priorities - 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.

Find Time Using Soft Deadlines

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Paula, under Time Management Skills, Time Priorities.

Finding time by using Priority Power™ is empowering, energizing, and adds flow as you navigate your day. As you work with your time priorities, soft deadlines are a particularly useful tool.

“Soft deadlines? That sounds like an oxymoron! What are they?” you ask.

Soft deadlines are due dates that you set for yourself, ahead of whatever your final deadlines may be. You can think of them as brightly colored buoys bobbing over rocks and shoals, marking the entrance to your harbor.

These are friendly deadlines that serve a twofold purpose:

They help you spot potential snags and
They tell you when you are nearing home!

Your soft deadlines give you the chance to plan that much earlier for what’s coming up. And that planning makes your progress that much safer and more pleasurable.

Completing a task prior to the last minute not only supports your success – it also enhances your flexibility. Sudden changes and unexpected glitches won’t throw you when you routinely provide yourself with earlier, soft deadlines. You’ll find it easier to tie up loose ends and handle the unanticipated when you give yourself that cushion.

Ready to start?

Try creating some soft deadlines for your most significant tasks. Mark them in your calendar, and consider writing all soft deadlines in one color, and adding the hard deadlines in another to easily distinguish between the two. Then practice focusing on the soft deadline, so that you create some spaciousness in your schedule.

More spaciousness equals less stress, and a deeper capacity to enjoy the moment you are in. Now, that’s Priority Power™!

And are you interested in learning more about the Heart-Based Time Management™ Path? Here’s one way that you can transform and deepen your relationship to time in the Heart-Based Way … I invite you to explore Secrets of Heart-Based Time Management™ - my chapter in the book I co-authored - Stepping Stones to Success! In it I share my proven system for exploring and harnessing the power of your mind, your body and your spirit to help you deepen your experience of time and of your life.

As you work with the ideas I offer, you’ll explore your patterns, clarify your values, identify and prioritize your goals … and create your path for achieving them. You can give yourself the gift of this wonderful resource today, and get started on your journey toward success, Stepping Stone by Stepping Stone …just click this link to get the details!

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Finding Time for Decisiveness and Productivity with Priority Power™

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Paula, under Time Choices, Time Priorities.

Finding time and using it well becomes so much easier when you are clear about your priorities and give yourself permission to be decisive about following through on them. That’s what I call Priority Power™!

What needs to change from day to day? What’s indispensable?

You see, the power lies entirely in your hands. You’re the one who decides. And it’s a back-and-forth process, in that your decisions shape your priorities, and then your priorities can skillfully shape future decisions.

Building Priority Power™ can help you right from square one, as you create an ideal start to your day. With your priorities in place, you know your path and everything that’s likely to be on it. Even setbacks and surprises feel more manageable, because you’re familiar with the factors you need to weigh.

Sounds rewarding, doesn’t it?

Prioritizing is a Heart-Based Time Management™ Tool. It links your heart, your mind, and your responsiveness to ongoing change. Here are some benefits you enjoy when you proactively and consistently prioritize:

You feel safe. When you calmly weigh your options, your time choices are grounded and realistic.

You feel relaxed. When your priorities are clear, you have made your peace with what comes first and what might need to wait.

Your time is uncluttered. When you prioritize, you simplify. The more you exercise decisiveness, the stronger your “prioritizing muscles” become.

You feel confident. Your skill at prioritizing helps you stay nimble as new situations arise.

You experience inner abundance. You know, right down to your toes, that fulfillment arises from heart-based prioritizing. So you commit to use your time accordingly.

In upcoming posts, we’ll explore other aspects of Priority Power™ and how you can positively enjoy its role in your life! And, in the meantime, I’d love to know how you increase your decisiveness and productivity? Are there particular practices or tools that you find helpful?

And are there time topics that you’d like to read more about here? Please feel invited to drop me a line – I’d love to hear from you and serve your time finding needs!

So, want to learn more about how you can expand and deepen your time and efforts … in whatever areas you choose? Here’s a great way to explore avenues to increasing your time skills and heart-based power – whether it’s in your business, or your personal life. I am so pleased to be able to offer my expertise and support as The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to “Time Management”.

You can visit by clicking the link, and when you do you’ll find lots of time management articles by experts in the field, along with a vibrant and welcoming on-line community. Stop by my Expert Page and leave a comment or question … or just say hello. There are lots of ways to connect … let’s get started!

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Find Time to Uncover Your Time Legacy: What Do You Carry into Your Present from Your Past?

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Paula, under Time Choices, Time Transformation.

