Hi, friends! So, as I mentioned last week, one of my goals for 2017 is to work on growing this blog in content and readership. Well, one of the ways I’m working to do that is to participate in some link-ups! Basically, other bloggers “host” the link-up, everyone writes on the same topic or prompt, and all the blog posts are linked together! It’s a great way to find new blogs that you might be interested in checking out.

So, this particular link-up focuses on how you “work it” in your every day life (hosted by Shay of Mix and Match Mama and Erika of A Little Bit of Everything). And this Wednesday is dedicated to how you are working it toward your 2017 goals.

Well, y’all. Clearly I’m not, because I’m writing this on Thursday. 🙂

I had every intention of having this done. And then I got busy on Tuesday. And Wednesday was even busier- and I know y’all can relate!

But, I did have something good I wanted to share for this, which is why I decided to swallow my pride and go ahead and post it on Thursday. I have only been a wife for a short while, and only been an adult a short while (I only count the time since getting married and graduating grad school…), so I would say I still have a ways to go in the adulting department, but this is a trick I’ve learned that has helped me tremendously, and I think is the main way I will be able to work it toward my 2017 goals.

Two words: Pocket Time.

What is Pocket Time, you ask? Pocket time is the little spurts of time tucked into pockets of your day, as opposed to stretches of time that you could be doing things, or are committed to doing things. Are you with me? Pocket time is often wasted, and I’ve found that harnessing it can mean huge things for the productivity of my day, especially when multi-tasking.

Let me give you an example:

When I break my day into stretches of time, it looks a little like this:

7:00-8:15 AM– Get ready for work (basic duties include showering, hair, make-up, breakfast and feeding the dogs)

8:30 AM-5 PM– Work

5:15-6:30 ish PM– Make dinner and eat (or decide if we are eating out, drive there, eat, and come home)

7 ish PM- bedtime (usually around 9:30-10:30 depending on what Steven is doing and how zonked we are).

A lot of my time is broken into stretches and not accounted for. I’m too bad about coming home, doing dinner, tackling maybe one or two things around the house and then falling asleep on the couch until Steven’s ready for bed. This meant laundry and housework typically piled up until the weekend, and I’d have to have a marathon of housework during the weekend, when we should be doing something fun or taking care of other things. Part of my issue, I think, was thinking that the whole job has to be done in one sitting. Not so, friends.

Here’s a small pocket time example:

We have a laundry hamper that is split into three separate bags. The bags pull off the holding track to be dumped straight in to the washer. So, we have a bag for colors, a bag for grays, and a bag for whites/lights. In the morning before I start getting ready, (typically when I have about an hour left at the house because our washer has a timer, and it typically takes between 40-50 minutes to wash a load), I’ll grab a bag, toss it in the washer and get it started. I go about my morning, and then as I finish getting ready, I take five minutes to unload the washer/ load the dryer, start it, and then go on about my day. And then, a whole load of laundry is done! Then, all I have to do when I get home is fold it and put it away (worst part!), and I try to do that while I’m watching TV (I only have a handful of shows I keep up with, so I try not to let myself watch them unless I’m doing something else). Laundry seems like such a time consuming chore, but the actual washing and drying part takes literally about 10 minutes out of my day (with a huge chunk of time saving facilitated by the clothes already being sorted), and breaking it up helps stay on top of it. This helps so much in working through laundry during the week instead of letting it pile up for the weekend. Sometimes it still piles up to be folded and put away, but at least it’s clean!

Here’s a big pocket time example:

Steven typically has to get to the hospital by 6 AM ish. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but that’s a pretty good average. Before about two months ago, I would wake up when he did, stay awake long enough for him to get ready and say goodbye, and then lay in bed for another 45 minutes to an hour not doing a whole lot of anything. It’s too short of a time span (and I’m too awake) to fall back to sleep, so I would end up just laying there. So, when I decided working out and getting healthy was really important to me, I decided that was a pocket of time that needed to be put to good use. The studio I ended up purchasing a membership with offers a daily 6:15- 7:15 AM class (which is part of why I chose this facility). I’m usually out the door a little before he is (I come home to get ready after that), but we are up about the same time, leave about the same time, and I don’t have to find time later on in the day. One of my biggest excuses previously about working out was that I was typically too hungry to do it when I first get home at night, so I would cook dinner for us, and then spend a good while letting it settle, and then before you turn around, it’s time to go to bed. Now, I’m utilizing a pocket of time I was previously wasting, and getting something done I didn’t think I had time for.

Lastly, one of my favorite uses of pocket time has been my commute. We have an office near our house that I work in 3 days a week, and then our other office is about 30 minutes from our house, and I work there 2 days a week. I used to put off calling my best friend (put off sounds negative, and it’s really not in this instance) because we would always have so much to talk about that we would need hours to talk, so our conversations would be fewer and terribly long, and there would still be things that we would miss talking about. Now, I’ve found that if I call her during my 30 minute drive home about once a week, we get to talk for a while, and we stay more caught up because it’s more often. I’m not going to encourage distracted driving, but I do encourage staying as close with your best friend as you can. 🙂

I used to really feel like I just needed more time in the day to succeed at all the “adulting” things that needed to get done. Since that’s not going to happen, it was time to step back and look at how I was utilizing my time and make some changes. Now, I’ll be the first one to admit, I try to practice what I preach, but I’m far from perfect. There have been times that I wash the same load three mornings in a row because I can’t get it to the dryer before I leave. One of my other goals for the year was to work on grace, so that’s when I just give myself a little grace. 🙂

So, how are you planning to work it this year? Drop me some comments because I’d love some tips! Happy New Year!