Friday, June 1, 2012

Changing Course

When a friend told me recently that she'd finally gone back to a hobby she's loved since childhood, it made me think. Actually, it did more than that. It made me act.

Well, first, I did have some thinking to do. I thought about how I typically spend my time. I tend to focus on one thing so much that I end up neglecting everything else. For example, when I'm at the computer, I always tell myself I'll be getting up frequently to walk around and get a drink of water. Do I actually follow through? Sometimes, but not nearly as much as I'd like. That bothers me.

As a result of all this introspection, I started making lists of things I want or need to do. They're still incomplete--and probably always will be, since I'm always coming up with new ideas to include--but they're great resources. I've already incorporated some of them, such as more reading and exercise time, into my schedule.

The next step is to prioritize everything and decide how much time to allot each item, as well as how often. This will take a while to figure out, and some items will inevitably be removed or at least placed so far down the list that I'll never get to them. That's okay. The important thing is to figure out exactly what the priorities are and then follow through on what I can. I just need to pay more attention and change how I go about things, so I'll keep plugging away.

Have you ever sat down and completely restructured your time? How did it go?

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This post is a response to this week's GBE 2 writing prompt, "Self."

6 comments:

Dana said...

I've never done that, but I should. I think it's something I'll have to wait to do after the kids are both in school and I'm back in charge of my life (kind of). :)

Have a nice weekend!

Eliza Wynn said...

Dana, I hope you'll eventually find time to do this; it can be a real eye-opener. You have a good weekend too!

Anonymous said...

I did that with our budget some years back. I wrote down every single thing we had to spend money on as well as the things we chose to spend money on. I documented all of it for 30 days--every penny. At month's end, we looked at how we were spending our money and then we drew up a budget, prioritizing the stuff we needed and the stuff that gave us genuine pleasure. The rest got pushed either down or off the list.

Time, like money, is a limited resource, so budgeting it in much the same manner makes perfect sense. Time to make a time budget, I think. Thanks for this!

Arlee Bird said...

I still haven't drawn up the schedule I keep thinking about doing. I gotta do it. I just gotta!
I'm now following this blog.


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Annalisa Crawford said...

I already know I spend too much time on the internet and not enough time writing! And, for some reason, I can't tear myself away - there's so much to look at.

Eliza Wynn said...

Beth: I did something similar with our budget many years ago to track our spending. I assigned every single thing we bought to a category, adding sales tax when necessary. I'd forgotten all about that!

Lee: You can do it! I know you can! (And thanks for the follow!)

Annalisa: I know what you mean. It's easy to lose track of time while online.