T is for TIME

The most precious commodity.

The cuckoo clock in my family room. I wanted to wait for the hour so you could see the bird “cuckoo” ~ but I didn’t have time.

How do you measure time?

60 minutes in an hour.

24 hours in the day.

168 hours in a week.

525,600 minutes in a year. (Listen here)

Time may not be as elusive as we believe.

"If you don't plan your life, life will plan you" ~ Terri Guillemets

If we connect the tick-tock to our heart's purpose, does time elapse at a different pace?

Do hours stretch when you are in a flow state?

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to take a masterclass in time management. For a list-making, schedule-loving person who could have put a child through college with the money she spent on color-coded Post-it notes, I thought I had time wrapped up in my 15-minute increment calendar.

I was wrong.

Ten Takeaways to Maximize Time. (And a few gift ideas to save you time)

1. Punch in, punch out. Know where your time goes. It's scary, but count all the minutes and see how you are "using" time.

2. Clarity brings consistency. Know what you want to achieve in the day. Is your goal to binge-watch Hallmark Christmas movies or be the next Jessie Itzler? (Get his calendar system here)

3. Mindset matters. Why do some people achieve more in a day? Shift your mindset from lack to abundance. See how time expands when you change how you look at time.

4. Don't rewind time, reverse-engineer. Reverse-engineer your goal. Start from the completed goal and determine how long it will take to achieve each step.

5. Keep it simple and set limits. Don't try to achieve everything all at once. Using techniques like the Pomodoro Method (example: 25 min work with 5 min break) allows for productivity and rest. (buy here)

6. Consume before you create with journaling. You've heard this before - stay off that phone first thing in the morning. The abyss of social media or emails will suck you into a consuming spiral. Create YOUR art before taking in anyone else's. (This will also help with task initiation, a critical function of the prefrontal cortex.) (Practice by Seth Godin)

7. Destroy distractions. Use a journal to "brain dump" extra ideas, thoughts, and to-do's. Multi-tasking divides your power. Focus on one task at a time. (Again, the prefrontal cortex at work with attention to task) (Journal)

8. Plan for the unexpected. Give yourself a buffer zone because life happens.

9. Track your patterns and themes. Are pockets of time lost? Do you find a flow doing a particular activity?

10. Schedule Joy.

RECIPE FOR TIME

Tell Alexa to set the timer for 10 minutes - that's the perfect time to set-up your page for today’s prompt.

Affirmation:

I have all the time I need.

Journal Prompt:

Track your time today - every minute. Don't cheat and do something out of the ordinary. See where you spend your mental and physical moments ~ summarize at the end of the day in your journal.

Thank you for reading! You are doing so well ~ we have a few more to go!!

Keep Writing,

Karen