How to Find the Time

After a long week of to-dos and a morning of furniture shopping, we opted to work on the house tomorrow and play a bit today. #fringehours

After reading Jessica Turner's, "Fringe Hours", I attempted to remove the phrase, "I just don't have enough time" from our house. I wanted to replace it, abolish it, reestablish it. We had the time, but we weren't using it well...

First, I thought it was because I was tired of excuses. I was struggling with our day-to-day and the progression it was making. We have been living out of boxes for months in between a move, and another move, and a remodel. I was ready for our life to just move onto the next part. But in reality, we did not have the time to do everything we wanted to do. The purchase of our house was a wonderful thing, but it added more, unexpected hours onto our commute that we did not anticipate. Furthermore, we were finally in a community close enough to join our friends with a church plant. We had chosen to start a major do-it-yourself home remodel. It was also in the middle of wedding season... which many of our friends were tying the knot. Our time was full.

Scheduling your day sometimes can seem stressful, but I decided that I needed a bit more focus on what I was spending my time on and how I was stewarding my resources to ensure that they were in line with my intentions and values. I came up with three key habits that have helped me have the best day possible.

3 Habits to Help You Find the Time

1. Understand Your Values.
If I finish my day not feeling accomplished, and worn out, the first question I ask myself is "did I do anything for me today?" Not in the selfish way like you would initially think. Every person has values, intentions, desires, goals. But if you don't know these things, how can you stay focused? When I feel lost, off-track, or disorganized... or even like I have too much on my plate, I reevaluate. Does this align with where I want my life to head? For me, God, family, and friends are important so my values are mirrors of those things. If it doesn't align, then it probably is important to somebody else values, but not yours. Those are the things that you should spend less time on.

2. Do impactful rhythms first.
Each day is the heartbeat of your year. Each year, your life. Do the things that fall in line with your values first. Make them your daily rhythms, your daily habits. Each person only has so much energy in the day, so why are you wasting that energy on things that are not valuable to you? For many years, I thought that I was a night owl and sometimes I still think I am. I would wait until after the late show every night to start journaling and found that my words were so over emotional. Why? Because I was exhausted. Now I do most of my writing, blogging, and journaling in the morning when I am fresh and awake. I can think through my words more clearly and it is really energizing to my soul. First thing in the morning is when you should do those things that impact your whole day, before you use your energy on something else.

3. Take breaks.
At my day job, I design and facilitate corporate training. One thing that I learn quickly that adults have a short attention span. It is not our faults! Our brain is designed that way. Scientifically speaking, our brain's can can only focus on one task for a limited amount of time before our focus and work begins to suffer. If we allow ourselves to take breaks, we are allowing our brains to not become overwhelmed, lose focus, and process. And taking a break does not mean checking Facebook, or email. Do something that relaxes your mind. Meditate. Pray. Stretch. Go get water or a snack. Chat a moment with a friend. Disengaging your mind from your normal day allows you to be more in tune with your values, your rhythms, and your focus.

photo credit 1

xoxo, Heather
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