Self Help

Clearing out your time schedule is a vital priority for living your dream. “Do you know how busy I am? I couldn’t possibly take on one more activity!” This is an exclamation we often hear from active, involved individuals. Even when we’re not spending our time exactly as we would prefer, we commonly feel that the demands pressed upon us preclude our having much of any choice in the matter. But if our dream is a last priority in our daily plan, it will also be the least likely outcome of our day, and our life.

If you go to a doctor or diet clinic for help in losing weight, you may be asked to keep a diary of your food intake. Only when you know what you are actually eating can you know what changes need to be made. The same is true of managing your time. It’s important to begin keeping a record of how your time is spent. Once you have conducted a realistic assessment of the time available to you and the requirements made for your time, your options will be more apparent.

Begin by keeping a list of your activities during each of the seven days of one week. Write each activity in a column down the left side of a page, and write the days of the week across the top. Tally up the amount of time spent in each activity per day. Leave space for totals for the week on the right side. Your page might look something like the “Time Spent on Activities for a Week” chart.

When you have filled out this chart for one week, study it carefully. Are you surprised at what it reveals? What do you observe about the way you spend your time? What changes can you make to manage your time optimally? Make a list.

In observing small children at play, I have noticed almost without exception their innate tendency to dump out the whole toy box before beginning to interact with the toys. They knock all the blocks down before beginning to build something new. Every piece of the Tinker Toy set must be pulled apart before a new construction is begun. Children inherently know the importance of starting anew, from the empty box or the blank table, when they want to create something new, all their own.

Your time is your creative medium of expression, just like the child’s box of toys. When you want to create a new set of priorities that highlights your dream, start like the small child with the blank table before you. Take a clean sheet of paper and write your Dream Statement across the top in large letters. Draw a chart where you can show activity time segments for an ideal day. Decide which activities you want to accomplish each day. Begin by allocating set periods of time to work on your dream - periods that are unlikely to be interrupted by other demands. Many people find that rising earlier in the morning serves this purpose. Once you have set aside times for pursuing your dream, list your other activities in time segments, to represent the way you intend to spend your day. Combine optimal productivity with spaces for relaxation and rejuvenation.