Building Integrity… and Freeing Time!

***RING****

You answer your I-Phone to be greeted by the voice of your best friend. He sounds stoked, and after a quick hello he gets to the point of the phone call.

“Bro! There’s a sick DJ show coming to town on Friday!”

Friday! Sounds sick, you’re in. Hanging up the phone you feel weird though, you feel like there’s something going on Friday. Only a passing thought, you move on with your day looking forward to the DJ show. Marcus Schultz?! Fuck yeah.

Friday rolls around as the day seems to fly by. The drive home from work passes by in minutes. You make your way through the front door of your house, throw down your work bag and run to the shower. Singing Brittany Spears and dancing to “Toxic”, you stop brushing your teeth as you notice your phone buzz on the counter. You look down to see a text from your Mom.

Mom: Hey honey! I’m excited that you’re coming over for dinner tonight.

Mama’s gonna be a – REAL mad!

Life get’s busy, for real. Sometimes it can feel like you have no free time to do anything. Especially planning in advance, I know I never used to plan more than two days in advance. Agreeing to plans a week ahead is easy, sticking to those plans isn’t always as simple.

Think about the way you spend your time right now, and the people you spend your time with. We tend to get immersed in the moment, going with the flow wherever we go without thinking about the time being spent. That’s good, living in the moment is very important, however we also find ourselves limited in the people we have time to spend with, and also the time that we have to ourselves.

I found that applying the simple idea in this article for me was a lot easier in theory than in application. In fact, I hated the idea of mapping out my life. I figured, I wanted to live my life the way I wanted to live it, in the moment, as it came.

However, I found that once I organized my calendar, I was able to do everything that I wanted to do with my time… and more. Being immersed in the moment is good, but sometimes I find that I get carried away, and slack off in the moment. I’m never slacking off if I know how much time I have to get a project done.

The best part about a calendar is that you’re putting things in your calendar that you want to do. I used to not want to be limited by my calendar, but I never put anything in my calendar that I don’t want to do. The only things that go in my calendar are the things that I love to do. It’s 10x more efficient too, because with my calendar organized it allows me to do everything that I want to do, not just some of the things.

Stick to Your Word!

I know, when I first heard the idea of a calendar I was at the same place you are. “Fuck that!” But as a man with a changed opinion, I can tell you that my calendar has organized my life to fit everything that I love to do in it. I find that I’m MORE BUSY but getting LESS DONE when my time isn’t organized properly with my calendar. Especially when you decide to take yourself seriously on the path to self – development. There’s a lot that needs to get done in a day, and if you don’t have it all organized sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed.

My recommendation to you is this: As I did, sign up for a G – Mail. Smartest thing you will ever do. The calendar option that you get with your account will allow you to fit everything that you love to do in your life. Update it nightly! It takes 5 minutes, and the benefits of organization are enormous. I felt an instant relief, seeing my schedule for the week mapped out in front of me. I find that I’m able to be a man of integrity, and be the places that I say I’m going to be, when I make plans with people. It’s easy to avoid double – booking and ditching on the plans that seem the ‘least fun’ for the moment if you have your week organized.

Get on it, son! It may be the smartest thing that you could do with 10 minutes of your day, next to eating a bowl of Fruit Loops.