A dear childhood friend of mine asked me 'Where do you find the time?' when inquiring about how do I balance working, being a newly engaged gal and maintaining my blog amongst other things that life brings. Well for me writing is therapeutic. I have been writing since my days in grade school. I first started out writing short-stories, then I was given a journal and I have kept all of my adult journals up until this very day. Sometimes I find myself going back to them as reference materials whenever I'm in a moment of deja vu'. Writing not only heals your soul, it can also help aid in growth and discernment in other's especially if it is publicized. My blog posts serve as journal entries and I love the fact that here I can share my inner thoughts, get feedback, post pictures and videos all which I could not do just writing to myself on paper. I also thought about it this way the other day, this blog will forever be on the web long after I stop writing and therefore I leave behind a piece of me, a storyline that can be read by strangers, friends, foes and most importantly my children God willing ;0)
Here are some suggestions on how to get back some of that time to do more of the things that matter most, those which make you happy ;0)
1. Be decisive and move on!
My current supervisor told me in order to be an effective Manager you have to be able to make a decision quickly and move on therefore don't spend eons on things that won't really matter like surfing the net for an hour trying to find the best fare from GA to NY when there are websites that already do the leg work for you.
2. Think about ways to cut your drive time in half, or at least your gas money. If you have children arrange a carpool if they go to the same school as others in your neighborhood or participate in the same dance class after school so you can have some free time to yourself. Also you can participate in a carpool for work so when it's not your day to drive you could be writing or whatever you like to do that is portable. This point is also great for those who cook, make more than you need and freeze the rest to save time later.
3. Don't get distracted in the morning. Listening to the 'bad NEWS bears' in the morning can slow you down. If you wake up extra early to get to your desk before the rush make good usage of your efforts and spend your free time doing something you love besides checking your work email.
4. Lighten up your cleaning loads by doing spot cleaning throughout the week so you don't have to do an overhaul on the weekends. Scrub your shower a little here and there every time you get out or buy one of those automated cleaners that sprays the shower daily. Change our air filters once every 30 days to cut down on dust.
5. Make a To Do list and keep them until you've completed all of your tasks, these will help you stay on track.
6. Turn off the techno when you get home unless it is vital to your free time activity. Facebooking, Twitter and even those TV shows can distract you from doing your most loved activity.
7. Spend the few minutes before you fall asleep talking or thinking about your dreams, tell a joke and just be happy. I often do this in jest with Jason but it is also for me as it always leaves a happy thought on my mind before sleep ;0) This will give you time to dream about bigger and better ideas while you sleep saving your more time.
8. Watch less TV! I personally don't have cable anymore and life is so simple without it as there is nothing but junk on there anyway. If you do like certain shows only watch those and mute the TV on commercials to use that time doing something else like getting in a few sit-ups or crunches if you are on a fitness goal or reading more lines in a book you are trying to finish. This also goes for limiting your social networking, do you know how many hours you spend on Facebook & Twitter in a week?
9. Handle things once. Upon hire I was trained to read, act, complete and file. This was all in an effort to only keep those tasks that needed to be actioned in my email inbox and all others would be filed immediately upon completion. This has saved me so much time from having to filter through 100's of emails. I not only do this at work but also on my personal accounts as well.
I hope some of these if not all can help you find some more hours in your day.
Lipstick Diva,
