Learning how to reclaim your time

I hope this finds you well and trying to find new and wacky ways to have an upbeat day today.
 
As you know we have been looking at some of the many habits and time wasting techniques we use on a daily basis. Some may have been niggling at the back of your mind, but others may not have occurred to you and I hope I've given you some food for thought. Now that we've uncovered some of the problems, lets look at some of the ways we can reclaim some time so that you can get more out of every day.
 
The first is get enough sleep. Which was probably not the first item you were thinking of was it? You were probably expecting me to tell you how to multi-task and make do on 2 and a half hours sleep a night. Well actually in order to do more, you need to sleep well. Believe it or not, sleep and it's cousin "rest" is quite often the most overlooked component of breaking the procrastination habit. If you don't sleep well, you wake up tired, your body feels sluggish and it takes much longer to get going in the morning, usually with several shots of caffeine. But we'll be talking more about stimulants and how bad they are in a later section.
 
So, go to bed at a reasonable hour. What is reasonable? Well consider that you need between 7 and 9 hours sleep a night. Take that away from when you have to get up in the morning and voila your new bed time. For me I should be in bed about 10.15 - 10.45pm each night because my alarm goes at 6.15. If your favourite tv show plays after this time - then tape it....and watch it instead of the news the following day.
 
When you wake up, take a moment and stretch. Ease the kinks out of your back by raising your arms above your head and as you do take in lots of air and breathe deeply. Most people only use the top 20% of their lung capacity, consequently their body's are having to make do with nasty stale air. So breathe in and out deeply a couple of times and get rid of it. More oxygen in your blood wakes you up faster than a cyclist who's been blood doping.
 
Now I need you to smile, and remind yourself how ridiculous you look in your PJ's and you are well on the way to a better day. Now go and shower, I'll be here waiting.
 
Don't forget, you can reclaim those few minutes whilst you are waiting for other things to happen, like the kettle to boil, or whilst your toast is cooking to make a start on the day's to-do list. Remind me, we do need to talk about those endless cups of coffee and refined flour you eat and how these "foods" impact on your lack of motivation in anothe edition.
 
But the final point for today is this. It's OK to make more time in your day. The question is what are you going to do with it?
 
So let's go back to that to-do list? Is it a task list? Or a stepping stone to completing your goals list?
 
Most people only have a to do list...do the shopping, washing, ironing, take the kids to school, cook dinner, make lunch, clean the house, weed the garden, do the dishes... Now I'm not saying that it's bad to do those things, just that there has got to be more to life than cooking, cleaning and going to work.
 
So what do you have on your goal list? And do you know what you need to do today in order to reach that goal?
 
Goals are those wonderful things you would like to do at some point in the future. Pay off the house, go to Egypt, buy a new car, paint the house, write poetry. Now unless you are a millionaire several times over, most of these things can't be achieved over night. So you need to break them down. What can you achieve this year? What will take you a couple of years to complete? What will take you a little longer to complete? Only you can know, after all it's your list.
 
But lets say you want to pay off your house? Do you know how much you currently owe? What is their expected termination date? Can you make more repayments ie., divide the same payments into fortnightly or weekly payments so that you are paying the interest off quicker? Can you make additional payments? Will your budget allow you to? Can you do any extra work to finance the payment a bit quicker? What will extra payments have on the rest of your budget? Do you have a damn good idea that you can market that will bring in extra cash and help pay off the house quicker?
 
Questions that may take some time to answer, but once you have the answers - you can structure your days/weeks and years to accommodate the plan. Can you afford a cup of coffee each day on the way to work? Or can you spend the $15 a week on something else? (Assuming 1 cup per day at $3 per cup). Some may say - but it's only $3 a day, but over a year guess what, it equates to $720 (1 cup per day x 5 days x 48 weeks in a working year). Now what could you have done with an extra $720 in your bank account?
 
Daily decisions added up over time can make a huge impact on where you end up. But please, only you can decide what is important to you and what it is you want to achieve. So during those spare five minutes you have throughout today and the next few days spend some time and work out what it is you want, and then ask yourself some questions. Because it may be, that in order to achieve whatever you say you want to achieve, it may not be possible in the time you say. And this is usually where it gets forgotten about - it becomes "too hard" to stick to, or the plan you have will never work. Remind me to tell you about my unrealistic "size 10" goal at some point.
 
Now, I'm not going to be around tomorrow to keep an eye on you, I'm having the day off because it is my birthday - fire extinguishers at the ready!!! and I'm not planning on turning on the computer. Because for me, tomorrow is my day of rest, and that is as important as sleep. As we mentioned at the start of this daily musing. Rest and recuperation is vital. Take time out of your day to plan the future, but then you should take some time out at the end of the week (or whatever day you designate) and see if you are still travelling the right path. And if not, then you can determine what changes in course you need to make. You see if you know the outcome in advance, you know that minor detours won't make too much difference in the end.