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How to Spend Your Time Today
This came from a newsletter I subscribe to. Take it for what you can, I just wanted to share it...
How to Spend Your Time Today
by Michael Masterson
Unless you are working for Mr. Scrooge, you have only half a day of work today. Face your limitations.
One limitation: Next week, you, and most of the rest of your world, will be preoccupied. It won't be a good time to get a lot of conventional work done. It will not be a wise time to schedule important meetings, complicated planning sessions, or difficult negotiations.
Much better to devote your time to thinking about last year's challenges and accomplishments . . . and plan for a sensational 2005.
That's what you need -- a week without time-robbing details, emotionally sapping challenges, and depressing, can't-do-anything-about-it-anyway news. You owe yourself -- and your business -- one week of calm, reflection, and goal setting.
But it won't happen unless you plan for it.
Here's what you should do today:
1. E-mail your colleagues that you won't be functional again till after New Year's. Leave the same message on your voice mail or answering machine.
2. Let your boss know you'll be handling the important things but are going to devote most of next week to reviewing this year's work and planning for the next. Tell him he'll be rewarded for supporting your plan.
3. Create next week's agenda now. Give yourself a limited amount of time every day to handle the vital stuff -- making sure that sales are happening. But restrict your e-mail and snail-mail opening to a minimum. Try to restrict your necessary work to four hours a day. Plan to spend the rest of each day looking back and planning forward. Involve other members of your business in the process, if you like. Establishing informal, possibly out-of-the-office meetings for this purpose will keep you from taking on unnecessary busywork.
4. Leave work either early or on time. Don't linger and waste away the afternoon.
5. Some time this afternoon or this evening, find an hour to be alone. Have a cup of coffee and think about what really matters in your life. And think about all the things you should be grateful for:
Your Physical Health
Health is a gift that's valued least when it's present, most when it's absent. Get seriously ill for a day with a very bad headache or nausea and you'll quickly understand how much less important almost everything else is -- your wealth, your social standing, all the things you love to do.
Your Mental Well-Being
Happiness, as we like to say, comes from working on something you value. What do you value? How can you spend more time working on what you value?
Your Family and Friends
So easy to take for granted, yet so precious to our lives. You can get more out of your personal relationships by putting more into them. Think about the people you love the most. (You might even make a list of them.) Ask yourself, "What have I done to love them lately?" Ask less of them. Do more for them.
Your Financial Well-Being
The love of money is boring, addictive, and destructive. Wealth, on the other hand, is necessary and productive. Wealth gives you the means to accomplish what you want in life. You don't need to love money to be successful, but you do need it.
You'll soon have the chance to figure out your own wealth plan. (I'd like to think you'll use my new book, "Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence," to do so.) Today, have some fun thinking about how you'd live your life if you were financially independent.
Your Intelligence and Ingenuity
If you don't yet have the financial wealth you want, recognize that it's going to come directly from your head -- from the decisions you make and the energy you put into following up on them. Other forms of wealth -- your reputation, the loyalty of your friends, your ability to enjoy yourself -- are all enhanced by deepening your thinking and keeping those synapses firing. Make a commitment today to read more good stuff and watch less bad TV.
The Things You Enjoy
Music. Food. Sun and rain. Your new car. Your old shoes. Don't be embarrassed. Think about the things you enjoy. Recognize how lucky you are to have them and how quickly they can disappear. You've got to admit it: Life is good. And so are you.
Be good. Be strong. Be happy.
You can't determine the circumstances of your life, but you can control how you react to them. This essential liberty -- the freedom to choose your thoughts and feel your feelings -- may be life's greatest gift. Certainly, it is a gift that no one can take that away from you.
You have the freedom to change, to improve, to cherish, and to enjoy. That freedom is granted to you with every passing moment. It is granted to you now. In this moment.
And in this moment.
And in this one, too.
How to Spend Your Time Today
by Michael Masterson
Unless you are working for Mr. Scrooge, you have only half a day of work today. Face your limitations.
One limitation: Next week, you, and most of the rest of your world, will be preoccupied. It won't be a good time to get a lot of conventional work done. It will not be a wise time to schedule important meetings, complicated planning sessions, or difficult negotiations.
Much better to devote your time to thinking about last year's challenges and accomplishments . . . and plan for a sensational 2005.
That's what you need -- a week without time-robbing details, emotionally sapping challenges, and depressing, can't-do-anything-about-it-anyway news. You owe yourself -- and your business -- one week of calm, reflection, and goal setting.
But it won't happen unless you plan for it.
Here's what you should do today:
1. E-mail your colleagues that you won't be functional again till after New Year's. Leave the same message on your voice mail or answering machine.
2. Let your boss know you'll be handling the important things but are going to devote most of next week to reviewing this year's work and planning for the next. Tell him he'll be rewarded for supporting your plan.
3. Create next week's agenda now. Give yourself a limited amount of time every day to handle the vital stuff -- making sure that sales are happening. But restrict your e-mail and snail-mail opening to a minimum. Try to restrict your necessary work to four hours a day. Plan to spend the rest of each day looking back and planning forward. Involve other members of your business in the process, if you like. Establishing informal, possibly out-of-the-office meetings for this purpose will keep you from taking on unnecessary busywork.
4. Leave work either early or on time. Don't linger and waste away the afternoon.
5. Some time this afternoon or this evening, find an hour to be alone. Have a cup of coffee and think about what really matters in your life. And think about all the things you should be grateful for:
Your Physical Health
Health is a gift that's valued least when it's present, most when it's absent. Get seriously ill for a day with a very bad headache or nausea and you'll quickly understand how much less important almost everything else is -- your wealth, your social standing, all the things you love to do.
Your Mental Well-Being
Happiness, as we like to say, comes from working on something you value. What do you value? How can you spend more time working on what you value?
Your Family and Friends
So easy to take for granted, yet so precious to our lives. You can get more out of your personal relationships by putting more into them. Think about the people you love the most. (You might even make a list of them.) Ask yourself, "What have I done to love them lately?" Ask less of them. Do more for them.
Your Financial Well-Being
The love of money is boring, addictive, and destructive. Wealth, on the other hand, is necessary and productive. Wealth gives you the means to accomplish what you want in life. You don't need to love money to be successful, but you do need it.
You'll soon have the chance to figure out your own wealth plan. (I'd like to think you'll use my new book, "Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence," to do so.) Today, have some fun thinking about how you'd live your life if you were financially independent.
Your Intelligence and Ingenuity
If you don't yet have the financial wealth you want, recognize that it's going to come directly from your head -- from the decisions you make and the energy you put into following up on them. Other forms of wealth -- your reputation, the loyalty of your friends, your ability to enjoy yourself -- are all enhanced by deepening your thinking and keeping those synapses firing. Make a commitment today to read more good stuff and watch less bad TV.
The Things You Enjoy
Music. Food. Sun and rain. Your new car. Your old shoes. Don't be embarrassed. Think about the things you enjoy. Recognize how lucky you are to have them and how quickly they can disappear. You've got to admit it: Life is good. And so are you.
Be good. Be strong. Be happy.
You can't determine the circumstances of your life, but you can control how you react to them. This essential liberty -- the freedom to choose your thoughts and feel your feelings -- may be life's greatest gift. Certainly, it is a gift that no one can take that away from you.
You have the freedom to change, to improve, to cherish, and to enjoy. That freedom is granted to you with every passing moment. It is granted to you now. In this moment.
And in this moment.
And in this one, too.