Tip #1: Time is much beyond money; time is life!
Whoever knows me, knows I am not a morning person. But, this morning I felt really good when I realized that I would have a day well divided to dedicate to various aspects of my life! My second thought was actually a series of questions: Why do people still believe time is (only) money? Why do people reserve so many hours dedicated to work and, concomitantly, have so many excuses to do not do other essential activities that can also make a difference in their lives? Aren’t the majority of my clients reaching for life coaching because they feel they are only postponing dreams and their ideal life style?
Inspired in these morning chain of thoughts, I decided to write tips to help you think about time as a tool to live; and more specifically, to help you to think a way to manage your time in which you will feel your are actually living and not surviving or simply making to one day after other. It is first, a matter of math; then a matter of choice.
TIPS TO ENJOYABLY USE YOUR TIME BASED ON MATH:
- First, think the basic: we have 24 hours to manage every day.
- Second, be realistic and count on hours of sleeping. And let’s also be healthy with this choice: let’s count on 8 hours of sleeping per day. We now have to think we have 16 hours to manage every day.
- Third, let’s think that the majority of us work in a full time job, which is equivalent to 8 hours a day. Our math indicates we still have 8 hours to manage.
- Next, we should consider that, with few exceptions, we could say that most of us commute to work and also use a bike, car, train, cab or bus to go for some errands. If we consider a typical day in which we are really taking care of our lives, we will be commuting more than just from home-work and work-home. Let’s reserve so 2 hours of total commuting per day. Now we have 6 hours to manage every day.
- We also should include here meals time, right? The ideal is that we eat slowly, enjoying our food and away from phones, computers and TVs. Also the ideal is that we cook our own food, avoiding the excess of fat, sugar and sodium that are most of the times present in restaurants and delis food (even if you go to a healthy place this can be true). Counting that we cook and eat at least 3 meals a day, let’s reserve 4 hours for meals and then we have 2 hours left to manage.
Some may say, “2 hours is nothing left!” Compared with the total 24 hours I can understand how this may be true, but try to think in a different perspective and only about the 2 hours left; and I ask you: if you have 2 hours a day to pick whatever you want to do, what would you pick to do today?
© Photographer: Radu Razvan Gheorghe | Agency: Dreamstime.com
TIPS TO ENJOYABLY USE YOUR TIME BASED ON CHOICES:
I am sure from this perspective, we open to diverse opportunities to help us to manage our days. Surely, on some days these two hours will be dedicated to go for errands, pick up and drop kids in different places, and other things you don’t necessarily think are fun. BUT, most importantly, on other days we can pick these two hours for treating ourselves, mind and body together: go for exercises at gym or outdoors, have a long shower or a great bath making use of aromatherapy, meet a friend, read a book, go to a spa, go for a date, watch the sunset, walk in the neighborhood, have a play time with family, watch a movie, dedicate your time for some hobby, call a family member or friend, meditate, take care of the garden, organize your closet ... and so many other fun and healthy things to do!
2 hours a day can bring us much more pleasure, calm, and fun, right? 2 hours a day also means, 10 hours a week (weekdays only), 40 hours a month, 480 hours per year! In a long term, it can really make a difference on our lives!