5 Minutes That Changed My Life

Originally Posted Oct 7, 2014

Do you wake up every morning with a mountain of tasks to get done, and by the end of the day feel like you achieved nothing?

Does this feeling leave you feeling guilty, because something is always getting missed.

Or, perhaps you’re always skipping over the tasks or time that are for yourself, putting your family’s needs over your own.

If this is you, then give this a try.

For the past little while, I have been attempting to journal more, I’m not the best at it, I make it out to be something way bigger than it is.

So instead, I have been using at as a place to dump all of my To-Do’s that are swirling in my head and plan my next day.

Each night, I spend 5-10 minutes just before I go to sleep, writing everything that I think I need to get done, they can be anything from stuff that has to be accomplished immediately, tasks that I have been avoiding and others that I would like to do someday.

Everything, down to I really need to find Little E some winter boots, to I have to finish inventory orders for the clinic, and write a new blog.

Once I see them all written down, I use the direction, What is the one thing today if accomplished would make me feel proud, you can substitute proud for any word that fits, satisfied, free etc.

Just one, amidst the laundry and pick-ups and drop-off's and getting dinner on the table, because lets be real, us mom's have many non-negotiable s in our routines that have to be done. So somewhere in that day even if its only 5-10 minutes just choose one thing for you.

Once I can see everything in front of me, then I can choose how I will spend my time the next day.

I write My Next Day on the top of the page, and I start at the beginning.

I plan to wake up at 6:00 and do my beauty routine, Eat breakfast with little E at 7:00, take him to his day home, see my first client at 9:00 etc. I look for one place that I have a window, and

I feel into my To-Dos, which one if accomplished tomorrow would I feel the most proud about.

And then I choose, I make sure that I have adequate time to accomplish it, if it isn't going to fit in the time I have thenI choose the next one that will. I write it in.

I continue writing out the rest of the day, in point form of course and my day is set.

When I wake up, I’m not floundering in overwhelm, trying to figure out what I’m going to do and how I can possibly get it all done. I have one thing, that’s it, it’s calming and when its accomplished it feels So Good.

I can relax into the moment, and enjoy everything else that I have in my day, and I don’t have the list swirling around distracting me. I know that tomorrow I will get to make the choice again and it will move my life forward.

Much like writing this blog, I planned it as my one thing on Sunday afternoon while Little E naps, it won out over laundry. When it’s finished, I get to play and enjoy the sunshine and feel really proud of myself.

In the course of a week, just by doing this one thing that takes me 5 minutes at bedtime, I have accomplished more than I have in months.

One of my favourite quotes on this topic is by Tony Robbins “Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!”

For us mom's, time moves in super-speed, we overestimate and overcommit to what we can accomplish in a day and underestimate what we can achieve in a week or month.

Ps. the laundry still got finished ;)

XO

Ashley