How To Handle Being Busy
I know I’ve been very quiet as of late and I humbly apologise to those eagerly awaiting my pearls of wisdom!
I’ve been very busy at work for the past few weeks and I have also been very busy and active in my social life, playing badminton (I’ve got my first league match of the season this Saturday), networking, life coaching, being life coached, dating, etc….you know how it can be for a 29 year old socialite!
I’m asked on many occasions how I bring balance to my life considering the amount of things that I do. Well, the truth is, I don’t always do it so well. I’m not perfect, and I don’t always manage to manage the tasks I choose to undertake as well as I’d like to. I do however do a few things that are a must when it comes to making sure I don’t bite off more than I can chew!
1. Get A Calender
If you don’t have one, get one! Whether it be of the paper variety or the electronic kind, get into the habit of using it. I use a obile phone/PDA and I sync it with my PC every day to keep my calender as up to date as possible.
2. Keep A Task List
I know Tony Robbins would probably shoot me for saying this, but I tried his OPA method and I realised that it was too much for me, I don’t need such a powerful system as yet, just a general daily to do list is quite sufficient
3. Keep A Jotter
Have something you can make notes on always to hand! If I’m near my PC I’ll quickly draught and email with notes or more recently I’ve been saving any random thoughts as blog drafts and work on them later as needed. Or I make notes on my PDA. Always have something to hand you can make notes on as creative thoughts tend to emerge as the most unexpected of times.
UPDATE:
Michelle has kindly offered me a link to one of her aticles about how to make the most out of your to do lists without becoming drowned in them.
Hi Amit,
Not sure I could ever survive without coffee – lol – but Good for You!! i’m looking forward to your seminar report, too!
If I may…I posted an article about “To Do” lists and discussed some ways to make the list work for you so you don’t become a slave to the list (which many people do!).
Here is the link to my “To Do List” article.
http://bewellwithmichelle.blogspot.com/2006/09/to-do-lists.html
I hope you (and others) find it useful. Enjoy!! 🙂
Hey Michelle, thank you so much for the link, if it’s ok with you, i’ll put it into the body of the article also!
Trust me, giving up the coffee has not been an easy thing, just yesterday I walked past a starbucks and walking by was so painful as I was craving my mocha with hazelnut! 😛 But I don’t think I will ever go back now, I can’t even begin to describe how much more energised I feel and how much better my sleep is also as a result. I will have one on the odd occasion, but for now, I’m totally happy being coffee free!
I’ve practically lived off cheese and milk since I was a baby and giving that up hasn’t been as difficult as I thought. I’ve found some great alternatives for cheese which are vegan options, and also I haven’t done it as yet but I’m going to give soya milk a go! I’ve heard rice milk is supposed to be very tasty but as yet I haven’t found anywhere that sells it.
🙂
well well well!!! Mr.Social Butterfly is in need of a PA huh!!! i’m sure i was that for a while! :p
What i’ve learnt is:
1. Set realistic targets to complete things
2. Be kind to your self if they do not get done, but also consider why that is
3. Prioritise everything – even down to the smallist detail
4. Be selfish with your time – if people in your life demand too much time when you know there are other things you could be doing, then put your foot down (in a nice way ofcourse)
5. Always look at the bigger picture. Helps to keep your goal in focus, as the process and not as the final goal.
6. Always reward yourself for doing a good job at time keeping and organising…and in reward, that means spend some quality time with you, reading a book, watching a film, etc
7. Don’t become absorbed with that goal and make it your life’s purpose….if you do that, then you’ll miss everything else thats happening around you
8. Give to others! Remember to be compassionate to others, and don’t expect them to be passionate about your goals the way you are.
9. When writing down your action plan, sorting out your calender; imagine a picture to associate with that day. e.g. a friends birthday…imagine smacking thier face into a cake!!!! Hey….it makes me remember thier birthdays 😉
10. Your brain is an amazing organ and you can cram it with loads of info, so don’t trick yourself into beleiving its had enough…you can increase your memory tenfold if you train it!
Sorry amit, i didn’t read yourarticle properly as im at work, but i hope what ive wrote here is on the right track of what you were going on about.
Peace and love – Kavikins
Hi Amit and Kavikim,
Yes, please, include my url in the article…Thanks!
And yes, having to pass a Starbucks can be a painful experience…congratulations for getting through it!
You really have gone completely vegan, haven’t you. With all the food additives these days, that may very well be the smartest choice any of us can make. Glad to hear it’s working so well for you.
Kavikim, I like your list, too….it’s great. Love number nine and the cake/face. I have read that when you are trying to remember things on a list, associate each thing with a funny or unusual image…for example, to remember to buy spaghetti, see yourself as a circus tightrope walker and the rope as made of spaghetti…that sort of thing. I’ve tried it….but often get distracted by the smell of the coffee at the Starbucks counter in the grocery store!!! LOL
ahhh! I’m imagining the aroma of a soya mocha with marshmellows and a sprinkling of coco!!! Sucks not having a starbucks close by to me! 🙁 actually, it could be the reason i’ve lost weight!!! he hehe! Far to many mocha’s and skinny blueberry muffins have passed these lips in the past couple of years! These days i settle for a ginger and apple juice (sounds gross but has the same effect of caffine)
Anyway – digressing!
