time management, ninja style...

I start my new full-time job tomorrow so one of my to-dos this weekend was to come up with a master schedule for all the things I have going on my life.  Working part-time offered me a little flexibility in terms of when I chose to work on building CKF, or when I vacuumed or did laundry or cleaned the bathroom or ran errands, you get the picture.  Now I’m trading in that flexibility and you know what, that’s a good thing for me.  When it comes to time management, I need structure to feel like I’m accomplishing things.  If I just start with a long to-do list and have all day to do it, at the end of the day, I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished much.  That’s probably more a function of my tendency to put way to many things on a to-do list when it seems I’ve got all the time in the world to get them done.  So this will be good. 

Because I don’t have a ton of time, I’m going to write my schedule while I’m writing this blog post, a time management two-fer if you will.  My first step…what are the things I want included in the schedule?  Because I can waste all kinds of time writing list after list and can devote hours keeping multiple calendars, and because I have a lot going on in all areas of my life, it would probably be the most efficient for me to have one master schedule that includes Cardio Kung Fu, work and my home life. 

OK, so I’ve got three categories for my schedule: CKF, work and home life.  My second step is map out the basic tasks that need to be completed weekly, at least for CKF and for my home life.  I’m not sure that this needs to be my second step but my rationale is that there are some things that need to be done in my mind and I’d rather have the management part (the tasks) of my time management schedule drive the time part rather than the other way around. 

What are my tasks for CKF? Twitter, Facebook, Blog posts, classes, bookkeeping.  Obviously there is more work to be done, but for a start, while I’m working full-time, the purpose of this list is just to make sure there is time scheduled to get those daily and weekly tasks done.  Clearly I’ll need to schedule more time than is needed to complete these tasks so I can also do the building part of the business that doesn’t fit into a neat weekly to-do list like researching sample class locations, writing instructor manuals, attending conferences, etc.

What are my tasks for my home life?  Grocery list making, menu planning (yeah, I’m starting with food, don’t judge, I really like food) working out (on non-class days) vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the kitchen, straightening the house, windows, laundry, floors, bill paying, homework check-in with the jr ninja, Kung Fu lessons, cooking, brushing the dog, walking the dog…I’m sure I’m forgetting something here but this is a pretty good start.

I’ve got my lists of tasks, I guess next step is to create the schedule.  For this I’m going to take to the interwebs for some help…

The first one I came to was this one…

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/daily-work-schedule-TC102780252.aspx

This is good, but I want a place to put daily to-do’s as well.  I don’t want to list actual tasks in time part of the schedule.

The next one I came to was this one…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsijk3l5vjQ

This is not helpful  for what I’m working on right now, but I’m including here because I’m in love with organizing CKF projects this way.

Back to the task at hand, so I kept looking for ideas but I kept coming up with sites that only allowed me access if I joined their mailing list.  I found this ironic as joining their mailing would add yet another task, in the form of “delete uses sales pitch emails” to my to-do list.  I decided to look at the original template I found and tweek that one a bit. 

The result of my first stab at this is below…

Day/Time	Priority	Daily Tasks	Multi Day Tasks	Weekly Tasks
Week Days		Twitter	Blog (tue, thur, sat)	bookkeeping
5:00 to 6:15	CKF	Facebook	laundry (mon, fri)	clean bathroom
6:15 to 7:00	get ready for work	brush Dru	vacuum (tue, thur, sat)	clean kitchen
7:00 to 7:15	walk Dru	straighten house		dust
7:15 to 5:45	work			floors
5:45 to 10:00	home-life			windows
				bill paying
Saturdays
6:00 to 9:00	CKF
9:00 to 12:00	home-life
Sundays
6:00 to 11:00	CKF
				home-life
				CKF

I’m sure this will change, but this is a good first stab I think. 

Check back on Thursday to see how I’m doing so far.

Launching while working, a pro's and con's list, and this one blogger that convinced me I got it right...

