{"id":1665,"date":"2013-12-23T11:32:34","date_gmt":"2013-12-23T16:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/?p=1665"},"modified":"2013-12-30T11:33:28","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T16:33:28","slug":"resolve-to-take-back-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/2013\/12\/resolve-to-take-back-your-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Resolve to Take Back Your Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo:

Photo: Jeff McNeill via flickr<\/p><\/div>I don\u2019t have time to exercise because I\u2019m too busy.\u00a0 I can\u2019t spend time with my husband because I\u2019m staying late at work.\u00a0 I won\u2019t be able to see a doctor until February because I\u2019m never free on Mondays.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many times have you used a version of the above statements?\u00a0Chances are, you tell yourself or someone else \u201cI don\u2019t have time for that\u201d on a daily basis.\u00a0My life changed when I decided to stop thinking about my schedule as filled with commitments the universe has shackled me to, but rather as choices I\u2019ve consciously made<\/i> about how I spend my time, and therefore what\u00a0 I see as a priority in my life.<\/p>\n

Intentionally selecting the language you use to describe your commitments alters the way you view your time. Today is a great example.\u00a0It\u2019s the Friday before my annual winter vacation and I\u2019m filling every spare second with tasks.\u00a0A friend has asked me to join her for lunch, but I\u2019ve planned to go jogging with my puppy to get some exercise in before a long plane ride to the west coast.\u00a0I could tell the friend simply \u201cI can\u2019t. I\u2019m too busy,\u201d but that\u2019s not exactly true; my decision to jog is not irreversible.\u00a0Instead, I tell the friend that I would love to see her, but I am going to spend my lunchtime jogging because today, exercise is really a priority.\u00a0The latter statement feels much different to me than \u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0It lets my friend know a bit more about what matters to me while keeping me honest about the fact that I\u2019m choosing exercise above spending time with a friend in this particular instance.<\/p>\n

Talking about your commitments as choices also helps to illuminate what decisions you might be making that don\u2019t align with your priorities.\u00a0As the author of this HBR blog post<\/a> points out, the ability to say no sometimes is a valuable skill.\u00a0I recently had a conversation with a former classmate who told me that she can\u2019t ever spend time with her spouse because she has to work extra hours every night. I wonder how she would have felt had she stated that she chooses<\/i> to devote evenings to work rather than family.\u00a0Perhaps that\u2019s exactly in line with her priorities (fine by me, if so!). But if not, this might be an eye-opener for my classmate and a call for her to make some changes so that the way she spends her time aligns with her priorities.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are always trade-offs. You may value time with your kids over your job, but your job allows you to provide the family with necessities such as food and shelter. No one would disagree if you said that was non-negotiable. However, it\u2019s empowering to apply this frame of thinking to the parts of your life where you may have a little more wiggle room.<\/p>\n

If your new years resolution list includes achieving more balance in your life, I offer this post as a tool to help you consider how you are consciously choosing to spend your time.\u00a0Remember, you don\u2019t really HAVE to do anything but breathe in this life.\u00a0Everything else is a choice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t have time to exercise because I\u2019m too busy.\u00a0 I can\u2019t spend time with my husband because I\u2019m staying late at work.\u00a0 I won\u2019t be able to see a doctor until February because I\u2019m never free on Mondays. How many times have you used a version of the above statements?\u00a0Chances are, you tell yourself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,129],"tags":[64,213,130],"coauthors":[22],"class_list":{"0":"post-1665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-about","8":"category-nas-experience","9":"tag-language","10":"tag-time-management","11":"tag-wellness","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}