Page 76 - Free Yourself From

Balancing Your Work and Life 59

always to lose weight and exercise regularly. No matter what you
think your resolution should be this year and no matter how many
days are left until December 31, never mind.
Trust me, any day can be the day you give yourself a fresh start.
You can renew your focus and set a resolution on any day of the
year, and the very best day is probably TODAY!
You know what your goals are in the various parts of your life.
And you’ve set priorities to help you give each of them adequate
attention. Now comes the hard part: living your life accordingly,
despite the many people and forces that are oblivious to your new
agenda.
One of the methods I use with the women I coach is to have them
look at and work on their time budget. If you want to save more or
spend differently, the first thing a financial planner does is ask you to
look at what you spend your money on, so you can see where you
already have more of a cushion than you thought, and where you need
to cut back and reallocate your spending to optimize your budget.
Try the same approach with the hours in your day. Looking at how
you spend your time each day will show you places where you can buy
some time before you begin to reallocate your attention.
A simple hourly log will do just fine. Note every hour of your day
at work and home for two weeks. You’ll become acutely aware of all
you do and can begin to sort your time into “musts, shoulds, and
coulds.” Cutting out the coulds in one sphere of your life will give you
the time you want for the musts in the other spheres. For example,
sending an employee to represent you at a weekly late-afternoon meet-
ing that you like to attend, but aren’t required to, will give you that hour
to have dinner at home with your partner, drive the soccer team to a
game, or rejoin your girlfriends for their weekly gabfest. Maybe limit-
ing your volunteer commitments from four hours a week to two will
give you the time you are looking for to go to a yoga class or to gro-
cery shop and stock up on healthier meals.