The Time Finder with Paula Eder
The way you use your time is the way you live your life.
Archive for April, 2009
Find Time to Re-energize Your Thursday
Posted on April 30, 2009 by Paula, under Time Choices, Time and Energy.
As the week goes on, do you sometimes find yourself running out of steam and feeling like you are hanging on ’til the weekend comes? When you notice yourself feeling that way it’s a good opportunity to step back and take stock.
Why should your moments on Thursday be any less valuable than your Monday or Tuesday moments? Something is eroding your energy and resiliency, as time goes on. It’s important to try to find out what is happening so that you can step away from a victim stance and re-energize yourself … and your moments!
But how?
Well, for starters, here are 3 questions that can help you clarify where your energy may be getting lost:
- Do you set clear objectives or an agenda at the beginning of the day?
- Do you delegate power to those who could not or would not fulfill your expectations?
- Do you assume that the day will progress like the day before, and then feel overwhelmed by sudden changes?
Let’s focus on #1 and #3 for the moment. If you’re like many people, you quite often start the week with some idea of what is on your agenda, including plans and priorities that you have set for yourself. And, if you are like many people, the days that follow often bring changes to your agenda.
This is something that we can expect, and yet – again, like many people – we often respond with surprise and discouragement when our plans and priorities are overturned by life events. So, by Thursday, we may be feeling quite a bit less in charge of our time than we did on Monday. This can be a challenge … do you slide into a victim stance at this point?
One thing that I find very helpful when I am feeling this way is to resize my thinking. Look at the day, rather than the week. You still have the same 24 hours to work with as you did the day before. What is your agenda for this day?
Reclaim your power and your energy by stepping away from thinking of Thursday as the-day-before-the-day-before-the-weekend! Think of Thursday as a precious string of moments that are yours to shape … because the way you use your time is the way you live your life!
How do you feel by the time Thursday rolls around? Are there time choices you could change for yourself, to help restore and revitalize your energy right now? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Finding Time Boundaries as We Learn About the Swine Flu – 3 Tips
Posted on April 29, 2009 by Paula, under Time Boundaries.
Finding time to figure out what’s what, when it comes to the swine flu, is a challenge right now. Any peek at the news media, be it print, on line, or on TV or radio, is going to yield lots of breaking news about the spread of the flu, and lots of frightening questions about where it might be headed. How do you sort through it all? How do you avoid panicking and, at the same time, not downplay what could be a serious world health challenge?
This is a situation where time related skills – and especially time boundaries – can be very, very helpful.
Here are 3 tips to think about, as we navigate these days of emerging and sometimes alarming news about this current outbreak of the swine flu:
- Proportion: First (and always) consider the source of the information that you are receiving. Most news venues are also businesses. They are trying to catch your eye and hold your interest. As you can imagine, this may lead to some “hype.” If you are feeling particularly alarmed about some information, you may want to check it out in several places – and pay special attention to public service and/or governmental sites where there is no incentive to embellish. A quick look at the CDC home page is instructive in that the swine flu is but one of many public health concerns highlighted there.
- Perspective: If you have young children, or other family members (including yourself) who are feeling very frightened about the emerging news, find time to sit down and talk about the feelings, about the news stories (and what is scary about them), and about what action or actions might make things feel better. Often, simply having fears put out on the table gives some very welcome and realistic perspective. In addition, taking action, no matter how small, can be very empowering. At this stage, talking about the news and gaining perspective is a great action to take!
- Preparedness: Are there things that you do need to do, to plan and prepare for the possibilities? Right now the cases in this country are so scattered and so mild that there seems to be little call for putting lots of energy into preparedness. If you are planning on traveling, you could think about precautions for avoiding catching a bug during your plane ride (not a bad idea anyway). If you find that you are especially worried, you could also take time to talk to your family physician.
Time Boundaries may be especially important in the area of Preparedness right now. If you are reacting very strongly to the news you are hearing, you may put more time into this area than you need to. At this stage, Proportion and Perspective are key. Maintain your time boundaries, monitor the situation – and deal with your feelings as they come up, so that your perspective stays as clear as possible.
How do you find yourself responding to the swine flu news that is swirling around us? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Finding Time with Productive Time Choices
Posted on April 28, 2009 by Paula, under Time Choices.
