92: Similarities Between Time Management And Juggling

In the last episode, we talked about the rocks in a jar analogy and how using that framework can help you accomplish more of what is important to you by making time for your big rocks first. We talked briefly on that episode about how to identify your big rocks.

In this episode of the Take Back Your Days Challenge series, we're diving deeper into how to know your priorities so you can define your big rocks. You will learn the three steps you can take to juggle your priorities like a pro.

Until next time,
Crystal

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Transcript

Crystal Wagner: 0:03

Hey, it's Crystal with the All In A Homeschool Day podcast, and we are in the second episode of our Take Back Your Days challenge week. In the last episode, we talked about the rocks in a jar analogy and how using that framework can help you accomplish more of what is important to you by making time for your big rocks first. We talked briefly on that episode about how to identify your big rocks. Today, in the second episode in this series, we're going to dive deeper into how to know your priorities, so that you can define your big rocks. And I'll give you three questions that you can ask yourself to help walk you through this process. The rocks in a jar analogy is a helpful visual to remind us to keep our focus on what's important. I find it really helpful as I think about how I spend my time, and that I really want to use my time well and in a way that is going to support my values. But I actually find a different analogy helpful when I'm identifying what I want to focus on. A friend and I have had quite a few conversations about how many balls that we juggle. We realized that there are actually quite a few similarities between managing our days and juggling. My daughter learned to juggle. She's trying to teach me, and it's a slow process. But I am determined to eventually get this. When you juggle, you have to keep your gaze trained on where the balls are going not on your hands. You also have to start by juggling one ball. And the more balls we juggle the shorter time we can keep them all in the air. So the question became, which balls do we want to drop? It's So we came to a realization, it was actually a duh moment. Why actually hard to do, it's hard to admit that we'll let didn't we think of this before. We will drop balls as we are something drop. What feelings did you feel whenever I started saying that, that we will drop balls, it is inevitable. For me, it brings up feelings of failure, a fear, sometimes of guilt. Maybe for you, it brings up some shame. There are things that we can't do, and that's okay. The first step is acknowledging we're going to drop balls. But I really don't worry about the balls that I'm going to drop anymore because I use three steps to help me manage that. The first thing that I do is identify the types of balls that I'm juggling. And for me there, I think there are three types of juggling all of the demands that we have placed on us. I am a

