I’ve made a decision that for the next 40 days (because that amount of time is not only doable, but also highly respectable!) I am going to be really firm with myself about how I spend the hours in my day. How do you spend your time? It’s interesting that we use the word “spend” time, as if we were saying “spend money” – but it’s exactly the same: Both time and money are forms of energy, and we can be rich or poor in either of them. I’ve come to believe that time is my most precious commodity. It’s way more precious than money. Talk to the man or woman who has days or hours left to live – time is everything. And yet, I can downgrade this precious commodity, and so easily make it less important than the pleasurable things I chase after. The question is: do I spend my time wisely? Do I make the most of every hour of the day? Do I feel satisfied at the end of the day that I’ve packed as much love and fun into each hour that I can? I’m afraid that the answer isn’t always a “Yes”. I am super-guilty of frittering away my time doing things that at the end of the day, I rather wish I hadn’t.
So, what are these time-wasters? Any action or activity that leaves me feeling drained of energy. The main culprits for me, are the following:
1. Spending time surfing the web for what starts out as “research” and turns into useless (but addictive,) surfing, and/shopping. When I say “shopping,” I mean window shopping – can I find that gorgeous dress for better price? – whooa – dangerous one because that can lead to a whole wasted and fruitless hour or more…
But it’s not only shopping, there’s all those fascinating forums and threads. Example: I occasionally suffer from canker sores/mouth ulcers, so wanted to look up a specific natural remedy, but ended up coming across an entire site/form devoted to people who suffer from this condition! 45 minutes later, I was none the wiser remedy-wise, and perhaps just a bit more neurotic – OMG – did someone mentioan mouth cancer????
2. Actual Shopping: By this, I mean trailing around stores. Example: the other day I needed a new shower curtain. I knew that Target carried the PVC-free kind that I like, so off I went. However, take me into a large store like Tar-chey or even worse, Bed Bath & Beyond, and it’s trouble. Have you ever gotten out of there with just 1 item? So, what I thought would be a 20-minute door-to-door trip, took almost 2 precious hours out of my day.
3. Dealing with spam: This one isn’t my fault, but it’s a massive time-water. How many spam emails do you have erase every single day of your life. How much junk mail do you need to sift through? How many sales calls do you have to dodge? When you add up all these minutes of your precious time – it’s insane.
4.Hanging onto unhealthy resentments or regrets: There isn’t a greater time waster than ruminating over someone you are still mad with. Mercifully, I learned years ago that allowing myself to go over and over a situation with someone, was tantamount to allowing them to stay rent-free in my head. Nowadays, I’ve become pretty good at letting go of resentments and regrets. Life’s too short for me to poison my energy field with unhealthy resentment. BTW – I’m not talking about healthy anger – I’m talking about the anger that turns into resentments (which means “re-living” it.)
So, for the next 40 days, I will not be surfing the net, unless it’s strictly work-related, brief and to-the-point (easier said than done, but I’ll give it a whirl.) I will not go shopping for anything except for groceries (unless urgent.) I have everything that I need (for the minute!!!), I will unsubscribe to every spam mail that comes in, and I will only spend time with people who renew (as opposed to “drain”) my energy.
The key is planning. And every time-management expert will agree. If I carefully plan my day, hour-by-hour, I will have less chance of falling into bad habits. If I plan my yoga classes, my work time, my reading and family time etc – actually write it down in my calendar, then I have a structure or discipline that ironically frees me up. If I know that at 3pm I’ve scheduled a 20 minutes meditation or pampering time, then it’s easier for me to get off the phone when someones whining on about their problems, and say: “Gotta go – got a meeting to go to.”
Those “meetings” with myself for precious activities such as meditation, hanging with my daughter or husband, creative writing, trying a new recipe – those “meetings” are, what I consider at the end of the day, time well spent.