Finding time for what matters most is a matter of making time choices that are congruent with your values. Sticking to those time choices is a matter of prioritizing, setting time boundaries, and of self-discipline. Sound simple? In some senses, it is.
For moving forward on your goals, having a plan is key. Also key to using your time well is implementing your plans as efficiently as possible and sticking with them over time.
As with so many things in life, it’s in the implementation that the challenges can get really interesting … and really personal!
For example, there are lots and lots of “productivity systems” available (my Google search just now came up with 16,900,000 results). How do you find the one that’s best for you? How do you not get so caught up in the thousands of options that you leave yourself paralyzed?
In an excellent post on GTD Times, Mike Vardy offers some sound advice about overcoming The First Big Productivity Hurdle. His suggestion?
“Know your habits. Know your strengths. Know your weaknesses. The more you know how you’ll handle working towards a more productive lifestyle, the easier the hurdle will become.”
An honest self-assessment will lead you toward choices that will actually work for you – as opposed to choices that you think “should” work. Choices based on a “should” will peter out eventually, and you’ll be back to square one – and likely feelings frustrated and discouraged.
Whatever you are doing, it’s important to remember that you are a being – and your being affects what you do and how you do it best. You will be well served by using “Know thyself,” as a guiding principle as you sort through your choices – be they about productivity systems or time priorities – or just about anything else, for that matter!
You are the base, and the better you know yourself, the more solid your base will be.
How do you make your time choices now? Have you explored productivity systems? Were you able to follow through on your choices? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Finding Time to Follow Congress This Cyber Monday!
Posted on April 27, 2009 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to be on top of our 24/7 news cycle and be as informed as possible about current events can be a major challenge. However, finding time to keep up with what’s happening in the House and Senate just got easier, according to a recent story on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
The Obama administration, working to fulfill its stated goal of moving toward greater transparency in government, started the ball rolling by setting up a website for tracking what is happening to the stimulus dollars at recovery.gov.
Clay Johnson and the Sunlight Labs recently sponsored a contest titled “Apps for America.” Sunlight Labs is a part of The Sunlight Foundation, which was “co-founded in 2006 by Washington, DC businessman and lawyer Michael Klein and longtime Washington public interest advocate Ellen Miller with the non-partisan mission of using the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens.”
This contest was aimed at finding the best open source web applications for finding out what’s happening in our legislative branch in Washington, DC. The winners add to the collection of tools we have available for learning more about what our government is doing – or in some cases, not doing. Number one in the group was Filibusted – a tool for seeing who is blocking what legislation – and how often they do it.
Legistalker tracks the on-line activity of elected representations. You can enter your senator’s name, for example, and see a compilation of new stories mentioning her, YouTube videos where she’s tagged, her stream of Tweets, etc.
Third place finishers were: Hello Congress (where constituents speak and set priorities for their representatives); Know Thy Congressman (a bookmarklet that displays a wealth of info about the representative you choose); Yeas and Nays (allows you to call your congressman – from any webpage); and finally e-Paper Trail (lets you track votes and speeches of your reps – and compare legislators head-to-head).
These tools make information easily accessible, saving time and keeping voters well-informed. The only caution I’d offer is that this, like so many other internet-based applications, offers such a wealth of data that it can be easy to lose hours exploring it all.
Your time boundaries will be key as you venture into this fascinating world. Try setting a timer before you explore … and then let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear your thoughts about these Cyber Monday tools!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time for Yourself Every Month
Posted on April 26, 2009 by Paula, under Self-Care Time.
TIP
Rejuvenating your mind and body improves your overall effectiveness.
ACTION STEP
Set aside one day a month as a “vacation” day and mark it on your calendar. Use it any way you choose in the moment.
I can hear the rumblings of disbelief even as I finish typing the Finding Time Tip for this morning. A whole day? Every month?
This is a tip that tests your assertiveness, your time boundaries, your self discipline and, perhaps most of all, your feelings about taking care of yourself. Is self care even on your radar?
If you think of self care as your responsibility rather than a luxury, would you give it more attention and time? Are you someone who works and works and works, finally stopping only when you are either felled by illness or simply too tired to do another thing? Imagine how this pattern affects the quality of your work – and of your interactions as you accomplish your work.