Finding time to discover the childhood roots of your current relationship with time can be hugely rewarding! Indeed, there are many things that we inherit from our families, and uncovering your time legacy, so that you can make conscious choices about what to keep and what to leave behind, will be at once enlightening and freeing for you.

There may be any number of ways that you adopted an approach to time that you learned long ago and that now works against you. But the good news is that your parents’ time priorities don’t have to be your destiny – not if you engage in some detective work!

So, today I invite you to explore just how you may have come to live someone else’s priorities. When you start by seeing your history with clarity and compassion, you can accept where you are. This, in turn, gives you a solid base, as you then make choices to transform your relationship with time!

To start with, as a child, you were profoundly influenced by your family’s time choices. They taught you important messages about values – what’s important and what isn’t.

Take a minute or two, right now, to recall the family in which you grew up. How did each adult in your household spend time? Create a vivid picture in your mind of how they lived out their priorities, one day after another. Sense the fundamental and personal beliefs that guided their choices. Let the picture take shape and fill itself out.

Next, quickly jot down a few observations about their use of time.

What came first?
What came last?
What message does this give you about their values?
How do your values align with theirs?

Your answers to these questions provide you with a good starting point for exploring your current time choices. You may want to revisit this exercise to flesh out more and more details over time. As you explore, you will illuminate patterns – some of which are helpful and some which you may want to change. This is your time legacy.

So stay tuned, as we continue to explore this truly fundamental element in your approach to your time. Clarifying the elements of your time legacy gives you a powerful key to transforming your relationship with time.

And in the meantime, want to learn more about how you can expand and deepen your time and efforts … in whatever areas you choose? Here’s a great way to explore avenues to increasing your time skills and heart-based power – whether it’s in your business, or your personal life. I am so pleased to be able to offer my expertise and support as The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to “Time Management”.

Finding Time by Growing Your Courage Incrementally: Today’s Timely Tip! (thetimefinder.com)
Find Time to Build Your Brave Muscles With a Daily Courage Workout (thetimefinder.com)
Find Time to Know the State of YOUR Union: Are Your Head and Heart in Sync for Success? (thetimefinder.com)

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Finding Time for Genuine, Heart-Based Holidays

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Paula, under Time and Energy, Time Boundaries.

Finding time to stay with yourself and celebrate truly heart-based holidays becomes much easier when you access your courage and let it infuse you … AND your time choices.

Courage is you, living self-referenced yet emotionally connected. You fully respect the vivid range of feelings and associations that we all hold about these, or any, holidays. At the same time, you allow your own priorities and perceptions to direct your time choices.

When I talk about heart-based holidays I picture you reaching out in authentic and caring ways from your heart. Your genuineness and honesty speak powerfully and carry a warmth and meaning that eclipses symbolic gestures that might arise from feelings of obligation. Those gestures carry you away from yourself and ultimately deplete you.

Here’s a helpful myth to retire: You know how legions of ads proclaim that you make or break your loved ones’ holidays by your choice of gifts? Not so! No matter how exhaustively you search for that perfect present, you cannot commandeer or control someone else’s holiday experience.

Accepting this in advance can reduce your stress considerably … not to mention keeping you out of some very long shopping lines! And you may spend less time poring over catalogues that entreat you to bust your budget, too.

You can use the time you save appreciating the people in your life directly, right now! So take a nice, deep breath and enjoy simplifying your season.

So are you ready to move courageously toward more self-reference for your Heart-Based Holidays?

Well, here’s another way to explore ways to increase your authenticity and inner power – whether it’s in your business, or your personal life … I am so pleased to be able to offer my expertise and support as The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to “Time Management”.

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Find Time to Enjoy July’s Top Time Finder Posts

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Paula, under Time After Time.

Finding time to reprise July’s top Time Finder posts is an opportunity to re-explore some heart-based, time-saving tips, while carefully side-stepping one or two lurking Time Gremlins!

Topping out list for July was a post titled Find Time to Really Do Your To Do List -3 Powerful Time Tips - all about how you can make your To Do List work for you. Here’s where you can start befriending, rather than fearing, that list of yours!

Next up comes a post from May that continues to be a favorite: Find Time to Stop and Really Listen to What You Tell Yourself About Your Time. You see, the messages that you give yourself about time are:

“… the messages that provide the backdrop to your daily living. They can, quite literally, shape what you do, what you see, and what you feel about your day … and often they are entirely hidden.”

Heart-based time management is key to empowering yourself and coming to understand, in the deepest parts of your being, your relationship with time (and therefore, with yourself).

