In a world of multitasking and a fast-paced economy, allocating your time and energy to what matters is critical. This is especially true if you are working full-time, attending college, maintaining a home, and trying to find time to integrate a social life as well.
All these facets are essential in order to live a purposeful life; however, figuring out how to juggle them successfully can be challenging. That is why finding a way to measure how you spend your time is as necessary as finding a way to invest some of your energy in activities that can improve your mental health.
One area of interest is how you manage your energy since energy can be limited on a daily basis. For example, if you spend your energy complaining about traffic and the weather, you might not have enough energy left to finish your job tasks and come home to attend to your loved ones.
How can you attend work and school while still returning home with enough energy to enjoy family time? These three tips can help.
1. Decide in the morning what kind of day you want.
The fact that you wake up in the morning is in itself a thing of celebration for many reasons, including the opportunity to decide what kind of day you want.
To have a good day means waking up with a heart full of gratitude, creating a space (by your bedside) in the morning to sit and meditate or reflect on how blessed you are in spite of everything else.
Some people start their day with a prayer, taking some time just to thank God for having breath in their lungs and having the ability to hear, see, touch, smell, or remember where they are at the moment.
Others reflect while brewing a cup of coffee, prepare for their day with a positive affirmation, or listen to music to get their mind and body ready for the day.
The whole idea is to have a strategic daily routine. It starts by deciding what kind of day you want from the menu of the universe. Never leave home without placing an order from the universe for the kind of day you want; otherwise, you will leave your day to happenstance.
The part of your day over which you have the most control is the way you respond to other people and to what happens around you. For example, if you decide to be polite to people no matter what, then any opportunity that comes your way to practice politeness will fit right into your plan.
2. Attend to those things that matter.
An intentional act as simple as reminding yourself to be a defensive driver is significant. It would help you to be mindful of reckless drivers and never allow any type of driving to upset you because what matters every day is to come home safely to your loved ones.
While at work or out in the public space, you make a conscious decision to be cordial and considerate no matter what. Whether in a boardroom, serving at a restaurant, babysitting, door dashing, or working in an assembly line, you can maintain the same demeanor without allowing anybody or any situation to distract you from what matters to you.
Most daily disagreements ensue when you take your focus off what matters to you (safety, professionalism, being considerate, cordial, respectful, etc.). Once you are conscious of what matters to you, it becomes more difficult to lose your cool over anything. This simple exercise keeps you regulated all day without any unhealthy stresses.
Even if there are pressures and stressful situations in the workplace, you can still remind yourself to focus on what matters. At the end of the day, you will stay true to yourself and the decisions that you made in the morning before starting your day.
3. Be grateful for how your day ends.
As you successfully go through the day without losing your mind or doing things that you will later regret, you will accomplish your goal of coming back to your loved ones in good spirits.
Remember, you are not responsible for what people think about you. Rather, you are responsible for how you respond to what happened to you.
The most important battle to fight daily is the battle of the mind. How you conduct yourself in stressful situations determines the kind of person you are. And to get a better start, you have to have a plan in the morning for how to manage yourself.
After you arrive home, you can reflect on your day, maybe while taking a shower or eating dinner, and be grateful that you made it home safely. Greeting your loved ones in good spirits gives you that wonderful feeling of accomplishment.
As you go to bed for the night, you can calm your mind by counting your blessings and even naming some of them before dropping off to sleep with a peaceful mind.
Life in itself is already hectic enough; don’t make it any more difficult by not planning your day from the beginning. To have a shot at having a good day, you have to decide what kind of day you want by intentionally deciding how you want your day to play out, focusing on what matters to you throughout the day, and coming home with a heart full of gratitude.
If you practice these few things, you will have a shot at having a wonderful day, even in the midst of an uncertain world. Just remember, what makes your day good is how you plan ahead and stick to your plan or adjust as necessary—but the intangible responses are what make life more interesting.
