Time For New Rituals That Rock.

We have so much to do and we’re stressed out..  Everyone’s busy and overwhelmed because of a lack of enough time.  Busy careers, children, houses that need maintenance, chores, taxes, errands, cars that need oil changes, appointments, vacations and holidays to prepare for…the list goes on and on.  What about personal time just for you?  A joke right?

When will you get caught up?  Probably never!  From my perspective the more things that you have to do, the more things you will always have to do.  If the day got extended to 36 hours, you still won’t have enough time.  Something would fill the extra time so there won’t be enough left over for you to do what you really want.

Time is the enemy!  It’s tick… tick… ticking away on us all.  If you are looking for the newest and latest time management app this isn’t it.  I prefer simple things that work. Life doesn’t have to be that complicated.

Here’s how you find more time:

1.  Decide What’s Most Important to You in your life right now, and go do it. Know what you want to have happen.  Don’t spend time thinking about the best way, or the perfect way. Just go do it!  You’ve probably already thought about it enough, planned enough, and have enough information. Time to go do it.

2.  Decide Tonight What You Absolutely Will Do Tomorrow based on your priorities of importance.  Maybe the countless checking of face book, texts and email, and long winded conversations on things of little real value, are just a sample of things sucking precious time away from you.  The electronic world is particularly good at this.

3.  Make a List of your Priorities and Go Do Them.  Cross them off and keep going.  It’s all about progress.  We need to feel that we’re making progress in our life in order to be happy.  (By the way if you use the excuse that this takes too much time you’re kidding yourself.)  You already know the important things and can list them in approximately 45 seconds.  It does take a few deeper thoughts, but you have the 45 seconds, so make the list.

4.  Keep Your List in Front of You at all times so that when the inevitable distractions come up, they become irrelevant.  Stay focused on the priorities that you listed.  If you don’t know what to do next, go back to the most important things in your life and do them.  Time wasting will become less and less likely.  It’s the small moments of lost time that cause you to feel stressed out.

5. Schedule Some Time For You.  You need to recharge your batteries.  You need to de- stress.  It’s healthy.  I give you permission to treat yourself with kindness.  Take a break and do something relaxing or fun. Take time to just sit quietly in nature and BE!  We don’t need do so something every moment.  Where’s the balance in that?  It’s perfectly OK to just BE.  You will recharge and revitalize yourself when you do.   Remove yourself from the frenzy for a specific period of time.  How much time are you worth?  After your break, just go back to what’s important.

6.  Think About the Big Picture.  We all have a tendency to get really caught up in things that are far from beneficial.  We all experience information overload.  Ask yourself this question.  Do I really need to know this?  Is it beneficial or useful for me to do this, or know about this?  If the answer is no, move on to what’s most important and get back to it.  I gave up most TV a long time ago. The important news is everywhere, and what the latest celebrity is doing is not part of my routine.

7.  Be Grateful For Your Time.  Set aside a few minutes each day before you go to sleep to feel grateful. What are you grateful for in your life?  Your happiness will like it, and you might be surprised at the effect on you.  Life happens when we least expect it.  Honor the ticking moments and squeeze the life out of them.  None of us have forever.  We only have now.  And right now is enough for the truly important things in your life.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.  – JR Tolkien

End of Message.   So share it, and then go do what’s most important to you.