I invite you to explore the idea of making … and then taking … some time for yourself to relax and rejuvenate. Maybe you’ll need to start with something less than a full day. Don’t make it too hard for yourself – but stretch a little. If this is new territory, it’s bound to feel uncomfortable at first. As you get used to scheduling and taking some self care time, extend it.
Try making it your goal to take a whole day for yourself sometime in the next three months. Work up to it gradually … and I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences as you experiment with self care in this way!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time to Breathe and Let Go
Posted on April 25, 2009 by Paula, under Time Choices.
Focusing on the act of breathing clears the mind of all daily distractions and clears our energy enabling us to better connect with the Spirit within. ~Author Unknown
What can we do but keep on breathing in and out, modest and willing, and in our places? ~Mary Oliver
Finding time to breathe and let go, in the midst of frustration, is a challenge that we recently had an opportunity to practice here at Finding Time, LLC. Our e-zine, which was supposed to be delivered at noontime on Thursday was delayed somewhere in our web host’s mail system. It was ultimately delivered yesterday evening. Friday night – certainly not the optimal time for an e-zine to land!
There have been many deep breaths taken here over the past 36 hours, and what I would like to share with you this morning is this: It really works!
As frustration rose, often accompanied by worry and that feeling of powerlessness that I wrote about in yesterday’s post, it was very helpful to stop and focus inward, simply breathing.
What I found was that, just as in the quotations above, a few moments of doing this tended to clear my energy. After that I was able to let go of what I couldn’t change – and return to my daily tasks with the feeling of groundedness and willingness that Mary Oliver describes. This, in turn, allows energy to flow – opening doors you’d not have even noticed otherwise!
I needed to pause and breathe multiple times throughout the day, and that was fine. Each time I was patient and compassionate with myself, returning to my breath and thus returning to the ultimate miracle of each and every moment.
And so, I leave you with one final quote this morning – a practical and empowering piece of advice from Mary Engelbreit:
If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.
Do you find time to breathe and let go, when you are in a frustrating situation that you can’t change? I invite you to share a comment here – I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time When Dealing With Unexpected Glitches!
Posted on April 24, 2009 by Paula, under Time Choices.
The Finding Time E-zine was sent out yesterday at noontime. I love developing and sharing the e-zine, and always look forward to the comments, questions, and feedback from readers.
Yesterday was different, though. Ten, 15, 30-minutes after it was fired … no e-zine. This was very unusual. After an hour, still nothing. I was worried. This wasn’t on my agenda for yesterday afternoon, and I had lots of other things scheduled! I enlisted some help and returned to my planned activities. But where was the e-zine?
I realized that I was very distracted by this glitch, and wasn’t bringing my best, most focused energy to the other tasks of my day. So, I stepped back and took some time away from my work to stop and explore what I was feeling. I was frustrated, both with the situation and with the fact that there was nothing that I could do to address the problem, aside from communicating it to my web host as clearly and urgently as possible. With each moment of waiting, my feelings of frustration and powerlessness rose.
It was these feelings that were sapping my energy and focus. The situation itself was a fact; my reaction to it was impacting me in ways that I didn’t like. This was something I could make different choices about!
Much as I would if talking to a friend, I told myself that it was very understandable to feel the way I was feeling. I reminded myself that I had done everything that I could to address the situation, and that at this point there was no other action I could take. I encouraged myself to turn and focus on activities that I needed to, and gave myself permission to check on the e-zine’s status during my breaks.
This helped immensely. First recognizing my feelings, then validating them gave me a base in my felt reality. Accepting, not denying, all aspects of what was happening (and my feelings about it), I was then able to let go of the reactions that were getting in my way in the moment.
PS As of this writing, the e-zine still hasn’t arrived – but I am hopeful that it will have landed in your in-box by the time you are reading this post!
How do you handle the unexpected glitches that come your way? Are they distracting? Are you able to let go and refocus? I invite you to share a comment here – I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Finding Time to Be a Good Steward of Our Planet
Posted on April 23, 2009 by Paula, under Self-Care Time, Time and Values.
Did you find time to celebrate Earth Day yesterday? The wet weather here in New England kept many indoors yesterday, as we got some much-needed rain! I love pausing on days like Earth Day, to think about my values, my priorities, and what I can do every day to find ways to put them into action. So that’s what I took a few moments to do yesterday.
