Have a minute? Of course you don’t. None of us do. We’ve become obsessed with knowing more, doing more, having more. The internet, smart phones, 24 hour everything, and the ability to know exactly what is happening in the smallest village in the most remote place have all conspired against us.
The one thing none of us can get more of is time. It’s a finite resource. Luckily we have alarm clocks and alarms on our smart phones and hotel wake up calls so we can cut sleep time to the bare minimum. The one thing we need more of and which is critical to functioning at our best turns out to be the one thing we continually try to do less of.
The result is stress, mistakes, accidents, and even poor health. The amazing thing is how so many brag about their addiction to more and how every single minute of their day is scheduled. Once we allowed children completely free time to wander around with their friends and explore the world. No more. Even play time has deteriorated into play dates.
What many seem to have forgotten is the value of free time. The value of decompressing, of letting your mind and body rest, of having space between activities and not worrying about absolutely everything that happens in the world. We’ve lost the ability to differentiate the essential from the who cares so everything becomes equally important. We’ve lost our perspective.
Take back your life! Here are a few things to do to get you started:
- Start off by leaning how to say no. Say no to even good opportunities.
- Schedule a new activity in your calendar every week called “do nothing”. And during this time, nap, think, take a walk. Anything but planned activities or work.
- Set end dates on things. And when the date arrives, move on.
- Do less so you can do what you do better. You can’t do everything well and the more you try the worse you get.
- Take a day every month to go off and think about what is really important to you and what you are doing because you forgot to say no. Each time you do this eliminate some things that really aren’t that important and focus on what is essential.
- Brag about all the time your have for yourself instead of how much you have to do.
- And most important: disconnect from the internet often.
Now go off and break free.