Time
Sometimes I just wish there was more hours in a day to complete everything that you want to do. But that’s not the case. Today I’m not necessarily blogging about a book but I wanted to put it out there and acknowledge that I may not have the best time management skills like I thought I had.
Let me give you a little background before I just jump right in. For the past 2 1/2 years I have been a volunteer coach for a local youth cheerleading program. When I was younger and throughout high school I was a cheerleader for the same youth program as well as high school and a competitive All-Star team. When I was asked if I wanted to coach I jumped at the opportunity. I had never coached before and I thought it would be a great way to learn the other side of being involved in Cheerleading. These past few years have been such a great experience for me I feel like I’ve grown as a person because of this experience. This past year was a complete struggle and I was basically done with coaching. I didn’t want anything to do with it anymore and I wanted to focus more on reading, being with family and work at bettering myself.
So when the season came to an end in November, I was free! I was able to read so many books and catch up with people I wasn’t able to see because I was too busy with cheerleading. By the beginning of December I decided that I wanted to start this blog because I needed a creative outlet for myself now that I didn’t have cheerleading anymore. Blogging had been something that I always wanted to try so I made it a goal for myself that I would do it. Which I am and I’m very proud that I am!
Toward the end of December I somehow got sucked back into doing another season of cheerleading right as I started my blog. I truly wanted to say no but I just didn’t have the guts too. Being a coach takes up an extremely large amount of my time and sometimes it really just bugs me that I can’t sit down and read. After work (I work 9am – 5pm) I go directly to practice (6pm – 8pm on Mondays and Wednesdays / 6om – 9pm on Fridays) and then after practice it takes me about 30 minutes to get home. Once I get home I’m absolutely exhausted from the day and I still haven’t even eaten dinner yet. I just feel like I can’t put in my full potential to it anymore.
So as a New Year’s resolution I told myself that if I truly didn’t want to do something I would need to say no and mean. After this season of cheerleading which ends at the end of April I will not be coaching again. Now if you know me personally I’ve said this to my friends and family about 1 million times and here I am still coaching. But this time feels so much different. I have something for myself that I absolutely love to do, I want to keep meeting so many awesome people and grow with my blog. This is an awesome community.
So please hold me to this statement. I will not coach after the season!
I want to focus on myself, reading, my blog and spending more time with my family and friends.
I’ve been wanting to do this blog post for a while now it’s just been really hard because I haven’t had the time. Nor have I really have the time to read which has really bug me which also means I haven’t really been posting any reviews. So it’s been really hard for me to balance blogging, working and coaching. I know that others may have a much busier schedule than I do but I don’t know how they get through the day.
Do you guys have any suggestions for me as far as time management goes? I’m always looking for new ways to balance everything that goes on in my life. Is there something that you found that works really great for you in this aspect? Please let me know in the comments down below I am really in desperate need of your thoughts and suggestions!
Sara Reads Romance 
9 responses to “Talk With Me Tuesday ︱ a chatty post”
I’m not sure I have any great time management tips but good for you for learning to say no! Sometimes you just have to put yourself first… because chances are no one else will! 🙂 To get yourself through the busy period until coaching ends in April, maybe you could dedicate a little time each evening (or morning) to one specific thing. Monday morning/evening is for writing a book review(s), Tuesday is for getting a couple posts written and pre-scheduled, Wednesday is for visiting other blogs, etc. Having just one task per day to focus on might make it seem less overwhelming. 🙂
Tanya @ Girl Plus Books
http://girlplusbooks.blogspot.com
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Thank you for that! I really need to start putting myself first. I am always thinking of others and I tend to neglect myself. Great suggestion on doing one thing for the blog each day! I think that might really help me, along with writing things down and planning everything out. Thank you for your great suggestions ❤️
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Time management is hard, especially when you’re working a full time job like that! I don’t have any (good) advice, but I find that cutting down your sleep helps. I either stay up for an extra hour or wake up two hour earlier when I need to get something done.
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I have been thinking about getting up earlier to start my day. I think this is a great motivation to start doing that . Thank you for your suggestion!! 🙂
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Personally, I don’t have much experience with time management because I started committing to blogging fairly recently. Since then, I’ve had less time on my hands and really need to manage it, with school also a large part of my life.
Planning things out could help a lot, like the amount of time you are able to do certain tasks and how much time you should give yourself. Definitely do what makes you happy and what you think is worth your time. However, you know you, so I can’t say anything for sure. I would maybe go online to see what time management tips you want to try and find out what works best for you.
We’re all still learning! I wish you all the best! 💜
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Yes we are! I think my main issue is this cheerleading thing. I am going to do some research on how best to manage the time that I do have. When I was in college I used to plan out EVERYTHING. I think I might try doing this again as it really helped me.
Thank you ❤
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As a long time advocate of using tech to better our lives, I believe this is one of those times where shortening your use of social media can help free up more time to do what you need to do, instead of falling into the new trap of doing something out of ritual.
It would also help in re-assessing HOW you use your online time, rather than simply focusing on how LONG you use it for. Who knows, maybe you’ll still be on your phone the same amount of time, but still get twice as much completed!
So the same goes for even non-electronic device related! Use a journal, or make a Post-It-Note of all the things you usually do during the day. It’s best not to micro-manage like this ALL the time, but at least if you feel like you don’t have anymore time for anything else, maybe taking into account where your time literally goes (down to the minute) might help free up 5mins here, and 30mins there.
Hope this doesn’t come off as saying that you’re lazy, or that you don’t have your priorities straight. I’m just a strong believer in doing something about something you wish to change about yourself and actually following through. Especially when it’s something as complex, yet at times as simple, as life.
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Thank you for the great suggestions! Social media is such a great thing, but is also such a waster of time. I often find myself scrolling and looking at nonsense. I think limiting my time on social media could be a really big help, for me. And like you said using a journal or Post-It-Notes could really help me understand where all of my time goes. Writing stuff down has always helped me, I don’t know why I stopped 🙂
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Prioritize what you have to and make time for what you want to do. Those things are most important. What makes you happy makes getting through what you have to do easier. If you dont feel happy and fulfilled then everything that you have to do feels like that much more of a burden. Planning things out will help you prioritize better and cross out things you might be spending too much time on that arent as important as the time put in.
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