2009 March | The Time Finder with Paula Eder

The Time Finder with Paula Eder

The way you use your time is the way you live your life.

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Find Time to Find Your Financial Baseline and Take Charge

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Paula, under Time Management Skills.

Finding time to be in charge of your finances can be a challenge – and doing it during these tough times, even more difficult. If you find yourself worrying about your situation, or procrastinating about it, or simply wanting to feel more organized and on top of your spending and saving, it may be a good idea to stop and take stock.

As with so many other things, taking the time to pause, pay attention, look around, and find your baseline is the necessary first step. Also imperative is that this be done, not with self critical eyes, but with fully open, compassionate eyes. Money can be a subject that’s particularly fraught with baggage – and if you approach it from a self-critical place, you are unlikely to get a full, clear picture of your situation and your habits. Compassion opens doors that self-criticism simply can’t!

Finding your financial baseline is one key part of the equation. The other is finding time to step in and create a plan for taking charge of your financial life. Doing this, especially if money is a chronic worry, will do wonders for your outlook and sense of personal empowerment!

My friend and colleague Maggie McCauley, The Effortless Organizing Coach, is offering a FREE call tomorrow evening on accessing your Money Wisdom. “The objective of the class is to increase your awareness around the impact of disorganization and clutter on your finances and help you create a plan that will have you back in charge!” Maggie will be walking participants through a process aimed at moving away from feeling overwhelmed and toward feeling empowered and in charge! Again, the class is tomorrow, April 1, from 7-8:15 PM (ET), and you can sign up for it at this link. (I have, and am looking forward to the call!)

Are financial worries on your mind a lot these days? Do they eat up precious time and sap your energy? Have you found helpful ways to cope? Write a comment and share your experiences on The Time Finder – I’d love to hear!

What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!

Let’s explore time together …

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Find Time to Explore Twitter Applications and Ask Some Questions This Week!

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Paula, under Time and Technology.

The Twitter Universe is expanding in every direction – from new users to new uses to new applications. Each day, it seems, something new pops up in the Twitterverse – and finding time to keep up with it all can be a challenge!

That’s why, when I hear of a good resource, I like to share it here on Cyber Monday!

So, the first link I’d like to offer is an ever-growing compilation of Twitter Applications called Twitdom. This is a fascinating site to explore and clearly illustrates the notion that on Twitter the possibilities are nearly endless.

For example, Site Volume is a site where you can enter words or phrases and then see how often they appear on Twitter (or other sites). Qwitter sends you a e-mail when someone stops following you. WARNING – You will want to set some time parameters for exploring Twitdom – otherwise, you could easily end up spending the day there!

One of the Twitter functionalities that proves Twitter’s practical usefulness over and over is the way that users can Tweet questions and get answers quickly from the Twitterverse. In a recent post on TwiTip, Darren Rowse shared a guest post by Paul Anthony about this (“Twitter, the Real Time Answer-Engine“) – and includes some suggested services and sites for getting fast answers on Twitter.

We had personal experience with the power of this tool when my VA was working on a WordPress upgrade at The Time Finder. She had a question about an automated process and we put out the question on Twitter. Within a few minutes we had a very helpful response from a Twitterer (@abledragon) in Australia!

Have you found Twitter applications that you love? Have you ever used Twitter as an answer engine? I’d love to hear about it!

Let’s explore time together …

Find Time and Energy by Planning Some Breaks This Weekend!

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Paula, under Self-Care Time.

Finding Time to plan ahead is a powerful tool for making the most of your time and energy. And planning in some down time is key to keeping your spirits and your stamina high!

I don’t know about you, but I can easily fill my schedule with tasks from my To Do List, leaving me with little (or no) time for recouping my energy. Unfortunately, too many of us learned to see caring for ourselves as self-indulgent. This is a set up for inevitable fatigue and ultimately, for burn-out.

