6 Easy Ways to De-clutter your Time and get your Life back!
Until recently, by the end of each day, I was grateful to just drag a decent breathe. Life was certainly full but was getting critically exhausting most of the time.
Juggling life as a wife, entering motherhood at an interesting age(!), being a pastor in a vibrant ministry, a passionate mental health advocate, writer, full time career woman…You know, I do not know how I do it sometimes!
And for me, all of these had/have importance and priority in my life because of the responsibility I carry in each of these roles!
There are times when the demands of each role meant that there were days when I felt like one more feather was gonna break this camel’s back!
And by the skin of my teeth literally, I would just about achieve a fair percentage of what needed to be done each day, albeit at the risk of a few distinguished grey linings along the hairline!
Then I decided I can still achieve what needed to be achieved, in fact get more results by just #decluttering my time management.
Yep, there is so much about decluttering your home, how about decluttering your time??
So here’s my list to Decluttering Your Time:
##1. You do not have to answer every phone call, text, email … immediately!
Just because the phone rings, does not mean it must get your attention. Before mobile phones existed, life went on. People waited till you got home to a land line.
And life can still go on. In your time, you can always return the call.
Do not allow a modern convenience to now enslave you!
#2. Turn off notifications
Do you need notifications for every email, Facebook, Instagram, calendar and all the other Apps on your phones and devices? No you do not.
Go through your alerts, be brutal. The most brutal is to turn all of them off!
Like the phone call, these things can wait. Else you will find your alerts are controlling you rather than the other way round.
In short, eliminate distractions!
##3. Unsubscribe
You signed up for a freebie or you somehow do not know how you got on a subscription list or channel.
Now every waking moment, you are getting emails flooding in from websites, companies and channels you do not care to remember.
Again, be brutal. If you never open the email, unsubscribe. If you never watch the channel, unsubscribe. It is as simple as that!
##4 Learn to say NO
You do not need to be in every invite, bbq, meeting, conference. You can easily become a zombie rushing from one place to another and not appreciating or getting anything out from any of these.
Be selective and purposeful of where you should be. The inviter will get over it… eventually.
##5. Own your day and time
Plan your day and stick to it as much as possible.
Things, events, people and so on, will always compete for a slot of your time. Example, an urgent email comes through, or something interesting you saw on Instagram.
If it is not an emergency, stick to the plan of your day. Own your day and time.
Is every emergency a priority?
Is every priority an emergency?
##6. Delegate
I always tended to take on the most. I could not bear the thought of missed deadlines, shoddy jobs, disappointments, disappointing others and so on. But that was so wrong!
Delegation is something we all got to do.
If the people available to you may let you down because they are just not reliable, or dont have the knowledge, etc, you will find you are always doing everything and ending up stressed out.
Allow others to make mistakes. Allow a few missed deadlines…the earth will still be revolving round its axis tomorrow! In other words give others opportunity to grow…and make mistakes.
But if the mistake is going to burn the house down or bring a diet of tears, well no one needs to tell you that you are better doing it yourself until as such time, someone comes into your life that can handle the job!
But all in all, in the long run, your emotional, mental and physical health will have a lot to thank you for!
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