time

"know the true value of time, snatch, seize and enjoy every minute of it." -lord chesterfield

time is a funny notion.  we all want "more" of it and yet as rational people we already know that each day has the same number of hours, each hour the same number of minutes.  it is fixed.  so why does one day feel eternal and the next like a lighting flash?  what creates the disparity in feeling?  

the answer i think it rooted in attitude and in management.  the days i feel negative and heavy tend to drift by at a snail's pace.  there is so much that "goes" wrong. i snap at the kids a hundred times. i break a dish or spill my blueberry smoothie on the carpet.  i keep a running tally in my head of all these little ticks and snags and it garners me a boatload of exhaustion and consequently the day feels long.  on these days i let time have its way with me and i take the backseat, i don't plan and i don't pursue.  i just bob up and down and drift, moving neither forward or back.   on a happy, emotionally sunny day, time seems to fly. i'm motivated to do and see and conquer.  these are the days that i mysteriously clean my house, make stew, have a play date, send an email to a long lost friend, watch a movie with jaren, and still remember to take the garbage out and take care of the kids.  things just flow and the time zips forward.  having energy and a helping of positivity makes me manage my time better.  i can harness it and accomplish and i am pretty sure accomplishing things leads one to more happiness.  and i'm not talking Accomplish with a capital A, i just mean getting things done that you want to; crossing things off the old to do list whether it is daily chores or a creative or  professional project. there was a great quote related to this on the happiness project yesterday..."“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” --Charles Kingsley   

and right now something i'm enthusiastic about is milking my time for all its worth!  getting back to the notion of time management, i can't help but feel that limiting needless activities is the most direct way to "create" more time.  last month's project really woke me up to the idea that staying home and doing less is a path not just to leading a more frugal life, but to leading a more relaxed one and one that allows me more quality time with those i love.  i am trying to rush around less which means i run fewer errands and scale down on my socializing and the socializing my kids do.  i'm trying to focus inward on my home, my kids, my own sense of personal enrichment.  and i'm actually finding that doing this does seem to, as if by magic, create more time.  i am finally reading those books, creating crafts with my kids, having family drawing night, baking bread, organizing my fridge and my underwear drawer, creating a food inventory, starting a compost pile...so many things that i always let slip out of the agenda before because i felt too busy.  there are still many, many things left undone on my to do lists, but i really believe i'll wade through them if i keep my focus on doing less.  weird, can doing less mean i will end up doing more?