energy included. Allowing myself to be more mindful allowed me to manage the two while maximizing my time.
What did you learn last week?
