Remember just 12 short months ago when many of us were all taking a deep breath of relief from the busyness of life and forced to slow things down due to a global pandemic? Yeah, me neither š. I've heard quite a few people mention how busy things are once again this summer. I would imagine many of us are attempting to pack two summers in to one, carting kids around, juggling work with home chores, etc... Some of us leave things by the wayside as we jump back in to the busyness of life with both feet (refer to my messy garage as item #1)
What I hope we are doing with that busyness is focusing on the things we have defined as important to us. Maybe the pandemic helped us clearly define those important things a year go. Either way its a good time to revisit and be intentional about focusing some time on those things each day. Here are three quick things that have helped me.
1) When you are at work be productive. Get the things done that need to get done...even the ones you don't necessarily enjoy. Make a list if you need to and don't dilly dally. With that focus you can pack a lot in to a work day. If you find yourself filling idle time with unproductive things (cue social media or reading your financial planners blog) stop right there! Find something productive to do or work ahead to tomorrows list of productive things you can do.
2) When you are away from work...don't work. This can be very difficult in todays world of constantly being connected. Especially for those working from home. I am as guilty as anyone of returning an email that can wait until the next morning. Be intentional about disconnecting from work when you're not working and focusing on the other important things. If you're always connected you'll always be distracted. Challenge yourself to do it a different way.
3) Make a list of the people who are important to you and focus some time on each one of them. I've never regretted dropping something else to focus on a person on that list.
We are all busy in a different way. Unfortuately we don't always know what we are busy doing. Are you in control of your day, or is your day in control of you? By being intentional about the things you need to focus on (and saying no to the others) you can be busy doing the things you want to do and control your day.