Masterful Mindsets

“Balance doesn’t exist but proportion and harmony do.” ~ Danielle LaPorte

Your work. Your relationships. Your inner life.  – David Whyte calls these “the three marriages”. Each of these three marriages are nonnegotiable. They cannot be balanced equally against each other. A little taken from this and a little given to that – to balance work with relationship and with the self means we only work harder in each marriage, while actually weakening each of them by separating them from one another. These fundamental components of our existence must work to support one another, not to vie for constant attention.

We frequently and unconsciously structure our lives so that our work, our spirit and our significant relationships are set against one another in a competition of importance. Someone or something is bound to lose in this equation. When you deny one of the fundamental values of your life the attention it’s asking you for, your whole life is affected. I see it all the time, someo...

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” ~ Alan Cohen

We are coming to the end of the mini-series on how to organize your day for maximum efficiency. Today I’ll take on the last of the concepts that caused resistance from my original article. So, if you feel guilty for taking breaks or just believe you are too busy to pause during your work day, this post is for you. Because pushing yourself to keep working without taking breaks in hopes of getting more done, is actually causing you to get less done. The truth is, taking a break isn't a luxury, it's a necessity! Studies show time and time again that there are huge benefits to taking breaks - and increased productivity is just one of the many benefits.

I was talking with a colleague recently who was feeling extremely overwhelmed and overworked. She was under a deadline for a project she was working on and felt so much pressure to finish that she’d been skipping her workouts, spending l...

“Busyness is an illness of the spirit." ~Eugene Peterson

Last week I got on my soapbox about how multitasking or task switching, as it really is, doesn’t work and is just a lie we believe, which ends up sabotaging our productivity because it makes even the simplest tasks take longer to complete.

So now before we go on to the last concept that I’m going to cover for organizing your time for maximum efficiency (which I’ll talk about next week) I want to jump back on my soapbox and address a bigger issue. One that perhaps is the underlying cause of all this need to get more done.

You see, I believe that habits like multitasking are just a “symptom” of a bigger issue, which is that many people are simply busy being busy because they suffer from busyness sickness. When and if they do get caught up, they add more to their list and cause themselves to become even busier. Busyness sickness is often caused by being afraid of not being enough and failing because of it. But unfortunately, ...

“With organization comes empowerment.”  ~ Lynda Peterson

If you had a dollar for every task on your To-Do List, would you be a millionaire? If you are like most people (myself included) you probably have a million things you want to get done. But of course, the reality is that there are only so many hours in the day so you have to choose what will get your time. And if you read last week’s post, you know that choosing how you spend your time is ultimately, how you spend your life. And that… is priceless; so you must choose wisely.

You must visualize your goals and prioritize your tasks. But once you’ve done that, if you really want to spend your time well, you’ve got to organize your day with maximum efficiency. So if you are someone that has a long To-Do List that never seems to end or you have a hard time staying focused and on task, its time you maximize your time and get more done in your day.

Last week I told you I’d be writing more soon on helpful tips to organize your day...

“The decisions you make determine the schedule you keep. The schedule you keep determines the life you live. And how you live your life determines how you spend your soul.”  ~ Lysa Terkeurst

Time management isn’t just about organizing your tasks and your time. It’s about making soulful decisions. So ask yourself: Do you have a desire burning deep inside your soul but can’t seem to find the time for it? Do you find yourself feeling overwhelmed BY life but feeling underwhelmed ABOUT life? Is how you spend your time in alignment with what’s important to you?

We all have the same 24 hours in a day yet some people seem to waste their time or fill it up with things that just really don’t matter or light their soul on fire. For some it may be because they are people pleasers. So they don’t want to say no to others and consequently, put everyone else’s needs in front of their own.

For others, they may be stalling or finding distractions as a defense mechanism because they are afraid to ...

“Without gas in your car, it doesn’t matter if you know where you’re going. You won’t reach your destination. Likewise, without mental and physical energy, you probably won’t reach your goals either.” ~MW

Let’s face it, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. But some people manage to get so much more done than others. You look at them and wonder how they do it. Or more specifically, you may wonder how they have the energy to do it all!

See the reality is, often it’s not that we need more time to get things done but rather, more energy.

Do you have enough energy to get everything you want accomplished each day or do you find that you are so tired by mid-day that it’s hard to focus and finish the day strong?  

The best laid plans will not come to fruition if you don’t have the mental and physical energy needed to take action toward achieving them. That’s why high levels of energy are a key element to high levels of productivity and success.

So if you find that you often lose st...