Living Simply: Question 8

We're a society that's always rushing, always feeling like we're behind, running some impossible race that's killing us, especially through stress and our health. We tend to let distractions derail us from what we want or should be doing.

Today's question is simply this...What makes you lose track of time?

Is it because we just drag ourselves around throughout the day? Some people manage to jump out of bed, shower, eat a quick breakfast, say hello to their family, feed the pets, and get out the door, all in about an hour or so. Others get up three hours before they need to leave. Why? Because those same tasks take that long for them to do, and they still leave late, and thus spend the day rushing to get caught up. Why? What makes people lose track of time? Here are just a few suggestions:

Could it be too much time fighting the inevitable? You know you need to get up for work, or an appointment, or to take care of your family - but do you waste time in bed, literally a long time, just "wishing you didn't have to get up"? Wishing for half an hour could be potentially killing you.

Social media overload - are you late because you went into the bathroom with your phone and instead of just spending a few minutes there, you wasted an extra 15 - 20 minutes just so you could scroll through Facebook, reacting to some political rant, or watching some video of something useless but seems entertaining in the moment? That's 15 - 20 minutes you've lost. It's not coming back. What could you get done if you had an extra 3 1/2 hours a week? Take a class? Learn a new skill? Read a book that would help you improve yourself? Spend it with a person you say you care about and is desperate for time with you but you're "too busy"? Don't put off important things with time-wasters.

Maybe you're into video games. I know they can be used to relieve stress, or take your mind off work, or people think it's a way to be in a relationship with friends who game with you online, but when those games consume time daily, when you've lost hours and hours of your evening while your friends and family are sitting beside you lonely, you're falling behind instead of moving ahead, it's just an excuse and it's wasting your time.

Life goes by quickly. You only get one shot at this. To build the simple life you want, you have to intentionally choose to drop the time wasters from your life. You have to use your time wisely. I'm not saying don't take time to rest, relax, or play. What I'm saying, is don't waste the precious gift of time, because no one on their deathbed wished they'd spent more time at the office, playing games, or scrolling through Facebook. They regret not spending time with family when they had the chance. They regret traveling. They regret learning a new skill. Don't wait until it's too late. Be intentional with your time.

Living Simply: Question 7

Today's question continues our series designed to help you simplify your life and maybe figure out the direction to face when making baby steps to intentionally create the life you want. Today's question is this:

What do you want to let go of?

This can hold so much meaning depending where you are in your journey. I'll break it down to help you from being overwhelmed with too much to think about at once.

From a materialistic and practical standpoint: If you're thinking about minimalism, simplifying your life, or just removing a bunch of clutter from your home or office, where do you start? How about just focusing on what's easiest - a hall closet, a junk drawer, a utensil drawer in the kitchen, your food cabinet/pantry, going through a DVD or CD collection. Start with something small and easy to give yourself some quick success and motivation. Ask yourself a few questions:

• What in here have I not touched in a year? (or 6 months, or however short you want)
• What in here do I not even like nor want anymore?
• What in here do I have more than one of and don't need?

What in here do I use/really want to keep/or it brings me joy? (those you keep, the rest you either donate, give away, sell, or throw out). After that's done, move onto the next place, area, or go room-by-room until you're done. Maybe you'll want to do it all in a weekend, maybe it'll take you a week or month, maybe it'll be something you work on over the course of the season or year. However you choose, it will be better in the end.

Next, let's think about social media, your smart phone, the internet, and your computer. Here's a few questions to ask yourself:

• What apps on my phone do I not really need? or waste too much time using?
• What social media to I not really enjoy? 
• Am I using all the internet and services I'm paying for? Can I drop down to a lower tier of
•      TV channels, or drop a movie channel/sports package? Is there a cheaper option? Do I even       NEED cable/satellite TV anymore?

Do I have a bunch of unwanted junk stored in my computer I'll never need or even look at again? Maybe it's time to go through and dump documents, photos, downloads, etc. that are taking up space but are unnecessary. You could also save them to a thumb/flash drive.

Last, let's think in terms of your mental and physical health. Here's a last set of questions to ask yourself:

• Do I have any bad habits it's time to break? smoking? excessive alcohol? drugs? Be free.
• Did I used to collect things for pleasure but lately, I really don't enjoy collecting anymore (this can include sports memorabilia, movies, tools, anything)
• Are there toxic relationships you know you should let go of? People that are just using you for what they can get from you? Others who spout condemning words with never a nice thing to say to anyone? Someone with such a negative, bitter attitude that you're avoiding talking to them? What about that person who does the same things over and over, never takes advice from anyone, doesn't change their behavior, and doesn't want to change because they love the drama of it all? Sorry, but when someone makes the same mistakes over and over, they aren't mistakes anymore - they're choices. They're decisions.

Hopefully this will give you a good start in whatever area you desire to improve. Feel free to comment with any questions you have about any of this. I'm here to help those who want it.