How to Make Room for What's Important

I learned a new trick about how to make time for what's important. If you feel like you have no time left for what's important to you, try this simple exercise. Write the following down:

My goal is to ____________. I can take out ____________ and ____________ to make room.

For example:
My goal is to exercise 3 times every week. I can take out watching sitcoms and get up earlier to make room.

My goal is to spend more time with my family. I can take out playing golf on Sunday and reduce working late to make room.

This exercise shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes. I hope it helps you to prioritize. Let me know how well it works for you.

How Much Would You Pay for 5 Minutes?

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein."
-H. Jackson Brown


If you could get an additional 5 minutes in a day, how much would you be willing to pay for it?

That's really a moot question because it's impossible to do. That is why time is priceless. Everyone gets the same amount of time each day and how we utilise our time determines the results in our life.

One thing you should know is that there is no such thing as time management. Time cannot be managed. We can only manage our activities - often easier said than done (in my case).

Because we cannot retrieve lost or wasted time, it's imperative that we make full use of every second of our life. I'm still struggling with it - to make the most of my time - but I'm making headway.

One thing I find difficult to do is to complete tasks I don't enjoy doing. From time to time, I would have a few tasks that I dread. Tasks that I must do but I don't really enjoy it, so I often end up putting them off. And that doesn't make completing them any easier.

Recently, I read an article about how to manage tasks we don't enjoy. Allocate 5 or 10 minutes a day to doing it. I've been doing this for the past week and I found that it makes it easier for me to complete the tasks.

If I allocate, say 30 minutes, when the time comes to start doing the task, I found myself thinking "Urgh!", and time just seemed to drag on. That's why I dread it and I keep procrastinating.

On the contrary, when I allocate only 5 minutes to the task, I find it easier to do and I don't drag my foot on it because I know it's only going to take 5 minutes of my time. 5 minutes a day works out to 30 minutes a week. The task finally gets done.

Not only do I get things done, I'm also making better use of my time. And I am so much happier! :-)