Soccer moms and dads, employees, middle managers, laborers, corporate executives and entrepreneurs: The time to unite is now! It's time to embrace the concept that, regardless of what activities you're juggling, you can control what you do and when you do it.
Here are a few general time-management tips that will help you maintain your sanity and balance:
- Do specific projects, activities and tasks at the appointed time.
- Routines and habits are vital if you desire to get more done in less time.
- Focus on accomplishing what you truly desire and what's most important to you.
- Don't focus on how difficult it is to stay disciplined. It's not discipline that you are lacking. It's that you have not truly decided what you want out of life.
- If you only listen to others tell you what your direction should be, you will only end up in the place that they envision. That is NOT your life. That is their life, which they are living vicariously through you.
Now that you've examined your perspective, consider these appointment possibilities as you design a better, more structured and more fulfilling life:
- Plan a regular date night with your partner.
- Do the same with your kids. In my travels with our Marvelous Performance Schools, all too often parents tell me they have no life because they are "taxi drivers" for their kids. Guess what, lots of kids don't want to be in all those activities either. Hello! Would you please communicate with the stakeholders? Could you simplify and increase your quality of life by dropping one or two activities that you really don't care about anymore? Would this help inspire you to do something different? You really can get off the Hamster Treadmill of life. Did I mention, doing something different? Yep, I did. Twice.
- Schedule regular alone time. In The Power of Pause, Terry Hershey discusses how essential it is to get quiet and get alone. Discover new possibilities with this read. I did.
- Allow for free-wheeling web surfing. Get new experiences added to your subconscious mind. Go get an iPad and lose the TV. Your way of living is not the only way to live. Nothing can take you around the world faster than a 25-minute Google session.
- Make space for spiritual time.
There is an infinite creator and our spirit and soul life is everlasting. Carve out time just to listen and to be. - Keep a resting appointment – and not just at night. Rest throughout the day. Thomas Edison would often work 40 hours without sleeping. However, he routinely practiced the habit of resting in 15- and 30-minute intervals. How can you plan your day around a few resting intervals?
In my experience, the irony is that when I create the boundaries of set appointments, I am able to serve more people and live a fuller, more meaningful life. Add a few more purposeful appointments to your life, and you too will see your life become richer, more peace-filled and more productive.
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