I give you permission to think of yourself here and remove yourself from any commitments that used too fit you but don’t anymore. Have you always been a table leader at your Bible study but when you think about the coming season you cringe? Back out. Just because you’ve always done something or you’ve been a part of it for x amount of time doesn’t mean it’s right for you in this season. Question all reoccurring events and commitments. 10 Ways to Declutter Your Calendar & Get Intentional With Your Time And I have to say I did a happy dance when I ended up with TEN perfect things, because I’m a huge dork. > Note: I’ve always wanted to write a “10 things” blog post but I never end up with ten things (I think everyone else is forcing it because they always end up with the perfect ten). There are a few things I’ve learned about decluttering my calendar, clearing the chaos in my schedule, and being truly intentional about how I’m spending my time. Spontaneity has little to do with it.Īs someone whose life is generally insane (I have four kids under eight, I homeschool and run my own business from home- not bragging, it’s that busy all on its own), I’ve had to really get serious about how I’m spending my days and what goes on my calendar. What would happen if you started telling your time where to go and removing the things on your calendar that don’t line up with your end goal? This doesn’t mean you have to become a Type A personality who lives by the schedule (that freaks me out and I could never not be spontaneous) but the fact is that if you want to live an intentional life, you have to plan to be intentional. We need to stop being victims of what everyone else is doing, stop filling our calendar so dang high, and start asking ourselves if our schedules reflect the life we want to have lived when we’re eighty. If you don’t have time to take care of yourself and do things that bring you joy, you’re going to end up overworked, unhappy, and quite possibly depressed. We are missing the point and it’s really hurting our world. We are becoming less available to ourselves and less available to the people around us. You no longer have time to take a walk, read that book you bought on Amazon two months ago, have coffee with a friend (and have more to talk about than how terribly busy you both are), or listen to your daughter talk about the girl who hasn’t been so nice to her at school. When you fill your calendar, you spend all the in-between time getting ready for the next scheduled event. The thing is, when you allow yourself to get so busy, your life begins to happen to you and you’re not really living it anymore. When everyone else is doing something I think it’s only natural to feel like you’re somehow inept if you’re not also doing that thing. It felt like I was making up for being useless for seven years of at-home motherhood, even though I pride myself on believing that that role is the most important role in the universe. I found myself bragging about all the meetings I was being asked to be in and all the tasks on my to do list. I felt it especially when I was transitioning from being a stay-at-home mom to a work-at-home mom and starting my company. I’ve felt the need to appear busy to avoid feeling somehow less-than. It’s not that I’m a saint here or anything. “Oh tell me about it! Every Wednesday night I’m shuffling my daughter to piano lessons, my son to baseball practice, and my other son to karate!” I’ve been in conversations with other women who are literally comparing how busy they are with an urgency so great they can barely let the other person finish a sentence before jumping in to one-up them. We live in an age where busyness is worn like a badge of honor.
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