Modern life can feel like there is too much to do and not enough time to do it all in. It can be hard to hit escape in the non-stop, fast paced life – but if your default response to ‘how’s it going’ has become ‘mad busy’, maybe it’s time to break the bad habit of constantly being busy.
Instead of trying to do everything at once and keep up that pace, hit escape with our top ten busy mum tips:
1. Establish a Positive Environment
When the emotional atmosphere is less than positive, people lose flexibility, the ability to deal with ambiguity and complexity, trust, enthusiasm, patience, humor and creativity. When you feel safe and secure, you feel welcomed and appreciated. You think better, behave better and are better able to help others.
2. Focus on What Matters Most
The most common casualties of an excessively busy life are the things that matter most to you, the things you want to give more attention to. Don’t spread yourself too thin — you must choose, you must prioritize. In order to both do well and be happy, you must say “No thank you” to many projects, people and ideas. “Cultivate your lilies and get rid of your leeches.”
3. Use Your Time Wisely
Allocate your time so as to get maximum return. Try not to let time be stolen from you or let yourself fritter it away — use the Time Value Assessment to guide you in what to add, preserve, cut back on and eliminate.
4. No Time to Waste!
This is the modern addiction: the withdrawal of looking at a computer, BlackBerry, smart phone, etc. Break the habit of having to be near your computer at all times by changing your environment or structure — move your screen to a different room, schedule an amount of time you are allowed to be on the computer or plan mandatory breaks.
5. Identify and Control Gemmelsmerch
Gemmelsmerch is the force that distracts a person from what he or she wants to or ought to be doing. It is as pervasive and powerful as gravity. Assess your surroundings to identify sources of gemmelsmerch in your environment, then make a conscious effort to control and overcome distractions.
6. Find Your Rhythm
Get in the “zone,” follow your “flow” — research has proven that this state of mind elevates all that you do to its highest level. When you find your rhythm, you allow your day to be taken care of by the automatic pilot in your brain so the creative, thinking part can attend to what it is uniquely qualified to attend to.
7. Delegate
Delegate what you don’t like to do or are not good at, if you possibly can. Your goal should not be to be independent, but rather, effectively interdependent. You do for me and I do for you — this is what makes life possible.
8. Avoid Frazzling
In other words, don’t multitask ineffectively. Give one task your full attention, and you will do it better. You may eventually get so good at it that your conscious mind can attend to other aspects of the task other than menial ones. This is the only way a human can multitask effectively.
9. Play
Imaginatively engage in what you are doing. This will bring out the best part of your mind, focus you on your task and make you more effective and efficient.
10. Slow Down
Stop and think. Ask yourself: what’s the hurry? Why wake up already impatient, rush around and try to squeeze in more things than you should, thereby leading you to do all of it less well? Your hurry is your enemy.
Have we missed anything off the list? Share it with us using the comments below.
