BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Stress Management Stressed by Too Little Time?

One thing we talk a lot about in the forums is the "lack of time" idea. This used to be an idea I was VERY stuck on. I'd read book after book and they all said "well Benjamin Franklin only had 24 hours in a day" or "Oh xxxxxxxx only had 24 hours." And I would always retort "but my life is BUSIER than theirs are!"

Finally the message seeped into my brain. That the issue is I am trying to DO TO MUCH in my 24 hours. Sure, Benjamin Franklin could have tried to ride horses AND sail boats AND paint dog figurines AND be a gourmet chef AND hike mountains in his 24 hours, but it would not have worked. He sat down and decided what out of his billions of options he DID want to spend time on. That way he could manage them.

So this - really - is no different in modern times. Yes we CAN do millions of things in a given day. The same was true for people in the 1500s! They could milk cows or shoe horses or build boats or weave cloths or so on. Heck, if they chose to do something like "eat butter" they had to dedicate far MORE time to their task because it took them so long to create the butter. Nowadays we wash clothes in an instant, we wash dishes in an instant, we get food in an instant. So we are very spoiled. And the result is we feel we can stuff 8 million activities into a given day. The simple fact is we can not - and we need to accept that rather than stress over a simple fact of physics.

So look at your week. Look at the activities you have *chosen* to stuff into that week. Now, make sure you have AMPLE time for sleep because this is absolutely critical for healthy functioning. With that in mind, rank your remaining items with a priority. What low priority items have ended up in your schedule, that are causing you problems?

From recent studies it seems that when we multi-task we actually end up performing worse overall, and have inferior brain function as a result. Beside the guilt, stress and feelings of being overwhelmed that lead us to anxiety disorders.

I totally agree that it's crucial to figure out what few things are the most important uses of our time. But then that means we have to set aside...well...TIME, to do that planning. That is where it all falls apart, i think.

There are so many books out there on 'Time Management'. Speaking purely from a scientific point of view, it is a physical impossibility to 'manage TIME'. All you can do is prioritise your activities in the 24 hours you have.

As Lisa says above, sleep is absolutely critical for healthy functioning so that MUST be your top priority. (That's 7-8 hours gone!) Then there's the time needed for ensuring your body has the essential nutrients to keep you going, i.e., shopping for the food, preparing it, eating it, etc.

Now you're left with a long list of things that need doing and only a few hours to do it all in. The easiest way to decide what to do in the little time you have left is to ask yourself a very simple question:

"If I do A, B or C, will it take me closer to my GOALS?" (Your goals could be family-orientated, work-related, personal, etc.) If you can answer YES, then those are the things to totally focus on.

He he he well some of us have a Bob who cooks our food for us. So I admit I am very lucky in that food appears on my desk! I should really be quite grateful for that and acknowledge that blessing in my world.

Then again, he makes most of the messes I clean up

OK so sleep. Yes it is really important to get ample sleep so that you can then function well the rest of the day. It'd be like using a run-down, stalling computer to do your work, vs a super fast zippy one. You might not realize it, but having that good sleep makes a HUGE difference in how smoothly your entire day goes.

Yep - I agree that sleep is an important priority. If we don't get enough sleep, we cannot function so well, and will not get as much done anyway. Lisa I like your analogy with the computer - makes absolute sense! After sleep, you just need to prioritise all your goals and make sure you are working on the most important ones first. And doing things one thing at a time. My own habit is to try to do too many different things in a day. I end up feeling like I haven't achieved anything towards any of my goals. I've realised that focusing on one thing for a whole morning, for example, rather than an hour at a time, is so much more effective. Ros

Ros, you are right. Studies show than when we multi-task, our brains perform poorly and we become almost "stupid." If the 80s and 90s were all about doing more at once, I think now we are learning to do less, and one at a time, and do things well.

Easier said than done of course.