Being busy and goal-directed all the time is actually counter-productive and self-sabotaging. If you don’t step back and step away from your busy life, you lose perspective, deplete yourself, and can begin to feel victimized by your tasks – even your goals. Self care and productivity are closely intertwined. Planning and taking breaks will nourish and energize you.

Just as fields need to lie fallow, we each need some time to “just be.” It doesn’t need to be a lot of time – but it needs to be enough to breathe, look around, and settle back into the moment – before stepping back into the flow of our tasks and our lives.

The small “urgencies” of each day can easily eat up each moment that you have. This is why it’s so important to plan your breaks – and then stick to your plan! Doing this is not easy – but not doing it will cost you time in the long run!

Do you take time to plan ahead? What do you find relaxing and rejuvenating? Do your plans include time for these things? As we enter a weekend, try planning some rejuvenation time for yourself – and then stick with your plan! I’d love to hear how this goes for you – write a comment or drop me a line at paula@thetimefinder.com!

Let’s explore time together …

Find Time for 3 Gratitudes Every Day

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Paula, under Time and Energy.

Finding time to energize yourself and open your heart with gratitude is one of the most powerful, grounding, and expansive gifts that you can give yourself. To call something like the Attitude of Gratitude a “time management tool” doesn’t really do justice to the scope and depth of its effects. But there is no denying its impact on our perceptions of time and on our abilities to approach time challenges with unfettered energy and creativity.

When you hit a point where your energy is flagging or the voice of your inner critic is starting to get loud and strident, pausing to reflect on things that you are thankful for can radically transform your experience. I believe that this is because gratitude opens the heart and allows us to reconnect with the unfettered flow of our energy. In Time Management Strategies – Revitalize Enthusiasm and Productivity Using the 3 Gratitudes Exercise I offer the following:

Cultivating the gift of gratitude is a powerful way to ground yourself and prepare yourself for any challenge. Gratitude enhances healthy humility that is based in self-respect. It also helps you assess your strengths and redirect your energy.

The three gratitudes exercise is an excellent way to enhance your appreciation of each moment, and practice the Attitude of Gratitude so that it becomes a more and more fundamental part of your approach to your moments. The exercise is a simple one – just take a moment every night before sleep to jot down and reflect on at least three gratitudes that you are aware of for that day.

I find that this always opens my heart and has the added bonus of relaxing me toward sleep. It is also an exercise that leaves me with a rich and constantly evolving list of gratitudes – something that can be very nourishing to reflect on in particularly tough times.

Do you take grateful pauses in the course of your day? Have you tried the three gratitudes exercise? I’d love to hear how you are doing – write a comment or drop me a line at paula@thetimefinder.com!

Let’s explore time together …

Finding Time to Write and Write … and Write

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Paula, under Time Choices, Time Priorities.

Find time to check out Connie Ragen Green’s site, EBook Writing and Marketing Secrets, (and her story) if you are a coach or solopreneur looking for inspiration and good, practical advice about how to make a go of it on the internet. Connie finds the time every day to do what she needs to, to succeed – and she is incredibly generous about sharing what she has learned.

The keystone of Connie’s success is her writing. Even more specifically, it’s her article and e-book writing. In this post (“100 Articles in 100 Days – The Challenge That Turned Me Into a Writer“) she lays out the foundation of her great success:

Two years ago this month I challenged myself to write a hundred articles in a hundred days. I’m not sure what I was thinking at the time, but I knew that if I could come even close to meeting this challenge everything would change for me on the internet.

Did I say that writing was the key to Connie Ragen Green’s success? That is partially true. The other key is that, when she challenged herself, Connie also made a decision about her time priorities. There were things that she needed to let go of, in order to make writing a top priority and follow through on it.

Setting a goal is a very important step in getting to where you want to be. Equally important is making the space in your life to bring your new goal to fruition. Writing 100 articles in 100 days was something that Connie accomplished by making it a top priority, and shifting some other priorities around to make it work.

