Today’s post is all about time and finding enough of it.
It seems that in today’s busy world, we have about 10 different roles we have to fit in to on a daily basis so having good time management skills can make the difference between feeling confident and prepared and sinking under a never ending pile of ironing.
What I actually want to talk about today though is mental management.
Do you find yourself writing ‘the list’ in your head before you go to bed at night instead of sleeping?
Do you find it hard to concentrate in work because you’re trying to figure out if you have enough pasta left to make spag bol for dinner that evening?
Do you spend your ‘me’ time worrying about what to do next or how to cope with the next disaster or (even worse) worrying about how little time you have?
Most of you will have time management strategies already working (or not!) for you in your life. You know you’re supposed to plan your time and use it wisely; only check emails and social networking sites at various points throughout the day etc., but are you managing what you are thinking about?
If you’re anything like me then your mind is all over the place most of the time. I have a tendency to start talking in the middle of the story because I’ve been thinking about it in my head – ‘So, Saturday then – that sounds nice?’ – to which my boyfriend replied with a sigh, ‘Start at the beginning please Emma, I have no idea what you’re talking about’. Oops!
I also managed to finish one of my sentences this weekend with a quote from an advert I was also watching on TV….my attention span can be somewhat limited.
This is only because I have so much to think about though – I’ve got a full-time job, a blog, a part-time job, volunteering and a counselling course going on, and that’s before I come home and actually want to spend time with my boyfriend and have a little ‘me’ time – I figured ‘scatty’ was the only way to be.
Turns out I was wrong. It’s perfectly feasible to compartmentalise your mental time the same way you do your regular time – it just takes a little discipline.
When you’re sorting out your day, make sure you factor in time to work through whatever you normally work through in your head. For me I decided that my tube ride to work is the time that I spend working out the next step for this blog and reading inspiring stuff on Kindle to motivate me for my day ahead. Then, when I’m at work, all I think about is work, everything else waits until I leave the office.
I also made sure I scheduled some ‘non-thinking’ time in. This falls in to my ‘yoga’ time. I focus only on what I’m doing and it’s a wonderful way to escape from real life for a few minutes.
When you go to bed, sleep. If you need to make a list, do it for ten minutes before you go to bed. Write it down, then forget about it and rest. I always have a pen and paper by my bed so if at any point I think of something I need to do I can write it down then forget about it until the morning – there’s nothing I can do about it until then.
Giving yourself some mental space means you’ll feel better prepared for anything life decides to throw at you. You’ll be more focused, calm and in control, all or which lead to confidence.