I was the worst about turning off my alarm, rolling over, grabbing my phone to check my email and see what had happened in the world of Facebook since I had stopped checking it only moments before I closed my eyes the night before. I’m sure there are studies saying why this is a bad idea but here is why it didn’t work for me. If I started my day by checking my email and being reminded of all I had to do or even worse starting my day off with a negative email someone sent me, then it set the tone for the rest of the day. I didn’t need to mindlessly search Facebook to wake up.

One of my blogging buddies, Alissa from Creative with Kids told me about a tip she read, you should replace a bad habit with a good habit instead of trying to cut it cold turkey.

I love this idea. I purchased Jesus Calling with a short daily devotion I could read the moment I rolled over instead of Facebook. This changed my attitude for the whole day. You can even purchase a Kindle version so you can easily read it on your phone.

This isn’t rocket science. However, it has taken me years to put these into practice. I no longer answer emails or work on the weekends. That is my time with my family. I try my best to stop working when the kiddos get home from school. Some days I’m more successful than others. If you know what hours you can work during the day you know just how much time you have to be as productive as possible. This helps preventing sitting down at the computer and getting lost on Facebook for 40 minutes.

When I told my husband I recently decided I would not let myself work prior to 9:30am or 10am he looked at me like I was crazy. Why did it matter when I started work? For me, I need to get my kids out the door, shower and get dressed before I sit down for the day. If I try to check email while we are getting ready for school, I lose track of time and then end up yelling for them to hurry when I was the one who got distracted. By saying I can’t check email or Facebook until that time, I am more likely to go shower and get dressed to start my day instead of waiting until 4pm. I LOVE working. I do. It’s crazy. I look forward to Mondays so I can work again. However, with that I had to learn to draw lines otherwise I would be working all the time.

I’m going to slowly phase in other tasks that need to be done prior to starting work like make the bed, do the morning dishes and maybe just maybe fold laundry (but let’s not get crazy). It is a process and right now I’m just at the shower and get dressed stage. Plus, there is something to be said about answering emails in clothes instead of your PJs.

Before I sit and check email or social media, I write down exactly what I have/need to do that day. I write it out by hours. From 10-11am I will work on this. When I used to only write a to-do list I ended up picking and choosing what I wanted to do and then got lost on Facebook. But when my time is schedule for me and I know that from 11am-noon I need to write my newsletter and draft up a post, I have direction.

Also, I try to write the things I don’t want to do down first. Have you heard of the book Eat That Frog! I haven’t read it yet, but the idea is you get the frog first. Meaning you do the thing you don’t want to do first so the rest is easy. If you are like me, then you will stare at the thing you don’t want to do and keep pushing it back until you have fun out of time.

You can purchase The Ultimate Blog Planner to help you stay organized.

As I have mentioned before Facebook is my go to time waster. I may say, I need to go write a post on Facebook and 30 min. later I’m still on there. I now schedule time Monday morning for me to schedule my posts for the entire week. I no longer need to worry about jumping on FB to post. I may hop over to check the interaction but I try to schedule all my posts in advance.

In the book 4 Hour Work Week the author talks about how he only answers emails twice a day. I’m not there yet. I’m trying too. In my daily, schedule I will schedule out two times a day I get on email and answer everything. However, it is a slow process. Checking email is an addition I didn’t realize I had until I said I couldn’t check it. It’s slow and I’m on the first step – acceptance. But that is a goal of mine.