Are you Time Starved?

Time, Time, Time

Does it seem like the world is moving faster and time is becoming more and more precious? I am very aware of this as I move about my day.

I was shopping over the weekend and it seemed that the employees were not as service oriented as usual. I could have told the story of how rude they were and how I got lousy service. But as I just observed for a while, I could see they were understaffed and everyone was stressed beyond belief. They were rushing about and looked like they were just plain overwhelmed. I am sure they were thinking there was just not enough time to do it all. Do you ever feel that way? Do you keep putting off things because there is just no time to do it all?

Have you over-committed yourself? That is one time and energy drain that many people fall into. Where did you sign the contract to be the next super hero? What if you just said no once in a while? A great way to pare down your commitments is to sit down and write a list of your values. Where do your actions line up with your values? Are you taking actions that have no real meaning in your life? Have you said yes to something that could be handled by someone else just a capable, but you feel obliged? Ask for help. Delegate! Move in the direction of what is truly important to you.

How effective are you in the present moment? When you focus on what you are doing in this moment and let go of the worry about what will be happening 6 hours from now, you create more space and balance in your life. You are able to be more effective. Whatever task must be done later will be there, no matter if you worry about it or not. Why not do the best job right now? That will carry over into all of your actions and you will naturally become more able to move through your day, focused and highly effective.

Begin to view time differently. It is all relative anyway, right? Haven’t you been absorbed in something you love and time has flown by, or had the experience of time stopping during that boring lecture? Play with time. I like to “stretch” time. If I have overslept or find I am running behind, I will stop, take a deep breath and focus only on arriving on time. I have done this when I have been running extremely late. I have not rushed and still arrived on time, stress free. This is not such a “woo-woo” concept as it seems. It has been written about in leading scientific magazines. Change your mind about time. Don’t let this describe you:

“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” Will Rogers