Phone alarms for the rest of your day
Effective time management is a critical component to Making Flex Work. If you are going to be successful in a variety of different areas of your life, one of the most important things you can do is figure out how to piece them together.
My favorite tool for this is the alarm on my phone because it can help me remember when it is time to switch my focus. I typically set my alarm for 10 minutes before I need to do something so that I can use the 9-minute snooze feature as a way to transition. Much like a snooze in the morning can give you the time to transition between sleep and being fully awake, once you are up and moving, it can help you know that it is almost time to move on to the next important thing. During the snooze, I find an intentional stopping point instead of rushing, create a plan for the next time I am focused on that part of my life while it is still fresh, and I can begin to think about what I need to do to be successful at the activity I am about to begin.
These are the standing alarms in my phone right now:
5:55 AM - This is the alarm that goes off on Mondays and Wednesdays need to Drop my daughter off at school prior to heading to campus to teach.
6:15 AM - This is the alarm that goes off on Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays but I need to get my daughter up and ready for school, but I don’t have to be dressed and ready to head to work
7:45 AM - This is alarm is dual purpose. Twice a week, it lets my son and I know that we have 10 minutes before we need to leave the house because I drop him off at school on my way to the gym. On Fridays, this is the alarm to remind me to wake him up because he gets to sleep in an extra hour!
10:10 AM - This alarm is for my morning class of students. That class ends at 10:20, so it is their 10 minute reminder that class is almost over and we need to wrap up what we are doing and begin planning for what needs to happen before we are back together.
2:15 PM - This is another dual purpose alarm. On Mondays and Wednesdays is the alarm for my afternoon class of students, but on Tuesdays and Fridays is the alarm that tells me it is time to be in the carpool line to pick my daughter up from school.
4:10 PM - This is the alarm for picking up my son from school.
As much as I hate the fact that I constantly have a phone attached to me, I love that it can be a tool that helps me be all things to all the people in all the places that are important to me.