You can hear her share more about this as she interviews me on her Blog Talk Radio show of a couple of weeks ago. Connie’s success is inspiring, in part, because the way she shares about it shows us all how doable it is. There’s no surer way to move ahead than by finding time to make your goal a top time priority!

Have you identified some goals for yourself? And have you created the space to make them priorities? I’d love to hear how you are doing – write a comment or drop me a line at paula@thetimefinder.com!

Let’s explore time together …

Finding Time Boundaries for March Madness and Beyond!

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Paula, under Time Boundaries.

Finding time in the midst of changing or competing priorities is a challenge, isn’t it? Lately I’ve been hearing some of my friends and clients talking about March Madness and the sleep they are losing as they track their favorite teams’ fates on their Men’s and Women’s brackets. Even President Obama is following his picks in this annual ritual that can be so disruptive to sleep and work schedules!

This is an area where time boundaries are especially helpful. They can help you stick to your top priorities and stay energized and on top of your game even as you temporarily adjust and incorporate something new (like March Madness) into your daily routine.

I recently wrote about this on Ezine Articles.com, in an article titled Time Management Tips – How to Establish Boundaries That Safeguard Your Time and Energy. The point that I would emphasize here is that saying “yes” to one thing means saying “no” to something else. It is key to remember that your time is finite; you have 24 hours each day – no more, no less.

When you are incorporating something new into your schedule, think about what will be bumped out, even just temporarily. It is very, very helpful to make this a conscious choice. Owning the choice is empowering and energizing. And being clear with yourself will reduce your stress considerably as your days unfold.

Establishing a hierarchy of priorities strengthens your core. Who you are is determined largely by what you consciously choose, and what you are willing to relinquish in return. This is where the rubber hits the road, and where you gain essential traction to move through your day.

If you are caught up in March Madness, or if some other time demand needs to be incorporated into your routine right now, what will you let go of? What new time boundary will you create to reduce your stress and maintain your key priorities? How do you manage? I’d love to hear!

Let’s explore time together …

Finding Time to Retweet (and be Retweeted)

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Paula, under Time and Technology.

You may have noticed that Twitter is a favorite Cyber Monday topic on The Time Finder! Today I’d like to share an excellent article by Guy Kawasaki (an early Apple evangelist, blogger, and founder of Alltop) about the power of Retweeting and “How to Get Retweeted.”

In this brief article, Mr. Kawasaki describes the importance and meaning of retweets as follows:

The reason that retweeting is so flattering is that every time people do it, they are putting their reputation on the line. If their followers don’t like the retweet, their reputation is reduced. So whenever someone retweets your tweet, they are expressing confidence that what you’ve tweeted is interesting and good. Thus, the best measure of someone’s quality as a Twitter user is not the number of followers but the amount of retweets.

His six tips are very practical and doable – and explore some quick ways to begin writing tweets that are likely to be retweeted.

About a month ago we posted on retweeting from the perspective of connecting with others by retweeting their content. Here we’re looking at getting YOUR tweets retweeted. If you are working to expand your presence on Twitter and develop meaningful connections there, then retweeting others’ content, AND writing content that others will retweet are two important avenues to explore and develop for yourself.

To make Retweeting easier (from Darren Rowse at TwiTip) here’s a very brief post with information on how to Get a Retweet Button for Your Blog. It seems like a great idea to me (and we’ll be adding a button to future posts here at The Time Finder).

How about you? Do you retweet? Do people retweet your content? What’s been your experience? I’d love to hear!

Let’s explore time together …

Finding Time to Manage Transitions by Knowing Yourself Better

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Paula, under Transitions and Time.

Finding time for managing transitions is easier the more you know about yourself and your responses to change.

That may sound like a truism, but, in fact, many of us respond to change (and to lots of other things, as well) automatically. These reactive responses deny us the power of making conscious choices.

