Find Time to Get Your Seasonal Chores Done and Live These Fall Days Fully!

The Time Finder with Paula Eder

The way you use your time is the way you live your life.

Find Time to Get Your Seasonal Chores Done and Live These Fall Days Fully!

Posted on September 28, 2010, under Time Management Skills, Transitions and Time.

Finding time to get it all done, while still appreciating and living each moment deeply is a challenge that we each face every day. Especially during times of transition – like the change from summer to fall – finding enough time to manage seasonal tasks, let go of summer, AND enjoy the special moments that autumn brings can seem like an impossible combination of tasks.

This is where task templates can really help you. They are simple, flexible systems for managing your time and shaping your schedule. They help you avoid reinventing the wheel for recurring chores, freeing up precious time for other activities that you value while assuring that you get the things done that you need to do.

These templates capitalize on one of the things that your mind does best – create patterns. Your templates put everything in front of you quickly and clearly, freeing you to launch into action. And that frees up your time.

Any repetitive activity with multiple steps can be streamlined with task templates. Use them as a framework for your activities, giving yourself a simple outline for your projects that you can refer to time after time. For example, they can help you with the kinds of chores that you need to do every fall, like:

Putting away summer clothes and getting out winter wear
Preparing garden beds for winter
Getting ready for school
Prepping your space for winter
Other activities like putting summer garden tools away, harvesting and preserving garden produce, stacking firewood, etc.

Getting started with templates is easy. Follow this template for template-making, adapt it to your needs (that’s always first and foremost), and see how much time you save.

List activities or projects where a template would be helpful to you, using the examples above for a guide.
Select one project you’d like to work with first.
Jot down each activity associated with this project. Include any supplies you will need, and order the activities chronologically.
Place all the task templates you create in a loose-leaf notebook or in a dedicated file on your desktop so that they’re easily accessible.
Review your task templates to see if important areas have been overlooked. Revise them as you use them, and then save your new-and-improved templates for the next time you need them.

Task templates are infinitely flexible systems. The more you use them, the more constructive uses you’ll imagine, the more confidence you’ll have in them and in yourself, and the more time you’ll find for what matters most to you! Give it a try, and let me know how it goes for you … I’d love to hear!

What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!

Let’s explore time together …

And to explore your Inner Wisdom with some of the time you find, sign up and give yourself the gift of the FREE MP3 of the most recent interview in my Finding Time EducationRich and HeartBased Teleseries! Just click this link to sign up for Activating Your Inner Wisdom: How to Bring Joy and Success into Your Life – my interview with Soulful Coach Joanna Lindenbaum, and we’ll send you an e-mail with a link to the audio!

When you listen to your wise voice, your time choices will be more closely aligned with your values – you’ll see!

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There are 5 Responses to “Find Time to Get Your Seasonal Chores Done and Live These Fall Days Fully!”

#1 Alison - 28 September, 10:50 AM

Thanks for reminding me! I have some templates filed on my computer that I can pull on…

#2 Finding Time to Revise A Holiday Tradition? Just Ask Paula! | The Time Finder with Paula Eder - 02 December, 8:23 PM

[...] Finding time to create templates so that you can efficiently follow through on your holiday tasks, routines, and traditions is an excellent, time-saving tool. [...]

#3 Ellene Breedlove Davis - 14 October, 10:30 PM

Paula,
Your post reminds me of a quote by John Updike “Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better.” Your templates have helped me accomplish this.

At the present I have three templates, one to tick off when I go to an art show, one to tick off when I teach a workshop and one to use as I prepare to paint a picture.

I keep these in a folder on the Desktop and refer to them as I prepare for these activities.

I’m working on a fourth one that is helping me keep on schedule as I work on other areas of my art business.

Thank you for introducing this system to me.

Ellene

#4 Richard - 15 October, 5:34 PM

A list of todo items should not make our life joyless. The task templates can remind us that that while we live we need to be human beings and not just human beings.
Today I added a “signiture” to my outgoing yahoo emails.
It’s:

“Make “have a good day” something you aim to do each day. One way to do this is to remember that “Gratitude is not only a virtue, but the father of all other virtues.”"

#5 Paula - 16 October, 8:41 AM

Hi Richard –

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. I appreciate your posting that quotation about gratitude; it is so true!

Paula

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