DON’T READ THIS BLOG
IF YOU ALREADY HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME
For many of us, it seems like there’s never enough time. Laments abound that there’s “not enough time in the day” and “where does the time go?”. In our fast paced, high pressure world, it is quite common to feel that we’re not accomplishing enough. We can too often be left with feelings of anxiety, frustration, a sense of being overwhelmed.
Having enough time is a real challenge amid day to day responsibilities, keeping copious balls in the air, while others call to us, bidding for pieces of our time. We can’t change how much time we have in a day, a week, a year, or a lifetime.
Perhaps there is a way to find more time.
PRIORITIES: What are your priorities? Spend some time thinking carefully about this. Be clear about what’s most important to you. As people approach the end of their lives, it has been said that regrets are more often about what they didn’t do rather than things they did. This is one way to help identify your priorities.
MATCHING: Using a diagram of a pie, or your preferred model, apportion different size pieces to your priorities according to how you value them. If the pieces you assign to each of your values, does not match how you spend your time, stop and reassess. Have you not accurately rated your priorities? Or are you misappropriating your time?
EXPECTATIONS: Reflect on what you are anticipating you can accomplish with your time. Are you being realistic or are you demanding more from yourself than you can reasonably do? Adjusting your expectations can remove pressure, stress, frustration and disappointment in yourself. And ultimately, you may accomplish more.
MONITORING: Bring awareness to: how you generally spend your hours over the course of a week or so. You may see time you are unconsciously giving away that is out of sync with your priorities. For example, are you getting lost in various modes of screen time? You may discover that you have more time for the things you value most than you previously thought you had.
PROACTIVE, DELIBERATE CHOICES: Once you have clarity about what you value most and have identified your pockets of free time, make an effort to fill your time with active, deliberate choices that meet your values.
MAPPING: Consider allocating blocks of time to necessary activities, as well as those which match what you value most. Scheduling our intentions, keeps us mindful of them. We are more likely to find the time and to engage in that which is most rewarding.
FLEXIBILITY: Defining, planning and structuring our time can serve to feed our values. It is also pragmatic to be open to change and adjustment as needed. Life will throw curve balls and the unexpected will occasionally interfere in the best of plans. Step back, look at the big picture, and readjust.
Time is finite. How you spend each moment is yours to decide.