Perry Watkins is creating a program called Life Management and asked how I manage my day.

Thanks for asking.  The following may be more info than you want but it seemed like a good time for me to re evaluate what I am doing anyway.

 

8:00 am:  I wake up and before getting out of bed, pray the prayer of Jabez:  It is from the Old Testament and abbreviated it goes like this:

 

1. Thank you God for all that you do for me, and I list out lots of stuff that comes to mind and really feel the thankfulness and gratitude while doing it.

2. Bless me indeed.  I ask for what I want with full expectation it is coming.

3. Expand my territory.  For me this means the reach of the sanctuary and its mission and the notion of expanding my understanding of the Universe.

4. Guide me with Thy loving hand.  I am asking to be conscious of Universal intelligence throughout the day so that I make good decisions.

5. Keep me far from evil that I may do no harm.  I say this part because it is in the original Prayer of Jabez, but I don’t have any real concern that I am going to do evil or harm to anyone.

6. Through Jesus name, Amen.  I say the last part because I am a Christian and that is the way we were instructed to pray in the New Testament.

 

8:30 am:  I watch my slideshow Vision Statement that takes about a minute.  I eat breakfast in front of my computer, check the 100-200 emails that come in each day and answering and forwarding them as appropriate.  I use Outlook, so I color code those that I need to come back to.  I check my Outlook calendar to see if there are any appointments and if they are, I usually will stick a Post It on my screen to notify me, even though Outlook is set to pop up and tell me a half hour before.

 

I put all of my appointments, birthday notices, and recurring issues on the Outlook calendar.  Three days week, M, W and F  I go to the gym at 10:00 am and that is set as a recurring appointment.  The maid comes every other Tues., the Volunteer meeting is the first Sunday of each month, and there are a myriad of paperwork things that have to be done monthly or annually that are all on the calendar as recurring.

 

I use Outlook’s Task pane to list all of the stuff that comes in needing my attention.  I post the date it came in and when it is due and if there is a drop dead date it goes on the Calendar too.  When new mail or email comes in, it goes onto the Task list if I am not going to do it today…and I am probably NOT going to do it today.

 

Once I go through all of the new emails, I will look into the Task pane to see what I can cross off the list.  I base it upon deadlines, mostly, but find that I often will do what I like doing and not do what I hate doing.  I hate the phone and it could take me a month to call a person back, whereas I will email back in seconds in many cases, since I am at the computer all day.

 

Noon:  I eat lunch at the computer or in the car if I have to go somewhere.

 

I work at the computer until around 4 pm, which is when I usually schedule private tours for big donors, or just my face time at the sanctuary to check on the cats and let the staff and volunteers know that I exist.  They don’t see me all day, because I work from home.  I used to work at the sanctuary, but with 100 volunteers, each stopping in for a couple minutes to say, “hello” I couldn’t get any work done.  I have 8 paid staff and 100+ volunteers who help me keep that going and then I have 2 paid staff that stay on top of my real estate business, handling incoming payments, outgoing bill payment, and everything else that goes with keeping a 100 or so rental properties and mortgages running smoothly.  They take care of all of my banking, taxes, insurance, cars, etc.  All I have to do is find and negotiate the buying and make the decisions on the selling.

 

On the way home I go roller blading, or take a walk on a beach somewhere and listen to The Secret or similar stuff on the iPod.  This is all I listen to in the car as well.