Thought for today:

Our philosophy here on this blog is that there is plenty of time, money and love in the universe, that it is up to us to use the abundance we have been given.

Two things will endlessly eat up time, money and love: Spending time on things that aren’t important, and spending time fretting over problems that are too big to solve.  So knowing what is important is a skill we should master.

A member shares:

“I used to spend so much time doing meaningless things.  I would watch TV for hours and get so board and depressed I couldn’t do anything else.  Or I would do ‘make work’ projects to keep busy.  Meanwhile, my home was heading into foreclosure….

“Oh I used to plan a lot… I’d have so many lists I had to have a list to keep track of them!  Then I learned a little about time debting, and I realized I was not focusing on what I really wanted out of life.

“I had been so overwhelmed and worried by life, that I didn’t realize I could trim a lot of what I was worried about.  So much mental clutter had accumulated as a result!

“Today I let go of a lot of my mental baggage by using the Steps and Tools, and by studying time debting.  As a result, I keep it much simpler.  In fact, ‘Keep It Simple’ is my favorite slogan!”

Four ideas that will help eliminate time debting:

1. Cut out fat.  The Pareto Principle (a.k.a. the 80%:20% rule) reminds us that we should continually focus on the 20% of our actions that deliver 80% of our results.  If 20% of our customers give us 80% of our profits, this rule hints that we should focus on attracting and prioritizing more customers like those 20%.
2. Break down what’s left into small chances.   Parkinson’s Law tells us that we should break down work into manageable chunks, because work expands to fill the time allotted.  Each time you hit a brick wall, say an affirmation like “I am committing to doing this today.”  Then get creative, listing all the sub-tasks that will get you what you need.
3. Limit your to do list to the “rule of five”.   Limiting your list of “To Do” items helps you focus on what really matters.  Spend time to mentally move all but five items off of the list.  Put non-essential items on the back burner.
4. Learn Kanban.  A great tool to help you focus on those five items is  Kanban.  Kanban is a simple process started by Toyota Motor company in the 1940s and 50s to help workers focus on total quality of the product.  You simply create a chart with four columns – To Do, Planning, Doing, and Done.  Each item you need to do is put on a post it pad, in the To Do column.  It stays there until you are ready to plan it, when you move it to the Planning column.  After you are done planning and are ready to do it, you move it to the Doing column.  When you are done, it goes to the Done column.

Results:

When we focus is the main things of life, time is our friend.  We have plenty of it, and we can be generous with it.

Ask:

Have I found my niche where my time is best spent?

Meditation for today:

When you focus on one thing (such as your breath) in a guided mediation, your mind will naturally race.  That is the nature of the mind.  The discipline of meditation is to gently guide your thoughts back to the one thing.

Affirmation for today:

“I have plenty of time, plenty of money, and plenty of love.  I accept and receive this abundance gratefully, and spend it wisely.”

Follow Through: 

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