I am excited to share with you the second post in the month-long series on ABRE with the super inspiring sisters, Laura Forbes Carlin and Alison Forbes, of Inspired Everyday Living. Inspired Everyday Living is about using your home as a vehicle for self-transformation—as you change your home, you can transform your life. Each week, during the month of August, Laura and Alison are sharing a new post focused on ways to transform your home and life. This week the focus is on Time Management and Balance.
How to Avoid Over-Committing, Over-Scheduling, and a lot of Stress!
The anxiety of always feeling like there is too much to do and too little time seems to be common among my friends. How often do you hear people say “I’m going to squeeze in a lunch,” or “I’ll try to fit you in,” or “let me work it into my schedule.” When you hear yourself saying that, chances are you’re spreading yourself too thin. By trying to do it all, we often over-commit and when we over-commit we usually end up sacrificing something— like focus, respect, quality time, and peace of mind.
Bottom line, we’re all busy these days and often trying to balance many commitments. But ask yourself what’s more important… participating in lots of activities, or thoroughly enjoying few… accomplishing as many tasks as possible, or completing one task well… having lots of interactions with various people, or having meaningful connections… you get the idea! It has become to clear to me that I need to honor and respect myself, and others, by setting aside the appropriate amount of time for whatever it is I am doing.
When I am honest with myself I realize it really isn’t worth it to do something half-way. I’ve had lunches with friends or peers that are completely unsatisfying because we’re not really present—we’re so rushed that we are talking a mile-a-minute, barely taking each other in, and thinking about all the other things we need to do and places we need to be! When that happens, I usually leave feeling very unsatisfied and wondering if it was really worth my limited time. What was the point? To say I did it? To check that person off my list? Am I hurrying to get somewhere else? What makes me think somewhere else is better? What else is there beside the moment?
Although we may not get to do everything we want, when we slow down, manage our time, and choose what’s important we are at least living each moment to its fullest. We are choosing to be present throughout our encounters. We are choosing quality of experiences over quantity, respect for people over disrespect, self-nurturing over spreading ourselves too thin, being focused over scattered, and peace over stress.
Usually we over-schedule for one (or more) of three reasons:
1. We truly do not realize how long certain tasks/events/meetings/errands take.
2. We know how long things take, but we have a hard time saying no or we want to do it all.
3. We forget to account for “transition time.”
Here are three steps to help you manage your time and avoid over-scheduling.
Are you exhausted from continuously running at breakneck speed? Do you feel trapped in a draining cycle of working, parenting and/or incessantly checking things off an endless list of personal action items? Or, are you simply convinced that stolen moments of solitude and tranquility have forever been replaced by the ceaseless demand of your daily routine?