Planning Summer Break

CD cover to Alice Cooper's School's Out

Oh my lord! Dub is officially out of 1st grade at 1pm today, 6/14.  I’ve been working on my 168 hours to schedule my work, his school work, play and field trips. Yes he’s getting school work, we have a membership at education.com and he’s going to keep doing something so he doesn’t forget what he’s learned.

Usie shot at Legoland

PHOTO: Usie shot at Legoland

Dub’s breakdown

His breakdown will consist of math, writing, reading, typing and maybe music.  He likes reading so we’ll continue that during the summer, but, I’m upgrading him to harder chapter books. The class was also typing reports and I think typing may help him put thought to “paper” faster.  Thus far all my sheets will come from education.com as well as the typing.  The website has a typing “game” that will help with key strokes.

Music is a maybe, I haven’t decided if I should just let him mess with the piano, teach him a tune or teach him to read music. Regardless this is up in the air because he also love LEGOs and maybe I’ll have him build some things as a challenge. I found some LEGO challenges so we’ll see.

This last week of homework was a lot of double digits subtraction and addition along with algebra so I’ll be guiding him towards that with math.

My partial schedule for 168 hours

PHOTO: My partial schedule for 168 hours

My breakdown

I’m leaving my Tuesday and Thursdays as shopping days for my online sales.  Usually I have a limited time to shop because I have to be home in time to pick Dub up from school. With him coming along he’ll 1) learn what I do during the day for our businesses 2) he can help me source what is “cool” with the kids that may be a potential item for the store. These days will also be for scheduling lunch appointments and networking.  I do bring him to my networking events so he can learn how to network, meet people and discuss business.

Fieltrips

I’m leaving Friday’s as our field trip days and more shopping, field trips will include eating destinations I’ve been wanting to stop by at like Churroholic!  Now I have no excuse to skipping lunch, I have another body with me to feed.

Here is a list of places we may visit if my plans work out to schedule things.

  1. Mulligans (mini golf)
  2. Los Angeles Public Library
  3. Seaside Lagoon
  4. LA Zoo
  5. Exposition Park
  6. Dave and Busters
  7. Chuck E. Cheese
  8. Long Beach Aquarium
  9. Summer Movies – Regal, Cinemark
  10. Bowling – check out this site to see if your bowling alley is listed for kids bowling free.
  11. El Dorado Nature Center
  12. Sky Zone
  13. Bounce U
  14. Johns Incredible Pizza
  15. Santa Ana Zoo
  16. Discovery Cube Los Angeles or Orange County
  17. Boomerang

168 Hours

Are you aware that you actually have 168 hours a week to accomplish anything and everything you want if you plan it right? Yeah neither did I until I picked up the audio book for Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think*.  See I gave you a tip right there, no time to read, listen to a book.  As you can see above I am still working on it.

*Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Planner vs Journaling

Composition notebook, Happy Planner & Full Focus Planner

In my last post I mentioned planners and journaling and how I have issues with both of those styles. Let’s chat about them for a bit.

The Corporate World

While being in the corporate world I heavily relied on my Franklin Covey Monarch binder system.  Everything was in this planner, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g: meeting, calls, work assignments, maybe a lunch.  I used it for 3 or 4 years with dedication. I planned the day before I left, looked at it in the morning to reassess priorities.

Once I was let go life changed, the need for this monstrous planner did not fit my lifestyle.  I had more time for building our businesses, volunteer at  school, crafting, lunches, networking and family time. Since I wanted to have all this going on I had to find time, productive time.

Journal Writing

I did a bit of research on journaling and thought this would be my ticket. Journaling provided me the ability to have a to-do list, keep track of various things like: reading, water intake, steps, meditating. THIS, however, was thought out and it just seemed so tedious that I didn’t even try. *sigh*

I’m press for time to do A – Z, I have no time to be designing! I know I have 168 Hours in a day and I would like to maximize that. Journaling seemed to take up a chunk so on we move to find something else.

Happy Planner calendar section

Happy Planner calendar section

Happy Planner

My next attempt was The Happy Planner by Me and My Big Ideas. I had seen it pop up in my Pinterest feed and I loved it! The Happy Planner had the ability to add pages when necessary, it had a calendar, I could be CREATIVE. I was in heaven. I created my own meal planner with grocery list, a sheet to write quotes when I would read books because writing in books is EVIL! A page that list my ideas for crafts because who needs Pinterest for that. I carried this everywhere and it grew and it grew. The calendar wasn’t as useful after a while since my schedule is flexible and ever changing, it eventually got abandoned.  The binder became too big for me to carry and it didn’t fit nicely in my purse. It became bulky and the pages we getting loose. Next.

Full Focus

Full Focus Planner

PHOTO: Full Focus Planner

In  comes the Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt. This planner is to be used on a quarterly basis which I thought was a great idea, who plans for the whole year?  Ok, I kinda do as one of our business has conferences every quarter and monthly trainings.  The video I saw was very intriguing as to how it was structured. The planner had pages for a to do list, time allocation, goals, achievements for the week, weekend plans and how to change things up. Lovely! I actually had to think about what I was actually doing. Structure to all my hustles was now here! Hallelujah!

Meh. I stopped using it after three months. I did learn that my days are repetitive with changing parts due to the types of hustles I’m doing.  My times are flexible to move components, so a 9-5 workday schedule doesn’t really work., half a page is dedicated to a 9-5 schedule.

As I write this piece I think I’ll revisit this planner.  I’ll watch more videos that are available and see what I can do to restructure my days.  There are components that I love and quarterly sounds about right for changes in lifestyle, likes and business items.

I’ll let you know in 90 days if I’ve continued with the Full Focus Planner or if I’ve moved on to something else.

Hustle #1

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.