Inspiration for a joyful and creative life

“The time which we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the passions we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it, and habit fills up what remains.” – Marcel Proust

Last week I talked about how I am “experimenting” with time in order to make a positive difference. Click here to read it.

It’s important to realize that your emotions ebb and flow. And that it’s not a matter of if you will get frustrated but how you will deal with it when it happens.

Here are some things that I will be playing with and tweaking to see what works best:

• 1. Changing thoughts and reactions about time
• 2. Creating new habits
• 3. Keeping better track of successes
• 4. Limiting the things I work on
• 5. Letting go of the unimportant stuff
• 6. Adding more fun, relaxation, and rejuvenation

One thing that always helps is to stand back and breathe and get some perspective.

The good news is that there are already strategies that are working now. I’ve got plenty of things that have helped in the past and some new ideas to try.

I’ll be sharing some more articles and ideas with you. Many of you have told me this topic hits home!

I’ve been getting a kick out of all the commercials for stores opening at 4am and 5am so you can do your shopping.  I made a vow to avoid standing in lines for “Black Friday”.

I’ve been happily shopping online today and getting some of my holiday gifts ordered and delivered right to my door next week.  That’s what I call holiday shopping made easy!

I am a big fan of Amazon and that was one of my primary shopping stops online.  I wasn’t aware that they also were offering Black Friday specials.  And the good news is they are offering them this week, not just today.  And they also have daily deals.

I love that they have so many products in addition to books.  I ordered myself a subscription to Real Simple magazine for only $5.00.

And I have no problem telling you that I am an Amazon associate, which means some day I may get a small commission on what people buy through my referrals when they click on my links.  But I am very picky about recommending only companies and products that I would buy.  And I can say that I have been a very happy customer of Amazon for a long time!

I’ve got some simple gifts that I’ll make but it feels good to have most of my list complete.  I will be sharing some fun and easy gift ideas for you in the next couple of weeks.

What are some of the ways you can make your holidays easier?

How can you create the time to do the things you really want to do?

We are always so busy and trying to fit in things with our work, family, taking care of everything, it seems hard to figure out how to make any time for the things that we really want to do.

I had given a client this suggestion while helping her figure out how to make time to do the things she really wants in her busy schedule:

One idea to consider is to choose 1 thing to let go of for the week so you can replace it with something you really want to do.

She asked if I could give her some ideas of things to let go.

What I meant about choosing something to let go of is….

When you look at your “to do” list, there are some things you really need to do that are important and can’t be ignored, there are things that you really want to do and need to make time for, even if it’s just a little bit.

And then there are a myriad of things you could do but they aren’t necessarily necessary!

So, it may be helpful to look at your list of possibilities and ask:

What absolutely needs to be done?

What is something I really want to do that I could make the next small step?

What is something that’s not really that important that I can let go of?

You might let go of something that is a higher standard than you really need like
maybe a house cleaning chore than no one but you will notice or making a homemade dessert for company when you could just pick something up.

Those are some little things but all those little things add up, especially if you are using energy that you could use on something you really want to do.

My client had been cooking for houseguests and entertaining for 3 weeks and decided to give up cooking for the week!

I thought that was a great idea that could give her a well deserved break and some extra time.

What could you give up this coming week that could create a little extra time?

I’d love to hear your ideas.