Cardio Kung Fu is growing, however, so are our household bills.  In December I took a little hiatus from full-time employment to focus on what our family needed (me home more with more flexibility while my husband traveled for work) and started working part-time.  This was ok for a while but recently it became clear to me that I needed to go back to work full-time.  I’m not independently wealthy so I don’t have the luxury of losing money while I get CKF up and running and working part-time, while the flexible schedule was awesome to begin with, has felt more like being held hostage as time has gone on.  I couldn’t get into a rhythm of working on growing CKF with my schedule changing every week (not to mention not being posted until a few days before the week actually started) and my stress was mounting with each barely-over-minimum payment I was making on my one credit card that has a balance on it.  After much consideration, a couple of weeks ago I decided to start looking for a full-time gig again.  Part of this contemplation included looking at pros and cons.  The pros, money, a feeling of purpose again doing work that was appreciated, structure, stability, vacation days, sick days.  The cons, no more full days off to build CKF, and, well I couldn’t come up with anything else.  Since I wasn’t actually using the full days to build my business (there were also pesky things like laundry, vacuuming, cooking, etc to  catch up on since my work schedule was so all over the map) I decided there really wasn’t a down side.  CKF is a new fitness program and the way I’m building exposure is by adding community education sites and that I can do while working.  It’s going to take time before I’m a household name so I figure why not have a stable income in the meantime.  I also know myself well enough to know I’m at my most effective when my schedule is full.  A full schedule means I don’t have time to waste on actions that won’t garner results.  And that’s just what this guy said so if it’s in a blog on the internet, it’s got to be true, right?

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/starting-a-business/

Oh, and BTW, I start my new full-time job on Tuesday…

I'm scared the spiders, snakes and the phone...

A couple of weeks ago, I taught a class at the Athleta store at the Mall of America and it was an awesome experience!  I had 7 students for the class and at one point, one of them said “this workout is better than coffee.”  Teaching in this kind of setting was a totally new experience.  Up to this point, I’ve been teaching through community ed programs as an employee so getting this gig was new territory for me.  I didn’t get paid for it, these are sample classes so it’s more about exposure for my business but I sought out the opportunity, followed through and I’ve been asked back to teach again in June. 

What I’ve learned from this is that I should be open to checking out new opportunities, even if they are scary for me.  I’ve learned that fear should not be a good enough reason to not take chances.  Filling out applications for community ed programs and sending them in is easy.  Communicating the awesomeness of Cardio Kung Fu in writing isn’t scary to me.  Picking up the phone or walking into a new place to communicate that awesomeness person to person is amazingly scary to me.  I don’t know way.  It’s not the actual communicating part, once I get going on CKF, I can’t stop, I love the program I’m creating and I believe in it.  I’m learning new things each day and each evolution of the workout makes it better.  It’s exciting me.  It’s my passion.  But if I have a call to make, I will do every other thing on my to-do list and then find any excuse to put it off when I’m done with the list.  “Hmmm, it’s almost lunch time, really 9:45 AM is close to lunch, I’ll make the call after lunch.  Yes, I’ll watch Star Trek the Next Generation on BBC America and do a little research on business accounting until after lunch and then I’ll make the call.”  This is an unfortunately familiar scenario.  And this was the scenario the day I actually ran out of tasks on my to-do list, lunch was over, the cable went out, and the house was completely clean.  Left with no other alternative (I couldn’t even walk the dog, it was raining and when she goes out in the rain she continually ducks her head like she’s being pelted with BBs so she mostly refuses to set paw outside) I picked up the phone and called Athleta.  I didn’t actually speak to the right person that day but I did get the right person’s email address and ultimately made the connection I needed to make to get the class.  If I hadn’t picked up the phone that day, I wouldn’t be teaching another class in June, where I’ll get to introduce new folks to the CKF workout. 

I think part of the reason this is difficult for me is the very real possibility of rejection.  The last two and half years have been the toughest of my life.  I lost the job I thought I’d retire from and even though I have a Master’s degree, I haven’t been able to find a full-time job.  I’m not supporting myself with my income right now and that is both scary and self-confidence decimating. With each rejection on my job search I lose a little more confidence in myself.  I’m not sure how much rejection and disappointment one person can take but most days I’m pretty sure I’m coming dangerously close to that line and I’m not sure what’s on the other side.  Most days I want to give up but what’s on the other side of giving up?  If I don’t pick up the phone when I’m working on my business, I won’t be rejected. So there’s that, but I also know if I don’t pick up the phone, if I don’t take that risk, success will be limited.  If I hadn’t picked up the phone that day, I’d still be walking by Athleta on my way to my part-time job, wishing I could be on their board of upcoming classes and day dreaming about how cool that would be.  I’m also hoping that the more I pick up the phone, or walk into a new place, the more comfortable it will become. 

Slow and steady wins the race...at least I hope so anyway...

