Timely Thoughts

I'm starting a new focus: daily "rhythms" (or routines). I'm going to pay attention to my everyday activities and look for patterns in my routines. I will consider what those rhythms "sound" or feel like throughout my day. I think this will be an interesting exercise.

I have a problem. You already know what it is since it's in the title. But I don't think I'm alone, especially among my peers. I struggle with consistency. I do things right one day, and the next day, I forget most of them. Today, I neglected to do 2 out of my 3 designed times. 33% isn't a very good grade ... so who has suggestions on how to be more consistent??

I know it's not much, but I've got two days of journaling down! Yesterday, I took some time to catch up in my journal, so now writing isn't such a daunting task. I'm hoping I can keep the streak going this whole week! Compliment time is also going pretty well.

As a teenager, I was really good about reading my scriptures every day. I usually did it right before going to bed. In the summer, I'd often study for a while in the mornings. Since being in college and especially since getting married, this has become much more difficult. I never imagined this would be the case, but I've come to a point where I'm not setting aside any time for scripture study. I've needed to make a change for a while now. I've tried a few things like reading while I eat breakfast, but I oversleep enough that this hasn't worked for me. For now, I'm going to design a week at a time. I think, like my designed journal time, I'm going to set an alarm. Looking at my schedule this week, I'm not doing anything at 3:15 all but one day. So I'm going to schedule it into my calendar and set a daily alarm. I'm looking forward to trying this new time!

My designed time for journaling hasn't gone well ... mainly because I've yet to write. I'm trying to figure out if it's because the time I chose isn't working for me, or because I'm just lacking motivation to write. Maybe both? I think I may move the alarm 15 minutes later because a couple times this week, I wasn't even home when it went off. We'll see if that helps.

Day 1 of my designed compliment time was a success! It was brief - I probably only took one minute to do it. But it felt good to reflect on good things I had done and good qualities I have. I'm looking forward to continuing this daily reflection. I'd like to make it a habit because it has the potential to really change me for the better.

I've decided that one of my needs is more self-love. I'm very hard on myself most of the time and it's not healthy. So to better meet my need of self-love, I'm designing a compliment time. During that time, I'll write down things I like about myself or things I'm doing well. Eventually, I'll have a big list and can spend time reviewing the good things about myself. The hard part is picking the best time for it... For now, I will do it at my first break in the day. My schedule changes every day, so I think this will help me be consistent without picking one specific time.

I didn't do a very good job with my time today, and that's because I didn't take the time to design it. So I guess this post is a reflection on why time design is necessary. When I don't have a plan, minutes whittle away. Pretty soon, the sun is setting and I didn't get much accomplished. Unfortunately, that's what happened today. If I had designed my time, I could've used this extra day off a lot more effectively. Next time...

While pondering on how I can design my time, I thought about journal writing. I started writing in my journal every day when I was 13. I was consistent until I got married. It has been pretty hit-and-miss since then because we are so busy and run on so little sleep. I miss writing in my journal and want to get back into the habit. Writing right before I go to sleep like I used to do is no longer a good option. So I've decided to design a window of time just for journaling. I'm going to set an alarm for 9:45 each night and when it goes off, I'll write. I hope it works! I'll give an update in a few days.

The next question I'll address is "How can you design your time to meet your needs more effectively?" I'm looking forward to exploring this question over the next week because I'm so busy that I really do need to "design" my time to make the best use of it. I enjoy being busy, but that requires disciplined time management and a plan for success.

Another thing I've noticed while tracking my time is how much of my time is spent looking at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. I've known social media eats up my time, but when you count all of the minutes here and there, they definitely add up! Going back to my post about using seconds ... I could get a lot more done if I used those occasional social media seconds and minutes for other more meaningful things.

I found myself over-socializing big time today. I think I probably lost more than 2 hours to socializing. I'm glad I've been tracking my time because it's given me time to reflect on where my time is really spent. I had no idea so much of my day was spent talking to friends. Visiting with friends isn't a bad thing, but all things need to be done in moderation.

Today, tracking my time helped me recognize the power of seconds. Seconds can make a difference. There are many times that I move slower than I could, or I wait to get started doing something, when if I just buckled down and worked efficiently, it would get done much sooner than I think! I want to get better at using the seconds throughout my day.

Like I said in my previous post, tracking my sleep has awakened me to the reality of how little sleep I get. I've noticed a domino effect when this happens. While I may be mentally satisfied with 5-6 hours of sleep a night, my body definitely is not. So my time in the day and week ahead is then affected. My body craves sleep, so I frequently oversleep and lose time I need to prepare for my day in the morning. I fall asleep in class and lose valuable learning time. I'm sluggish in other classes and lose work time. The time I sleep directly correlates with my success in other endeavors.

Tracking my time has helped me be aware of how terribly little sleep I get. I'm to the point where I get 5-6 hours a night. What's really sad is that I've gotten used to it. I set my alarm for the next morning and see that I'm going to get 5 1/2 hours of sleep and it doesn't really phase me. It's like I've put a filter on how I view sleeping time.

As I kept track of my time today, I noticed how much time I use talking to people. I'm an extrovert, so this didn't surprise me much. But it did help me realize that time goes by quickly when I'm chatting with people, and that's often how I lose time that was meant for homework. I talk with friends longer than I initially thought. However, I don't think it's a poor use of time because I get energy from associating with good people.

To increase my awareness of time, I'm going to track my time for a week. My prediction is that I will often barely be on time or be a little late and often times, the pattern depends on when I wake up. I tend to prioritize for school and other appointments, but sometimes school falls through the cracks. For the next week, I'll write a bit about how I noticed my time use that day.