A life-changing event, such as preparing your home to sell, can cause us either joy or heartburn. Our outward show of nervous excitement is a mask for feeling out of sync with managing our time.
One of the solutions mentioned in the post, Essential Tips to Manage Separation Anxiety During Home Staging, is time management as a means of keeping anxiety in check.
Time management is more than just formula steps to control day to day activities. It is the value we place on calendars.
“Humans lost track of the present when they invented time.” ~ Elder Ilarion Merculief
As the rigors of the corporate world continuously blur the line between work and home life, the choice of efficiency over a personal connection is a bad trade.
As a result, we take for granted what really matters in our daily lives. This leaves us feeling mentally drained. We have become numb to the maladies of our physiological health. We look at the amount of effort invested and yet, our accomplishments feel empty
A Throw, A Dock and a Sunset
Work/Life balance is now a catchphrase. Weekends used to be occasions to connect with friends and family. Going for ice cream meant sitting and talking; not zooming through a drive-thru in hopes of beating traffic.
Wouldn’t you love to escape to a dream home just for the view? Let your attention fall onto the gentle, warm breeze wrapping your skin as you look out on the calm waters.
While we may not have a lakeside home to escape to, we can certainly create one in our future home. This means making good use of our time, however, simple.
By Any Stretch: Elasti-Time
According to Thoughts.co.com, the definition of time is as follows: Physicists define time as the progression of events from the past to the present into the future. The human brain is equipped to track time.
Time flies because there is too much focus on productivity. When we’re shuttling between open houses, bank appointments, meeting with real estate lawyers and realtors, dentist appointments, swimming lessons, and business meetings, are we normalizing being busy – a state of ‘always on’ so to speak?
We often associate being busy as part of our self-image. Being busy for the sake of being busy isn’t always true.
Idle is a Four-Letter Word
The need to constantly be busy is mismanagement of our time.
The irony though is we hate having full schedules, and still think ‘busyness’ is honorable because we are drawn by the fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO is setting us up with false illusions of ourselves.
Do you feel the need to do something as though being idle is somehow wrong?
There’s something to be said for closing your eyes and just being at home with relaxing.
Idleness is your recharging battery.
Do you notice how good it feels when you have a food fight with your kids, throw a frisbee with friends, or share a laugh with a grandparent?
These present moments form the memories of your perception of time.
Balancing on the Tightrope of Time
Time moves in one direction. Organizing how you spend your day, will give you space to:
- Think more clearly
- Plan
- Be fully present with your priorities
The value we place on time is best illustrated in this story (posted on www.speakingtree.in).
The essence of the story is to focus on where you’re placing your priorities in the context of time. How are you defining your larger priorities? If family, children, friends are your priority, then, these are the rocks which ground you. These are immovable. When the sky is falling, take a breather and engage with creative activities – build a sandcastle, stroll through a park, visit a local jazz festival or see a movie.
Pebbles are those stubborn things that get lodged in your shoe. You know it’s there, and regardless of how you shake your shoe, you’re unable to shake it loose. So, you hobble and limp along until the pebble wears down or you wear down (for example the grind from your job, mortgage payments, car maintenance, unfinished gardening, home renovations etc.).
The sand will distract you with filling the empty moments with the number of likes on social media, the gel that does nothing for your hair, manicures, haircuts, and the number of hot dogs you can eat in five minutes.
There will always be pebbles and sand.
If neglected, your rocks continuously erode and reshape over time.
You want to be the one to shape those rocks into loving moments.
Go Slower Than an Hourglass
The inability to time-manage can pull you in many directions. As mentioned earlier, an event like moving homes requires you to sort through a lot of details. When the tasks associated with moving leaves you pressed for time, delegate the difficult tasks of decluttering and organizing with the help of a home stager and organizer.
While they handle this, you can find healing in connecting to what matters most to you. You’ll have endless creative energy. You can do more physical activities, try a new recipe, move closer to completing a personal project.
Or you can simply imagine being in the sanctuary of your new home – smelly socks, burps, snores and all with those you love.
When you can look at your accomplishments, time seems to stand still.
What we are really seeking is a better use of our time.
Pick a room that needs staging or decluttering. If it’s interfering with the time that can be better spent, call a Certified UltimateStager™ (USC™), and Ultimate Professional Organizer™ (UCPO™).