Managing Your Stress by Managing Your TimeAre you one of those people who wishes you had a 30-hour day? Do you long for having enough time to homeschool your children, cook gourmet meals, tend a garden,care for a large, five-bedroom house, play the piano, and sit by the fire reading a good book? The fact of the matter is many Americans today are operating under a time crunch.We simply don’t have enough hours in the day to accomplish all that we want to.The situation creates an enormous amount of stress. We may feel as if we areconstantly operating under a deadline. We may feel fatigued and frustrated, and we maywonder if we are missing out on much of life because we spend so much time “doing”and not enough time “thinking.” We’re stressed at work, stressed at home, and stressed atour son’s soccer match.The irony is, the more we do, the more behind we seem to get. We are constantlyon the run, yet we may feel as if we are accomplishing very little. As a result, our pessimism grows. We may become short-tempered, especially with those we love. Wemay feel as if we are constantly running on empty.The good news is there is hope, even in the midst of what might seem a hopelesssituation. We can get control of our lives and control of our time. It may take a little bitof effort and time, but it will be well worth it in the long run. The first step we need totake is prioritization.Many people feel as if they lack time to do the important things in life simply because they do not take the time to prioritize. Write down a list of your goals for theweek, for the year, and for the next five years. When you do your initial brainstorming,you can list the goals in any order you like. Then go through the goals and rank them inorder of importance. After that task is completed, figure out just how much time youwould need to accomplish each goal. You may find that just five minutes here or therecan make all the difference in the world in achieving the items on your priority list.Next, learn to multi-task effectively. That time you spend waiting in the line at thedrive-thru window could be spent balancing your checkbook. Or the time you spend paused at the cash register could be used to read a book or a magazine. In general, youshould not think of lines as time-wasters. Rather, consider them opportunities toaccomplish some small, yet important, tasks.In order to be effective as a worker, spouse, and parent, you’ll need some alonetime. Get an appointment book and actually schedule a block of time just for yourself.Your alone time could be spent praying, re-evaluating your priorities, charting your progress, or just fixing yourself a nice dessert. Just be sure that you have some alonetime each day. Otherwise, you’ll be shortchanging yourself, and you’ll feel more stressedas a result.
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