Don't find time for everything, set time for everything...

As one of those nice IT guys, its very easy to get swamped down with a ton of different projects and tasks and forget the important things in life.  Getting overwhelmed by projects and promised found me short with my family, tired at work and generally miserable.   My solution which wasn't the right one was to eventally ignore some of the things I promised to do or just to dump them all together without giving warning to the people I promised to.

I needed to realize a different way of doing things so that the most important things got priority.  Here are some of things that I have started working on to help with this.

1.  Family -   The first thing was my family.  I had gotten into the habit of having my family work around my schedule and this wasn't right.  We had a family calendar that was shared out online.  Instead of just checking to see if there was nothing up that would interfere with what I was trying to do, I started putting my tasks in and requesting approval from the rest of my family.  It allows them to help me manage my time.  Another thing is to realize how important I am to my family.

For me, often I felt that if I was providing money to my family, that is what they wanted.  This is not true, they require my time to listen, to enjoy time with them, and to help them with their decisions in life.  What I did is when I got home, I reminded myself that once I got home, my job was to be a part of my family.  I sat in the driveway and cleared my work from my head and prepared myself to focus on what they would need from me in the evening.   When I got into the house, I was better prepared and was able to leave a lot of my work issues outside.

2.  Projects and Home business work


Having a home business is a great way to create a second way of making money, and to recover some of that money that we pay in taxes each year.  It is for me something to get me away from the computer and to develop a second hobby and a healthy lifestyle.  Right now my business is small and I am still learning how to make it work.  However, what I needed to do is give it the time that it needed to breathe.  This also required me set aside time that fit with my family yet gives me time away to enjoy it.

3.  Work

Work is where we spend the majority of our time, we have friends, we have problems, we have great successes and sometimes failures.  A lot of things happen at work that change our lives for better or worse.  It is good to share about your day at work but make sure it doesn't take over your conversations all evening.  Try to dedicate some time to discuss these things at home, but don't let it take up your whole evening.

4.  Relaxing time

I struggle with giving myself time to relax.  I spend a lot of time with a lot of other projects and found myself lonely, and frustrated thinking I was doing everything right and why did I feel miserable.  I often felt guilty about going out and doing something fun and relaxing thinking I was wasting my time.  This often made these events unenjoyable for others as well.

Making relaxing time a part of your life with your family and friends gives everybody a breath of fresh air and time away from the stressful things in life.  Book time for this, and try to include others whenever you can.  Have friends over for a games night, play video games with your kids, or go out for coffee with your spouse or friends.  Your body and mind will benefit from it.  Make sure to focus your time to things that are fun, your dreams, some goals you achieved, plan something that you want to do in the future that will be fun, even though it may take a long time to achieve.


I hope these ideas help better set time for things that will promote good health mentally and physically.  Giving time to relax and prioritizing your life will bring less stress to your life.