Alamogordo NM
7-26-2023 10:02pm

Perspectives - Way Too Busy by Liliane Pilot

Dear Liliane, I am WAY too busy. I mean I like my life to be full but this is ridiculous and I am totally in overwhelm. I don't want to let anyone down. How can I manage my time better?

Dear Overwhelmed, You have just described my current situation! As a creative person, and as someone who has a relative amount of life experience under my belt, it's easy for me to get excited about the many ways I can step up in my community. And, not for the first time in my life, I find myself with too much on my plate.

There are a variety of factors I have to consider. The obvious one is, how well am I using my time? I realized a while ago I was spending far too much time playing Scrabble on my phone and not enough time walking and stretching which I require to keep my back behaving itself. Okay, that doesn't sound too tricky to deal with. And so I cut an hour off my phone time. But that coincided with an extremely busy time in our business which required me to do a lot of physical labor. So I found myself more exhausted, with a sore back, and consequently less willingness to walk and stretch. Then my little mind said, "Well hey, since you're tired, why didn't you just lie down and catch up on your Scrabble games!!" I'm sure you can see where this is going...

Time management isn't just about paring down time wasters. It's about prioritizing what has to be done both personally and professionally.

Personally, I require a solid 7 hours sleep. This works best if I have lights out by 10 pm. I wake up early regardless of what time I go to bed so if I don't enforce my optimum lights-out time, then I automatically start the next day tired, and a downward spiral begins.

Next on the hit parade is diet. Again for me, this means a routine in my mealtimes, eating healthy food and drinking lots of water. Not soda, not coffee, not sweetened juices... WATER. That one's not tricky for me I've been doing that for a long time. Oh wait, did I just say that out loud? Yes I find myself 'jonesing' for things that aren't good for me just as well as the next guy!

The aforementioned stretching and walking is one of the toughest hills for me to climb which is totally funny because I live in the mountains and I love hiking! What I figured out is that I need to stretch first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, and I need to get my walk in
early in the day before I'm wrapped up in too many other things. This doesn't necessarily match the flow of the household, but it does match my personal rhythm which brings me to an important point. We all get caught up in the things that we do for other people and often put ourselves last. The fallout from this is that we cease to function anywhere close to optimum
levels.

Professionally, I need to prioritize my business. I have to have a business plan. I have to make a list each evening for what has to be accomplished the next day. This includes assessing the amount of time that needs to be spent each day on the business in order for it to grow and maximize its potential. (Also a tricky one for me because I'm an artist and there are many times I would far rather make art then work on a spreadsheet or do any one of the dozen things that always  need doing.) It's my business and it simply has to be done. So this means that my service hours with my church, speaking engagements, volunteer hours with local arts organizations, making art, working on my books, writing my column... All of these things which take time and energy must be assessed.

As I said at the beginning, those of us who are creative and interested in a lot of things and have enough life experience to be able to give our time and gifts to others have to be a little more vigilant in deciding what stays in the game and what waits til the next round. And just because we have to let something go for the time being doesn't mean it's gone forever! It just means that it doesn't fit right now.

This brings me to my final point. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as Dear Liliane, writing this column and recording the radio feature. But a number of activities which I enjoy need to go to the back of the queue for awhile.

I wish you all well and hope that if anything troubles you, you can take a step back and find a new perspective.

Love Liliane

The podcast of Dear Lilly and past podcasts can be found on YouTube and on Spotify under KALHRadio.org

https://youtu.be/PPRO7BmUCjs

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5iDzDsveMWIAU9sfq8sT0x?si=21UN5O-xSUWK…

Liliane is co-owner of the Domes Nature Retreat

https://www.facebook.com/domesnatureretreat/

www.domesnatureretreat.com

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