“Take 5” To Reclaim Your Life

Okay, so I don’t mean “Take 5” in the filming sense of the words. I also don’t mean the Hershey’s Candy Bar “Take 5″…though that sounds pretty good to me about now. Oh and BTW, I see there is also a lottery game called “Take 5”. Nope not that either.

I think that only leaves the “Take 5” that represents stepping back, taking a break, trying to get a fresh perspective on things.

So who really cares about this? I don’t know. It is my own advice to myself today. While I am going to talk about this from the aspect of blogging, the idea is applicable in any part of our lives no matter what we do.

From the planning of this blog’s launch to where I am now, it has been 10 months. I know that I have said before that I took about 6 weeks to plan before launching this blog and I thought that was more than enough time. Honestly I have tried blogging before and back then I started the blog the day I decided to do it.

What I learned instead during those 6 weeks, was how much I didn’t know. What ended up happening is that I quickly became overwhelmed. When you are in the state of “overwhelm” you often give up or get lost in everything and end up learning and accomplishing nothing. You turn from one thing to another to another and well, it kind of reminds me of Lucille Ball at the candy factory. She got so overwhelmed she started hiding what she couldn’t handle….I think I have done that a few times in my life.

 

 

So before you find yourself stuffing the things you can’t handle in your mouth, I have a few ideas to help keep the assembly line of your life moving without a hitch.

Let’s Do This!

“Take 5”

1. Monitor your schedule for 2 weeks. Literally put a timer at your side and set it by the hour. This way you can quickly jot down what you are doing each hour of the waking day. No judging, just write it down whatever it is. This is for your eyes only.  Here is my FREE PRINTABLE  Take 5 – Activities Assessment  to help get you started!
2. At the end of the 2 weeks grab your list and another paper or page on your laptop or use my next FREE PRINTABLE Take 5 – Categories. Make Categories like Household, Family Time, Driving, Reading, Working, Relaxing….you can make any category you like that works for you. For example if I thought I was spending much of my time blogging, I would actually detail categories within it…like on Facebook, Writing a Post, on Pinterest, etc. I have added way more categories than you would need if you are simply pacing your day. I did that in case you wanted to get detailed within a Category you would have plenty of space to write it out.
3. Now you get to look at your results and you could even make a pie chart if you are into that sort of thing to show where you are spending your time….I always trip over that phrase “spending your time” because it is literally so true. We have a finite amount of time here on earth, we can’t earn anymore of it no matter how hard we work at it or educate ourselves or even buy anymore of it, so when you “spend your time” on anything it is gone, never to return to you again. Now look at how you “spent” your time and see how that impacts you.
4. Is it what you expected? Any surprises? Are you disappointed? This is the time for Reflection….oooh and I know you came into this being OVERWHELMED, so how can you possibly take the time to settle down and reflect? Well, sometimes you have to parent yourself! It doesn’t take but about ten minutes ( maybe just “take 5” !) to go to a room where you will have no distractions and look at your results and consider what your goals are even for the next month. Ask yourself “if I continue at this pace and in this direction, will I meet my goals?” Then comes the time to make some decisions and that is where my next FREE PRINTABLE Take 5 – Spent Time will help you!
5. So finally you need to implement what you planned and go back and evaluate it, tweak it and make it work for you so that your schedule does not overtake you and work against you.

I really started this post to tell you to schedule a “Take 5” in the “get away from it all” sort of idea through out your week and within each day. So here is a quick bonus for you that I consider a MUST to be implemented into the day, week and month.

More Printables to Take you across the Finish Line!

 Take 5 – Write It Down

Take 5 – Make the Date

Plan your “Take 5” everyday!

There is a reason we are given breaks by law at our workplaces. They aren’t just for a coffee, the restroom, etc. It is a break from what you are doing, so find something refreshing and uplifting for you. It is for our health, our posture, our eyes or hands or legs. Come up with a list of things you would enjoy and do that would make you smile and be happy in your “Take 5” time.  I love scents, I could literally take out some Oil and rub it on my forehead, neck and wrists so I could inhale it over the next few hours…just an idea. If you work from home, go outside. Lay in a lounger and close your eyes. Turn on some music that makes you sing or dance and do that for at least 5 minutes. Get creative but TAKE 5! Write them down!

Look at your week. How can you Take 5? 

I have started taking off from my social media and blogging late Thursdays and don’t come back until Sundays most of the time. There are times when I have scheduled something for those days. What I can report is a very refreshed comeback full of excitement and energy to jump back in. A great payoff for taking time off! What can you do? Write it down!

Look at your month. Is there anything that looks like you are Taking 5?

A 3 day weekend, even a movie or dinner with friends, plan something each month that causes you to break away from your routine and do something fun and different. Make a bucket list of things you can do and would want to do within 40 miles of your home and plan it out. Write it down!

Don’t Forget the Year as well!

Now we can’t always afford a vacation or even take one every year, but if you can…plan it. If you cannot take that time, go camping or on a float trip, plan a full weekend sight-seeing in your own town. This does not mean…oh it’s that weekend we are going to “Take 5” what do you want to do. No, you need to take the time to invest in yourself and plan the weekend and do something that would get you excited. The thing that just came to mind for me would be to go to a Murder Mystery Dinner, they are so fun! I love seeing actors that close and then we get to participate with them and eat great food to boot! What would you do?Write it down!

There you have it. A simple, easy to use plan to Identify Your Time Stealers, Plot Out A Plan To Meet Your Goals, and keep yourself from stuffing the chocolates in your cheeks because things started coming at you a little faster than you had planned.

I would love your feedback and to hear what your ideas for “Take 5″s would be for you!

Before I sign off, I used to try to find a song to put in my posts that spoke to the message of the post. Since this time I actually quoted a song, I most definitely wanted to put a video link to it in here. I had the privilege of being on stage with Bob Fitts many years ago at a concert in our church. None of the really awesome singers were in town and he needed and asked for an “average” alto. A moment in time I will never forget. I and a young man sang during the day with him at the conference and then that evening there was a concert open to the public and the young man was just too nervous, so here I was singing with Bob Fitts, totally nothing I deserved based on talent, but God chose to give me that gift and I will always treasure it. As I was listening to the song I was thinking how I would love a do-over because I distinctly remember him asking me if I could sing harmony above the melody line rather than what I was used to and I couldn’t. But I could totally do that now! This was one of many songs we sang that night and probably the least known of them all, but it has always stayed with me because of the message it holds.