Time Management and Planning

A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9

The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty. Proverbs 21:5

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18

I am a scheduler.  I like making schedules.  I enjoy knowing what is on my agenda for the day and being able to mark things off as I do them.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment.  I found out a few years ago that this is actually a good thing… despite the massive amount of teasing I’ve received from doing this.  I don’t mind the teasing, though.  I’ve come to realize that this is just a part of who I am.

At any rate, as you can tell from my last post, I’ve found a way to make some money with Associated Content. That’s gotten me somewhere, but I’m going to need a lot more than that to meet my ultimate goals. Three to four dollars a day isn’t going to cut it.

I have a new goal. I noticed that with Associated Content my pay increased with the amount of articles I wrote. The way AC works, also, is that you are also paid based on the amount of links your work receives. Essentially, the more articles I write, the more clicks I will receive, which will bring me in more income. I think the no brainer here is to simply write more stuff. After I’ve written enough articles to bring in an income based on clicks alone, I can step back and work on other things to make money.

Initially I had set myself up to write a certain number of articles per day, but taking a look at the big picture, I don’t think that will work well. For one, I have a level of integrity I’d like to maintain. I don’t want to just write anything, put my name on it, and throw it out to the world. Instead, I want the things that I write to have a flavor, a richness, a body. If my name is going to be on it, then I want it to represent quality. So, to meet my standards, and make more money, I have decided to set aside a certain amount of time each day just for writing.

This is going to take some adjusting. I already have a relatively full plate. I homeschool my daughter, which takes about 4 to 5 hours a day. I spend about an hour in travel/waiting time for my son for school. And, because my husband and I have chosen for me to stay at home with kiddos, then it is also my responsibility to have meals planned and cooked, housework done, laundry washed and put away, etc. Then there are a myriad of other daily activities I have to do that I won’t even bring up. What I’m looking at here is time management.

For the sake of my readers I am going to give a rough idea of how I intend to adjust my daily routine to make room for writing. I’m not particularly keen on everyone knowing what my typical day is like, but I realize that if I am going to be of any help that I need to give an account of how I am making adjustments so that anyone else who is attempting this can follow along. So, here goes:

06:00 am — quiet time (this is time for Bible study, prayer, and writing in my journal)
06:45 am — get myself and the kids ready for the day, make and eat breakfast, feed the animals, make the beds
08:15 am — begin homeschooling, do chores (laundry, sweeping/vacuuming, picking up, dusting, getting the crock pot started for dinner)
09:00 am — continue homeschooling, writing time (this is both for Associated Content and for this blog.
10:00am — break (everyone needs a recess, after all) –This is a good time for a snack and some exercise.
10:30 am — send my little lady back to the books, continue writing (at this point I am writing strictly for AC – with breaks here and there for laundry)
12:00 pm — lunch (I will always have this prepared as you’ll see below)
12:30pm — finish up homeschool, get back to writing
02:30 pm — Run errands
03:30 pm — break and snack for the kids, work on dinner
04:00 pm — study time for kiddos, writing time for me
05:00 pm — dinner time, family time, finish up homework, feed the animals
08:00 pm — prepare lunches for the next day, kids get ready for bed, time for me to do research for articles I’d like to write.
09:00 pm — bedtime

I will probably have to make a few adjustments here and there as I go along, but this is the basic schedule that I plan on trying out. Later on I will have to make time for another idea I am planning that I’m only currently working with on weekends. I am not accustomed to using a schedule based on a time frame, so this is going to take some getting used to.

You may or may not have noticed that I mentioned that I had some other ideas for future money making.  I will share information on that in another post.  The reason I bring it up now is to make a point.

The scriptures at the top of this all talk about planning/vision.  Planning is making a series of goals in order to meet a bigger objective.  I’ve already stated my BIG goal: to get out of debt and have money set aside for the things I need down the road.  I need smaller goals to achieve along the way so that I can reach my ultimate destination.  I have made a “rough draft” plan on how to get myself out of debt, at least, for my smaller debts like credit cards.  I don’t feel comfortable enough yet to even attempt to plan beyond that yet.  I’m still in unchartered territory.

My point is that I need something to do “next.”  I need motivation.  I need to be able to mark something off of my “to do” list, so to speak.  That next step is to make $400 to pay off my smallest debt first.  I have a credit card whose payoff is roughly $200 (I know it sounds puny, but combined with the other debt, it adds up… remember the penny millions concept — pennies add up?  Debt does the same thing.)  My goal is to have double the amount in my Penny Millions fund to pay off a debt.  In short, $400 saved for a $200 payoff.  That way, I don’t have to start from a 0 balance everytimeI pay off a debt.  I am moving forward with my money, and paying off debt at the same time. 

My next payoff amount is roughly $500.  I will have $1000 in my Penny Millions fund before I pay that amount off.  It is much easier to make money when I have money to begin with… –I hope my plan makes sense to you.  If it doesn’t, let me know and I’ll try to clarify.

Dave Ramsey would have me put back $1000 in an emergency fund first.  I like this idea very much, but at the moment it is simply impossible for me to do that.  We don’t have the income for that.  My husband is already working above and beyond a forty hour work week, and it doesn’t make sense for me to work outside of the home.  After subtracting gas and babysitting from my paycheck I would be left with very little.  It would be more sensible for me to cut costs and make money doing what I’m already doing. 

I intend to begin my new schedule this Monday (October 6th).