Getting the most out of Life
Do you feel that you’re getting the most out of your day to day life? Are you doing the sorts of things that you really want to do? Or does the week pass by in a blur only to enjoy those precious two days on the weekend?
For many of us we live our lives from minute to minute dealing with our work, housework and life in general and we don’t make time for those things that truely make us happy. So sometimes it’s helpful to stop and take stock of life and figure out how you spend your time.
The Life Laundry Exercise
This is a powerful tool that you can use to assess your life. It will take a few minutes of your time, but those few minutes can help you to reassess what you are doing and make sure that you are getting exactly what you want out of your days. Making sure you know what balance you want to achieve. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you automatically achieve that balance, right now, you may need other tools to help you with that. This is just a very good place to start!
And remember, this exercise can only help you if you actually do it! Just reading it doesn’t count!
How to do the Life Laundry
Step one Take your life-changing notebook, and note how you spend the minutes of your day. Notice how much time you spend checking emails…. Yes, and those web distractions.. (How do we resist when we have this wisdom at our fingertips!) How much time you spend having just one more cup of tea, watching the soaps you know you don’t even like etc, browsing the junk mail and all those other distractions that prevent you having time to totally love the life you lead.
e.g. 7am – 7.30 Up washed and dressed
7.30—7.35 Dancing like no-one can see me
Make sure you include all those lost minutes which seem to slip by in between activities. And add a love heart to all those activities which are done just to make you happy.
Step two At the end of each day allocate the activities to categories. E.g. exercise, fun,
eating, domestic chores, actively loving my children/friends, working, sleeping etc. – whatever is relevant. Next just add up the time spent doing each.
Step three Then at the end of the week, take the time to convert the time spent on each category into percentages of a 24 hour day and plot onto a pie chart. Otherwise just divide a circle into 24 and colour in how much time you spend on each activity.
Step 4 Now Ask yourself …
Does my circle look how I would like it to look?
What am I doing that is already my ideal life…. Appreciate this.
What is the most important thing in my life?
Do I deserve more time?
What makes me happy? Do I allocate these things enough time?
What steps am I taking to achieve my goals? Am I doing something everyday towards this?
Now we know what you do and what you don’t do we can take action to make sure your choices bring you what you want to do!
In conclusion
The great thing about this tool is that it is not all about what you can do differently.
It is also about appreciating the things that you are already doing to achieve the life that you want.
These are things that you can build on to get you even more of what you want.
If you’d like some assistance in making your life the way you want it to be then why not book a consultation with Hayley Jones and let her help you discover what you really want in life.
