Do you feel overwhelmed with too many items on your to-do list or tasks carrying over from day after day or even week to week? Me too! I use a time management process I’ve refined over the last few years that helps me re-prioritize to regain my time and sanity. I make 3 lists. Each list is a bucket of sorts and everything I do more than once goes in a bucket. Everything. It’s the same process I use purging a closet, everything goes into Keep, Sell or Toss, or crafting a family budget by Spend, Save or Invest. The 3 buckets help me with overall time management and to account for and organize all of my tasks and efforts.

EVERYTHING I do more than once goes into one of these buckets:

LET’S GET STARTED!

1. Begin thinking through all the tasks you do regularly…daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly.

It doesn’t take long to have a huge list, especially since you want to include everything. EVERYTHING. Don’t get overwhelmed by the amount. The more you account for, the better! It’s super helpful to have quick access to your buckets. So, I recommend creating your lists digitally, but you can use a small notebook as well. {I use Google Drive so I have access from all my devices and can share them easily}

Keep in mind, the buckets aren’t about who currently completes the needed work, but about who CAN do the task.

Don’t be surprised if it takes you a full month to jot down all of the things you do and get them into your buckets. Most of the time we don’t realize how much we are doing until we see it in black and white. Now that you have everything you work on regularly into its correct bucket, you can see which items need you (bucket #3 ME), which ones need you now but won’t always (bucket #2 TEACH) and what things just need to get done (bucket #1 ANY.)

2. Start with your ANY bucket and place a help wanted sign on the front door!

Invest in your business and hire some help or barter with friends to get some of these tasks off your plate. Begin with the most time consuming, the ones that are most difficult for you or the ones you can unload for free. {insert children here}

3. Next up is the TEACH bucket.

This started as my least favorite part of the process. I avoided this bucket the most, but it has become a game changer for me. Do you struggle thinking you are the only one who can do the laundry or dishes right {or pack gift bags?!?} What about a neighbor or your kid? Do you know a college student distance learning at home this semester? Yes, it will mean you have to spend time teaching someone exactly how you like things. And yes, for a while that takes more time than doing it yourself. However if you are like me, there are tons of tasks that NEVER get done because I won’t take the time to teach others how to do them to my standards and so, they remain undone. Or maybe I’m the only one that does that…

The goal is to have fewer and fewer items in your ME bucket and get to a place where majority of your time, energy and talent is spent on the tasks that only you can do!

4. As your business grows and changes, you’ll want to periodically reevaluate and shuffle tasks from one bucket to another.

Over time using this process it will become easier and more natural to move tasks from ME to TEACH and TEACH to ANY. You’ll be freeing up time and energy in a way that works best for you and your business!