Michelle – glad you liked the list. I’ve kept that cake/face thing a secret for years! I’m sure my friends wouldn’t be impressed with my method of memory recall for thier birthdays!!!
Talking about amit going vegan….I recently had a very strange reaction to milk.
I don’t really like milk – never really liked the taste, and generally don’t eat alot of cheese. However recently i’ve been craving it like my life depended on it – so seen as my body asked, i provided.
I went for a whole week drinking hot milk with cereal every morning. I really enjojyed the taste, and my body started to feel very strong. I thought that maybe this is somthing i could get used to….however i noticed after the fourth day that my stomach had grown twice the size in a very unusal way – felt very ‘springy’…and thats odd for me considering i’m a heavy gym goer!
Cut a log story short – i decided to cut milk out of my diet, go back to drinking juices and hot water, and lay off any dairy for a while. Stomach has started to return back to normal, although really upset me for a while.
Whats with milk these days – i’ve had 4 different people who have had the same reaction.
Surly we can’t all have dairy intolerance!!! I sence a conspiracy with milk production! I will be back to report this bizarre event!
mwahzzz! x x x xx Love and Light !
Hi Kavikim,
I promise not to tell anyone about the cake/face thing. 🙂
Unfortunately, the milk problem could be anything from a different processing method to additives to the cow’s diet. It would be very unlikely that everyone suddenly became dairy or lactose intolerant. If you solve the mystery, let us know!
Hey Kavikim,
Thanks for all your amazing tips. In particular, with point number six, it’s sometimes the way we reward ourselves that gets us into trouble. I’m so guilty of it too; here’s and example:
“My diet has been going well for 2 weeks and so I’ll treat myself to a chocolate!” I believe the technical term for this is…DOH!!!!!
But I understand what you’re saying and I truly believe that the self reward is extremely important but doesn’t attempt to fill a void with gratification, does that make sense?
As for your milk story, I never realised until recently how bad milk and cheese was for me. When I went out of a meal last Sunday, I had a chimichanga which had some cheese in it. Shortly after having the meal, I had a tummy ache. I never realised before now what effect dairy was having on me.
Michelle,
I’m not totally vegan just yet, like I said I will still have cheese on the odd occasion but I do see myself going that way eventually. The next thing is cutting down on bread or only having home made stuff with spelt flour or something along those lines, something which doesn’t have wheat in it.
On the subject of food though, I was in the supermarket the other day and they do these great 7 nuts and seeds snack bars which are organic and vegan. The only down side is that they have some corn syrup in them but it is quite far down on the ingredients list so I’m hoping there’s not too much in there. They make fantastics snacks for work if I’m ever peckish between meals!
I still miss coffee though! 🙁 The real pain in the butt was, the day I gave up coffee, was the day they introduced flavoured syrups in the canteen at work!
Hi Amit,
Well, that was adding insult to injury!
Still, though, you’re doing great. Keep it up! 🙂
Thanks Michelle, I will do my best!
Hey guys, it’s good to cut naughty things out of your diet. Just want to highlight a personal expereince tho: I stopped eating meat about 5 years ago, it was a sudden choice. Never liked the taste of it so figured now that i’m on a spiritual journey, that i would just stop eating it. About a year into it i noticed that i began to develop persistent health problems – aneamia, excessive tiredness, weakness, headaches, loss of appetite, craving for sugary foods, constant colds, coughs, flu etc. So in these situations, i always think excersise will help, so then procedded to go on a massive excersise campaign. Going for jogs and skipping over the weekends and after work during the week. All the while i kept getting these problems. It got more and more agressive. I then ended up developing a skin condition…and i didn’t know what to do about it. A friend of mine recommended an ayrovedic doctor (having exhausted conventional methods) So i went….she concluded that i either begin to eat meat or live on tablets for the rest of my life. Apparently an enzyme that only exists in meat/fish is required by my body. I have now started to eat meat again….although i eat more fish actually! Either way, i have become stronger through it, i don’t suffer with achy joints and bones, etc.
So it all worked out…although the thought of eating meat is something i try not to think about, but just do it to nourish my body.
Moral of the story: Don’t give up something so suddenly, that your bosy feels the deficit, then ends up punishing you for it.
In this case, coffee is something we could all do without anyway. But if your body has been used to cheese, milk etc….then go steady and eliminate it a bit at a time, so that your body can adjust accordingly, and please make sure you top up with calcium tablets, etc!
Just looking out for ya babes! x x x x x x x x x
Hey Amit,
I can totally empathise with you as I lead a very busy life. There is just always something or the other going on. In addition to work, friend and other social stuff I have a lot of demanding people/situations around me and it takes up a lot of my time and energy.
At times I just can’t cope and constantly keep forgetting things. I have such a bad memory and just end up messing things up. Just yesterday a very dear friend of mine asked me whether I remembered his real name and alas did I remember….errr NO! He even tried to tempt me and said he’d treat me to something if I remembered …but I have such a bad memory and just couldn’t recall his name!!!! How embarrassingïŠ.
I was wondering if you could help me hon? I will surely try the things you have mentioned on the blog, but is there anything else you can suggest for us forgetful mortals?
Lots of love,
xxxxx
Hahahaha very funny Schumi! 😀
I admit, my memory isn’t quite as good as yours but lets face it, you give me such much info to remember it’s no wonder that I forget things! 😛
Have a wonderful day sweety! xox
Fantastic blog.
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