It's May 16, five and half months into this little venture of mine and I'm feeling a bit discouraged.  Even though I know I've made progress (I passed my CPT exam, I'm almost done teaching my second session of CKF through Minneapolis Parks and Rec, I've taught a sample class at Athleta and I've been asked back to teach in June) I'm having a difficult time staying positive.  My "job" has become a major source of stress and the hours are totally erratic, making it difficult to settle into a routine for building CKF and my husband is now traveling every single week, leaving all the duties of our family and home to me.  Add to that the fact that my carpal tunnel has gotten so bad my fingers are numb most of the time and I don't have time to schedule the surgery, nor does the hubby want to pay for the doctor bill and I'm staring down a future of not having full use of my hands.

Long and short of it, I'm tired.  If CKF was built to the point where I hope it will someday be, things would look different right now.   I wouldn't have the erratic job, I'd have the flexibility so that shouldering all the duties of family and home wouldn't be so overwhelming, and I'd have enough of my own money to pay for the surgery I need.  So what's a ninja to do?  The only thing a ninja can do, keep on going, keep working the job so the bills get paid, keep taking caring of my son, dog and house, because nobody else will, and keep on building CKF with whatever free time I have so someday I can get that surgery.

I wish I could say I'm feeling less discouraged, but I'm not.  Of course, that might be the chili and tator tots I just ate for dinner. 

Math is cool...and other things I learned this week.

This morning I had a wake-up call.  As I’m getting ready to launch my first Cardio Kung Fu fitness challenge, I was aware that my nachos-dr. pepper-ice cream-while-studying-for-my-personal-training-certification-exam habit (yes, I get the irony but I’m choosing to ignore it for the time being) had effected the scale but I knew my BMI was still within the healthy range so I just thought of those few extra pounds as, well, extra pounds that getting back to healthy eating and regular exercise would take care of.

Well, it’s true, knowledge is power and math is cool.  Part of getting ready to launch this fitness challenge was taking my measurements on Tuesday morning.  While they haven’t fluctuated wildly, I now have more knowledge (I have a new shiny certificate to prove it...) so I decided to calculate my waist- hip ratio (your waist measurement divided by your hip measurement = your waist-hip ration).  I’ve always heard that carrying excess fat around your middle puts women in particular at higher risk for heart disease but I’d never heard of this calculation and since I love metrics and numbers I decided to calculate mine, expecting this to just be a mathematical exercise as I’m still the same clothing size and I’ve only gained a few pounds.  I was shocked when the number on the calculator said .8025, or 80.25%.  This number is significant because anyone with a waist-hip ratio greater that 80% is at increased risk of developing heart disease.  So while I’m within the healthy ranges for both weight and BMI for a woman of my (ah-hem) age, I’m not necessarily healthy.  I’m not fat, but I am deconditioned.  I’m not fat, but I’m not at a healthy level of fitness either.  As a card carrying member of the Eating Disordered Club (ok, they don’t really give you a card when you’re diagnosed with an eating disorder, but they might as well because you can only be “in recovery” never “recovered” from one, it’s one day at a time and that bitch can come back any day she likes and when you least expect her) I’ve spent years obsessing about the number on the scale, only to learn in a very real way today, that the scale isn’t the be all and end all definitive standard for health.  It’s a good starting point, but just because you’re at a healthy weight according to some chart in the doctor’s office doesn’t mean you’re healthy, or fit.

So my plan is simple, I got through day one of my fitness challenge and 80.25% galvanized my determination to get through day two, which I have done as well, thank you very much!  So I’m planning on putting together a string of days.  And with some discipline, hard work, and a little fun (yes, I think working out is fun, why else would I studying my ass off to become a personal trainer?!) when I calculate my waist-hip ratio in April, it will be below 80%. 

t-shirts, shoes and umbrellas...

All week I’ve been working on a post about being stuck and I’ve been stuck.  No, the irony of this is not lost on me, after all, I do have an English degree.  I like to think having cracked the irony code here will make paying my student loan this month less painful, but I doubt it.  Anyway, I’m still stuck on that one so you’ll have to keep checking back to see when and if I get unstuck. 