Another July favorite explored goal-setting from the perspective of heart-based time management. ”For your energy to be in sync with your time priorities and time choices, it’s important that your goals be connected to your core values. That’s a big part of what Heart-Based Time Management is all about.” You can revisit that post by clicking here: Find Time to Create a Goal-Setting Mindset to Achieve Success: 3 Timely Tips

Fourth on our list was one of the posts in our popular Time Gremlins series. This one, titled Find Time to Outsmart Your Time Gremlins and Break Your Time Traps! looks at some ways that we trip ourselves up, when it comes to time – and some ways to stop doing that!

And last but not least, we explored the power you can find in your time choices in our Time Finder post titled Find Time for These 3 P’s Whenever You Make Time Choices. ”It’s no exaggeration to say that time choices, from the smallest to the largest, have a powerful and subtle ripple effect. They shape what comes next, quite literally, as well as affecting our perspective and approach as we move through our days.” Read the rest of the post for our practical, heart-based tips!

So, did we include your favorite? Are there particular areas that you’d like me to write more about on the Time Finder? Drop me a line … I’d love to hear!

And if you enjoyed reading this post, here’s something more to consider. You can now access our Time Finder posts in real time … right on your Kindle. Try it out for 14 days FREE! You’ll receive new content wirelessly, on your Kindle, every time we post!

So, what if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Claim it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!

Let’s explore time together …

Finding Time by Refusing to Feed Your Time Gremlins (thetimefinder.com)
Finding Time to Outmaneuver Your Time Gremlins: The People-Pleaser (thetimefinder.com)
Finding Time to Stop Your Time Gremlins and Jump-start Yourself! (thetimefinder.com)

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Find Time to Really Do Your To Do List -3 Powerful Time Tips

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Paula, under Time Management Skills.

Finding time to complete the items on your to-do list is an ongoing challenge. Sometimes those lists become so challenging in and of themselves that we want to avoid them … and that’s not a good idea!

Have you run into problems with managing these lists for yourself? I have a friend who jots ideas and tasks on scraps of paper and sticky notes, putting them in her date book as the day goes on. she captures a lot of material that way, but, as you can probably imagine, by the end of most days that date book looks like it’s filled with confetti! Sometimes the notes fall out, or get covered by other notes.

So, yes, it’s a challenge to keep up with it all.

That’s why I encourage any and everyone to take time — even just five minutes — at the beginning and end of the day, to plan, prioritize/consolidate, and review your list (or lists).

Each piece of this process is important, so let’s focus on each separately with these 3 Powerful Time Tips:

Finding time to plan is like scanning the landscape from up in the air. You need to get the lay of the land, note any barriers, and decide on your route. Really, what you’re determining is how you’re going to travel through your day. This is the most important part of your process – without it you’ll be embarking on your journey without a compass– and I guarantee, you’re going to get lost!

When you’re navigating your day, it’s really important to know where you’re starting, where you want to end up, and the major intersections and turning points along the way.

Having a plan doesn’t mean that there won’t be a need to make changes as the day unfolds. It simply gives you a map. Ideally your map will include alternate routes for any unforeseen contingencies. You don’t need to go into a lot of detail about those routes, but it’s important (and reassuring) to know that they’re there.

And don’t forget the “Times 2 Rule” when you plan! No matter what the task, it’s good to assume that it will take at least twice as long as you predict. (And what a gift to yourself, if you end up with a little extra time at the end of the day!)

Finding time to prioritize and consolidate your tasks is another very helpful time management skill to develop. Again, you needn’t spend a lot of time on this. As you look at your plan for the day or your To Do List, highlight the three tasks that you absolutely want to accomplish on this day.

Also, if you’ve got any tasks that can easily be put together, be sure to connect them. This might include things like errands that involve stops close to one another, putting all of your computer-related tasks in the same time slot, etc.

And if you maintain your To Do List or Daily Plan on a computer you can rearrange your tasks as you consolidate and create your priorities. Having a clean list makes things a little easier and less stressful for yourself.

Last but not least, finding time to review at the end of the day is very important! It gives you an opportunity to tweak your to do list for the next day, adjust your priorities, reflect on any lessons learned, and let go of it all as you had to bed.

Letting go is a wonderful gift that this process allows you to give yourself. As your head hits the pillow, you can release any worries that you might be carrying, knowing that they are on your list and will be addressed in the morning. Your sleep will be more restful, and you’ll have more energy as your day begins!

So, are you ready to start really DOING what’s on your To Do List? Consider giving these 3 Powerful Time Tips a try … and I’d love to hear how it goes for you.

And here’s something more to consider. You can now access our Time Finder posts in real time … right on your Kindle. Try it out for 14 days FREE! You’ll receive new content wirelessly, on your Kindle, every time we post!

Let’s explore time together …