My Journey With Health And Fitness – Losing My Time Management Skills

I have a friend whom I jokingly call the angel of death because it seems like every time he calls me it is to let me know that a mutual friend has passed away. It’s almost like we do it in code now as we don’t even really say hello to each other, I just answer the call and he says a name. One time he called me and I answered with please say you are calling to tell me that you love me as I just could not handle losing another friend and he laughed because that actually was why he was calling. Yesterday’s call was to let me know a friend that I have known for over 40 years is in the ICU and unlikely to survive. That’s really not the message I wanted to hear.

When I was working my life was hectic at the best of times. My job was extremely demanding and it was nothing to put in a 60+ hour work week. My record for consecutive days of work with no time off was 49 days. And, there were times when I would be on the road for weeks only coming home with enough time to do laundry and repack. You add to that doing volunteer work and dealing with family health issues and you will understand that I had to be very efficient at everything I did. I became a master at managing my time and sometimes planning my days right down to the minute (I should note, I would do that even when on vacation so that no time was wasted).

I’ve found recently that those important time management skills seem to have disappeared. I know I still keep myself busy but I started noticing that I seem to constantly feel like I am overbooked. Part of it is because I spend up to 2 1/2 hours a day doing workouts. You add to that volunteer work and some work for my business and my time is tapped out. I’m already getting concerned that I am way behind where I normally am in preparation for Christmas. By this point in December I usually have all my shopping done and gifts wrapped. Right now I am trying to figure out when I am going to have enough consecutive hours in a single day to get the shopping done. Wrapping may be sporadic based on having a few minutes to deal with a gift or two. This is starting to get me a bit stressed out as I don’t know how to get it all done.

I have decided to take a big breath and regroup. If I could do all of this while holding down my insane job then surely I can manage it now that I don’t work 12 hours a day. Time to start mentally scheduling my days and keeping my white board to do list up to date. Monday I have a couple hours in the afternoon to get the shopping done which can be accomplished by preparing a list of what I am buying for each person and what stores to shop in. I can use my evenings to do things like gift wrapping and prepping the house for next Sunday’s dinner party. Ok, I’m already starting to feel a little more relaxed and I have more confidence that I can get it all done.

All I needed was to write this blog so that I saw a plan taking place. Hmm, maybe I haven’t lost those time management skills after all, they just needed to be dusted off a little.