I was interested to explore the EPA’s Earth Day page and see that they advise choosing 5 actions that you can commit to following through on. A list of possible actions can be found on their Pick 5 page. You can share your picks if you want to, or use their ideas to spark your own, and come up with your own list.
I would advise not trying to make too many big changes in your everyday living all at once. Instead, hold onto your list and make incremental changes over time so that something like recycling, for example, can be incorporated into your routine without too much disruption. This is because you are working to create new habits (which usually takes @ 28 days). If you bite off more than you can chew, your efforts are likely to peter out before your new habit has actually taken hold.
Finding time to be a good steward of the planet is a lot like finding time for self care, in my mind. Our Selves and Our Planet are the necessary bases from which all of our activities and accomplishments spring. So, pausing to honor and reflect on this fundamental truth is an important activity on Earth Day.
Equally, if not more important, is finding time to incorporate this awareness into our habits and activities every day.
Is this something that you have been working on in your life? Something that you’ve incorporated into your routine for a long time? Would you like to find time to expand your activities as a steward of our planet? I invite you to share a comment here – I’d love to hear your thoughts!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Finding Time by Maintaining Your Time Boundaries-3 Quick Tips
Posted on April 22, 2009 by Paula, under Time Boundaries.
Finding time by setting time boundaries is something that I wrote about yesterday – and have explored here in the past, too. Setting your time boundaries is the first, key step.
The second, equally important, step is maintaining those boundaries. This can be a challenge, whether your boundaries involve you alone, or involve other people. Setting a boundary but not keeping to it erodes trust, ultimately making it that much harder to set and maintain a boundary the next time.
Here are 3 quick tips to help you maintain your boundaries (and your momentum) as you move ahead on your daily tasks and time priorities:
- Write down your time priority or task and the related boundary. Suppose your plan is to take 15 minutes between work and dinner time to meditate. When you are planning your day, write this down with your other tasks and priorities. This puts it into the landscape of your day from the outset. Be sure to include the time span and to highlight this activity as requiring a time boundary. Not all of your activities require this, so be clear with yourself.
- Be sure to communicate your boundary if there are others who will be affected by it. (This is especially important with children, but is a respectful gesture to anyone affected.) You don’t have to say exactly what you’ll be doing (it’s okay to have boundaries about that, too, if you want). But you can say something like, “I’m going to take 15-minutes for myself after work today. I’ll check in with you after my quiet time.”
- When you have followed through with your boundary, be sure to appreciate yourself for maintaining it! Each time you set and follow through on a time boundary you are strengthening your relationship with yourself. Aside from the benefit that your activity conveys, the relationship you are building with yourself is fundamental to your well-being as you move through your life.
A further benefit of setting and maintaining time boundaries is that you model this behavior for those around you. As they begin to see the benefits, they may be moved to try it as well!
Do you use time boundaries to accomplish important tasks or to give yourself a self-nurturing break in the course of your day? I invite you to share a comment here – I’d love to hear how it goes!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! 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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time Management Success Using Time Boundaries
Posted on April 21, 2009 by Paula, under Time Boundaries.
Finding time by setting and maintaining time boundaries is a sure path to successful time management. Why are time boundaries so important?
Well, trying to manage your time without having time boundaries is a little like trying to get yourself a drink of water using a sieve. Your daily allotment of 24-hours will pour right through the sieve, leaving you thirsty and wondering what happened to all that time!
Our hours and minutes move along, flowing like a river, no matter what we do. It’s a given. The power that we can exercise relative to our time is in how we structure our use of it. This includes the choices that we make about our time priorities.
But clarifying our time priorities won’t be meaningful unless we use time boundaries to put them into effect. Time boundaries give shape to our activities in time. This is because the time that we have to work with is finite – while our tasks, interests, and priorities generally are not.
There is always more than enough to do. So, in order to actually address our priorities, what we say no to becomes as important as what we say yes to.
The time boundaries that we set create the space for addressing what we have identified as important. If we don’t create the space, other things will intrude, and we will never address our priorities. We’ll be in the eternally frustrating position of using a sieve to take a drink!
How are you faring at setting and adhering to time boundaries for yourself? Try our FREE Finding Time Boundary Template and explore this vital time management tool. I’d love to hear how it goes!
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 …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
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