OK, is your life too busy? Does it seem like you don't have time for yourself, your family or anything else? Are you glad breathing is an involuntary function, because if it wasn't you'd forget to breathe? Wow, you're like me! I am making adjustments in my life to change things. You should too. Things like saying no when someone asks you to do something. Let's explore this topic together and see what other things we can do to "buy" time.
I'm going to give you a couple examples to explain what I mean when I say, "just say no." Before I got back into the corporate world, I owned a construction business. So many people wanted work done (including friends) and because I needed the money and wanted to help people, I would always say yes to a job. The problem was, I over booked myself. Now, in order to get everything done, I had to work longer days and sometimes Saturdays and Sundays.
This put a lot of strain on my marriage and made for an awful home life. I was so tired, that I didn't have time for anything else. If I would have said no to a few of these jobs, I would have had a little less money, but much more time to do with as I chose. You see, in life (as you probably know) there are always trade-offs. Before I discontinued my business, I was able to say no to people, but at that point it was a little to little and a little too late. I have learned from those mistakes.
Here is another thing that happened way back when. My wife and I are active members of our church.
The Pastors and leaders of our church saw leadership potential in us and asked us to be a part of many different church ministries. We were ushers, host/hostess, home group leaders, in the music ministry, two different youth ministries, and a few others I can't remember because it's been so long now. Each of these activities was only one night a week, but every one of our nights and weekends were booked solid. My wife and I had no time for each other. After getting some sound advice from some pastor friends of ours, we drop most of those ministries and regrouped. We had to say no.
If you want to free up some time to do the things that you want to do, you will have to say no. You will have to say no to things, to people, even to yourself when you yourself says, "you can do this." Let me repeat, just say no. If you currently have too much going on, drop some of the things you are doing. Here is a really good exercise you can do to help. For one week, write down activity you engage in and the length of time it takes you to do them, every one. This will include eating meals, sleep, work, watching tv, etc. When the week is over, review your lists.
Are there any activities you can eliminate? If you watch three hours of tv per night, cut down on your tv. Watch only an hour, maybe your favorite shows. If you have a hobby that takes a ton of your time, cut down on your hobby time. Prioritize your activities by ranking them 1 through whatever. Eliminate the trivial, idle things in your life that don't amount to much. Trade that time for family time or time for something else you need time for. Again, just say no.
When you are too busy and have too much going on, you are unable to do things well. If you are working 8 hours a day, have a wife and kids at home, have extracurricular activities, are finishing you bachelor's degree (which also means homework) you are not going to be the best worker, parent, and student. I would love to hear your feedback on this topic. I'm sure you all have some good ideas on freeing up time, so email me.
Mike Bova is the Madison County Advertising Director & Business Columnist for Eagle Newspapers in Syracuse, NY. Mike owns several websites including The Upstate New York Shopping And Business Directory. Mike has spoken in front of many business groups, shattered a lot of sales records, conducted several sales training seminars and trains corporate sales staffs how to sell more. Mike is launching his own site soon.
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