But it’s hard to step in and slow down an automatic process. Usually, you don’t even realize that it’s happening.

In my article Finding Time Strategies – 7 Essential Steps to Embrace New Transitions I offer an exercise for discovering and exploring the ways that you respond when confronted with change in your life. With a thorough knowledge of your own patterns and tendencies, you are much better able to recognize an automatic response, slow down, and make a conscious choice.

Likewise, when you deepen your understanding of where those automatic responses spring from, you can approach your responses and reactions with compassion and openness. The voice of the inner critic is never helpful – and can be especially challenging (and distracting) during times of transition. Compassion and understanding always undercut the power of this debilitating voice, freeing up your creativity and personal strengths!

Thriving in times of transition requires alertness and flexibility. The better you know yourself, the more you’ll understand how to monitor your automatic responses and call on your strengths. Invite yourself to use this exercise over time, so you can bring vision and confidence to your ever-changing life.

Try the exercise and discover how you really feel about transitions … and then let me know what you learn. I’d love to hear about your experiences and ideas!

Let’s explore time together …

Find Time to Live With Sudden Change

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Paula, under Time and Values.

Finding time when sudden change hits is a challenge that we all face in our lives at one time or another. In our world today, with 24/7 access to news, we are often reminded of sudden changes in all aspects of our lives, from the economy to natural disasters to wars and political upheavals.

Sometimes we may become numbed to the onslaught of news. And sometimes it breaks through in a personal way, reminding us of how precious and fragile life is. Last night’s news about Natasha Richardson’s death following a skiing accident was such a moment for many.

It is a fact of life that, while we humans are amazingly powerful and resilient creatures, the breath of life is also a fragile and fleeting gift. The tragedy of Natasha Richardson’s death touches us all because it reminds us that our lives, too, are fragile and fleeting.

We needn’t take that knowledge and live in fear. Instead, I suggest using it as a base for making choices and looking at personal values and priorities. Here’s a wonderful poem by Mary Oliver (one of my very favorite poets) that I’d like to share with you this morning. It is called “The Summer Day“:

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

How have you dealt with the sudden changes that have come your way in life? How have those experiences changed your perspective and your choices? I’d love to hear about your experiences and ideas!

Let’s explore time together …

Finding Time by Letting Go and Letting Change Happen

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Paula, under Transitions and Time.

Here in NH we’ve had a beautiful string of sunny, warm days. Spring is on the way, and we are definitely ready for it! I doubt that anyone (with the possible exception of skiers) is going to have trouble letting go of winter.

That is not always the case with transitions, though, is it? The letting go doesn’t always come so easily.

If you think of our lives, we are in a state of constant flux and transition. We transition through developmental stages throughout our lives. We transition through grades in school and through jobs, living situations, and relationships. Each day we transition from sleeping to waking and back again. We transition through changing activities, changing energy levels, and changing moods. Indeed, the absence of change, if it exists at all, is the exception, not the rule!

And each transition involves picking one thing up, and (ideally) putting another thing down. One way we can run into problems is if we pick too many new things up, without putting down something in the process. As you can imagine, we end up dragging around an awful lot of “stuff.” Holding on can definitely hamper our movement and drain our energy as we move through transitions.

As I was thinking about letting go, I remembered a series of posts on the blog Carla’s Artistry of Change by Carla Rieger. In these brief posts she explores the simplicity and power of letting go. She says:

The mind will hold onto negativity unless instructed to do otherwise. It’s like catching your dog chewing on a slipper. You get her attention and tell her to “drop it”. She will look at you sheepishly while still holding the slipper. Then you say, “Drop it now” and she does it, right?

As a tool for transition management, letting go is a key element in your toolbox. And it may be simpler to do than you think!

What do you find helpful when letting go? Are there things you are holding onto now that get in your way? Leave a comment – I’d love to hear about your experiences and ideas!

Let’s explore time together …