balls: 3:42

glass, plexiglass, and rubber. If you think about those three different materials, if I drop a glass ball, it's probably going to shatter into a gazillion pieces. There will be a mess. I won't be able to get pick that ball back up and juggle it again. It's gone. A plexiglass ball, it probably will get a little dinged up, it may end up with some pieces missing. But you know, I can juggle it again. And a rubber ball is going bounce. I can drop it, and then pick it up and start juggling right where I left off. As we think about how we can apply this in our lives. Those glass balls are the things that you do not want to let drop. You don't want to lose them. It could be things like relationships, or maybe your health is very tenuous right now home educator, a wife, a mother, a business owner. I have a and so you really need to focus on that, anything that you really need to focus on. You really know that if you dropped it, there's a good chance that you won't get it back. The plexiglass balls are things that are important to you, but you could sit down for a little while. If you tried to juggle them and you drop them, well, there'd be some damage, but you could pick it back up. And then the rubber balls. Honestly, that's a lot of what we do. There's a lot in our day that we could let it drop, and it really wouldn't be a big deal. I want to encourage you to take out a piece of paper and draw three circles on your paper. You may want to think about drawing contract job that I do some work for someone else. And not to them like a triangle, two balls on the bottom, one on top as if you had your juggling balls sitting there. And label each circle. One is a glass ball. One is a plexiglass ball, and one is a rubber ball. Now for this exercise, we're only going to identify the three things that we want to think about that we're juggling. I know that you'll have more than three responsibilities. You'll have more than three things that you want to focus on. And when you live out your daily life, you will obviously do more than three things in each day. But in order for us to find clarity, we have to focus our attention. Dr. David Rock in Your Brain at Work talks about our brain. You can think of it like a stage. We can have three, maybe five at the most, actors on the stage at any given time, or it's just too mention the volunteer work. I mean, when you start thinking confusing for the audience. So we're going to take some of the confusion out, we're going to just focus on these three things for right now. So on another piece of paper, brainstorm everything you can think of that you may want to focus on. All the things that you feel are calling your attention, that you want to do for the next year, commitments that you have that you need to fulfill. Brainstorm a list, and then we'll use that in our next step. So if you want to pause for right now and do this as we go, that'd be great. If not, you can always come back to this. So the second step is that I want you to classify your balls. Look through your list, and identify one responsibility, value, or area of your life for each type of ball. It helps me about all of that, it is a lot. The thing is jugglers drop balls to hear examples, so I want to share with you what I did for this exercise. I went through this last July when I was kind of thinking through how I wanted to spend my time over the next year. And for my glass ball, it is relationships. Relationships are so important to me, that overrides pretty much everything else that I do. When I am having a values conflict, when I am having struggle. Whenever there's tension in something that's going on, it usually points back to how it's affecting relationships. So for me, I'm going to make sure that I maintain relationships, that's my glass ball. My plexiglass ball is my health. Right now I have some challenges, both with my overall health and with my vision, that just makes it a too. All the time. That's how they get better is they drop real challenge to do some things. So I am really focusing on that so that I can improve it and get on the other side of this and not have to focus on it so much. So it's important to me, and I'm going to make that a high priority. But if I if I drop it, I can pick it back up, and it'll be all right. My rubber ball I wrote down as attaining my ACC certification. The ACC certification is an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation. And when I started this process in 2022 to attain my certification, I knew what I need to have with the classwork and with the coaching balls, but they keep throwing them up. hours, and I've been working towards that with slow steady progress. I know that I'll eventually get there, but what I also recognize is that if something has to give, if I have to drop something, I will put a pause on the classes or I'll reduce my coaching availability. If I need to really focus on the relationships or my health, of course, working towards my coaching certification is not going to be as high of a priority. So those are my three balls. Now the third step is to prioritize your balls. What you identified as your three balls should be your focus for this next period of time. You define what that is, whether it's three months, six months, a year. That's your focus. And when you need to make a decision about what to do, refer back to these three priorities. For example, during my business time, the time during my day when I've allotted to work on Triumphant Learning activities, I want to focus on gaining my coaching hours so I can apply for my ACC certification. That means that I can pursue different coaching opportunities than I would have my goal were to increase my income. For example, I could focus on peer coaching opportunities where I'm trading off coaching with another coach who's also trying to earn their certification hours. Or I could invite you to a coaching session at a reduced rate, which I do want to do right now. If you'll mention that my ACC certification is a rubber ball when answering the "How did you hear about me?" question, I'll have a special rate for you as I am working towards my certification. You can learn more about coaching and schedule your free inquiry call at triumphantlearning.com/coaching. Now a practical tip as you're thinking about prioritizing your balls, and actually what do you do with this in daily life. I like to remember that our habits are our values in action. And I'll often ask myself, what are two to three helpful habits that I could implement that will help me live out my values, and then I block that time out on my calendar in a way that reflects those values. I talked yesterday about how important relationships are to us and to me specifically, so I've blocked out time on my calendar every day for my daughter who is doing dual enrollment. That way, when other things vie for my attention, I can remember to choose these three things that I've identified as my priorities. Now, you'll probably feel some fear, guilt, or shame as you learn to keep your focus on what matters most to you. You'll have to say no, and become comfortable with saying no. I love that someone said that"No." is a complete sentence. I don't have to qualify it. I can just say, "No, I can't do that. No." And see I qualified that, as I was saying that, we just feel the need that we can't turn things down. When I get into that situation, I will ask myself are my balls shattering or bouncing? And am I okay with that. You will get better at juggling with practice. It does help to have a coach. It helps to have someone who can see what's going on from a different perspective. They can see when we might need to make adjustments to our technique. My daughter pointed out that I was throwing one of the balls too far forward. I knew something was off and I couldn't quite tell what was going on. So she could provide that feedback. They can also provide exercises to help us improve. My daughter reminded me that I needed to start practicing with my left hand also. I was only throwing the ball with my right hand. And in so doing, I was missing an opportunity to improve my skills. A coach can see what we miss because we're so focused on keeping the balls in the air. If you would like to work with me as your coach, I would love to talk with you. I have a special offer that combines coaching with my Flourishing Days Framework course. You'll get access to both, and then you'll be able to learn even more strategies and processes that you can use to get your days under control and to be more effective at what you are doing. You can learn about this special coaching opportunity at triumphantlearning.com/flourishingdayscoaching. So I just want to recap briefly here what you can do as you're thinking about identifying your priorities and how you want to spend your time. That is to remember that you cannot juggle all the things. You will have to put some things down, you will drop some balls. Second, that you'll have to make decisions about what's important to you and where you will focus your attention and energy. And then I want to encourage you to take some time today to write down one focus for each type of ball(glass, plexiglass, and rubber) and one action step that you can take the focus on each of those balls. Tomorrow we'll be talking about having realistic expectations and what to do when they get out of hand. I'll see you then.