Instead I’m going to write about my experience today with a challenge I’ve set for myself not to spend any money for the next 48 hours.  I read a few posts about this idea of choosing a certain number of days in a month to not spend money on anything (except your mortgage or other bills that would leave you homeless, powerless, phoneless, insuranceless (no, that’s not a real word) …you get the picture). The idea is to show yourself how much money you actually do spend on that cup of coffee or that lunch out so you become more aware of your discretionary spending and the benefit is you end up saving money in the process.  I don’t think of myself as a spender but lately, working part time while launching my business, I’ve had more than a couple anxious moments wondering if the money stuff would work out so I decided to give it shot.  This would be a piece of cake, except for that 32 oz soda I get at the mall part way through my shifts, I honestly couldn’t think of much spending I did that didn’t involve Great Lakes, my insurance company, AT & T, or the gas station.  Or so I thought.  By 7:05 AM (I woke up at 5:00 this morning) I had already caught myself designing a t-shirt on Vista Prints and planning a shopping trip to one of my favorite shoes stores.  I emptied my virtual cart and put my 20% coupon away.  OK, so maybe I spend a little.  By 10:05 (I clocked into work at 9:58) I spotted a ridiculously cute umbrella we just got in for our spring collection that I had to have.  I stepped away from the umbrellas, even though they had cute little cherries on them.  OK, maybe I spend more than I think I do but I haven’t used credit in months so at least I’m not racking up debt.  Finally, I broke.  I had to get two double lace tanks (if you know Coldwater Creek, you know why, LOVE them!!) We haven’t had the new pink or white in XS and we got them in today.  I grabbed them and threw them in the hold closet to purchase when my shift was over without even trying to talk myself out of it.  Instead, I went into rationalizing mode.  I had a couple of returns in my car that I needed to take to a different store after work and I figured after my purchase and after the returns, I would still be .02 ahead for the day.  Done.

 

So what have I learned here that I can apply to my business?  I think the biggest realization I had today is that I’m not always mindful of my present and my actions (I’m planning to get my yoga instructor certification so I get that this is ironic too…) and when I’m not mindful of my present actions, I am reactive, not proactive.  I was ordering the shirt because my son the jr ninja wants to help with classes and yesterday he asked me if I could order him a small t-shirt and I was planning the shoe shopping trip because I got a coupon in the mail.  The umbrella was just ridiculously cute.  Any way you look at it, I was reacting to these situations, not strategically planning.  I’m finding that in my business, I’m spending a lot of time reacting to things that pop up and I’m not spending as much time being proactive.  I’m not running my launch, it’s running me.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this new insight except maybe be mindful of what I’m actually doing.  I feel like I’m busy all day and not getting anywhere so I’m guessing there are a few t-shirts, a shoe coupon or two and a handful of ridiculously cute umbrellas in my workday. 

So tomorrow, I’m going to not spend anything (I have nothing to return so I’ll have to get really creative if I take another trip to Rationalvania).  Oh, and I’m going to mindful of where I’m spending my work time too. 

Ninjaing is hard work…

 

Last Wednesday I taught my first official Cardio Kung Fu class through the Minneapolis Parks and Rec program and it was (imagine I’m saying this next word in a sing-songy high voice) AWE-SOME!!  I felt prepared, my aspiring ninjas were engaged and we rocked!  On the drive home as I was going over the class in my mind, it occurred to me that there wasn’t anything I wished I had done or said differently.  For me, that is huge.  Usually after being in front of group, even if I feel I did well, there is always something that I can point to that I wish I had done differently.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the class was perfect or that I don’t have room to improve as a fitness instructor, there just wasn’t anything I could point to that I would have changed. 

Having had a few days to think about this, I’ve come to the conclusion that in this area, I’m just not plagued with the doubt that I’m usually plagued with in a lot of situations and I think it’s because leading that class just felt, well, for lack of better, less touchy-feely word, natural.  I was truly in my zone.  Not to get too philosophical on you (because I’m less about philosophy and more about sarcasm) but I really feel like I’ve finally discovered my calling, I’ve found my purpose.  Much of what I’ve learned in my life has led me here, to this place.  I’ve attempted other business ideas at different points in time and never have the doors been opening for me the way they are with Cardio Kung Fu.  It’s the timing, I’m sure of it.  I had to get to this point in my life to build this business and I’m firmly convinced that I’m on the right path.  (Another reason I’m sure I’m the right path is that when I get comments from people I know and love that I’m crazy for doing this or that I shouldn’t take risks, those comments haven’t shaken my confidence and my belief in my business or myself but I’ll write more about that at a later date.) 

Leading up to my first class I was doing the workout daily so I’d be prepared.  The day of class, I did the workout twice, once before and once leading the class.  It was not at all shocking to me that I woke up Thursday morning with the sore muscles that come from a good training session and I wouldn’t have traded that soreness because I walked into class on Wednesday prepared and ready to lead.  So sometimes ninjaing is hard work, but really, aren’t most things worth doing?