Time in the wild reminds me how much of what I ordinarily do is mere dithering, how much of what I own is mere encumbrance. The opposite of simplicity, as I understand it, is not complexity but clutter.

Scott Sander

Time Management the very phrase brings panic to my heart! It sounds rigid, sterile, and full of lists, which I'll probably lose!

It doesn't have to be like that, though. Time management is all about loving the life you're in. Sure there are lots of tricks and tips to using your time better, but it's not about living 90 minutes worth of stuff in the space of an hour just for the sake of being busy.

Time is like water to the hungry man in the desert. It's rare, precious, and needs to be used wisely. However, you don't need a pocket calendar to make that happen!

The trick is to simply pay attention and live consciously. Here are some ideas using the standard Who, What, Where, When, Why model of questioning:

who is important to you? schedule together time in your calendar with these people

What do you passionately love to do? Schedule time for this at least weekly and keep it like youd keep any other appointment

Where do you want to be emotionally, intellectually, physically, in the next 10 years. Decide what steps you need to take to get there, and schedule those steps into your calendar.

When are you going to take time to care for yourself? Schedule that in your calendar

Keep asking yourself, Why am I doing this? If it's to please someone else, look good, or because you don't have anything else to do, well, those arent the best reasons.

How can you enlist the help of others to not only make this work for themselves, but to also help them to set this up for their own lives?

Time management is all about spending most of your time doing things that bring value and meaning to your life, but today there is an insidious sense that busy is good, not busy is bad. Remove that from your life right now. What could be better than having lots of time to love the people you care about and pursue the dreams you hold deep in your heart?

Once you know what you need to be spending your time doing in order to be happy and fulfilled, and serving those you love, you add time management skills to the equation to free up time from the busy-ness stuff to do them. For moms, that might be things like preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner before 10 am and using crock-pots and timed ovens so that dinner is ready and the kitchen is cleaned up when you get home in the evening. Or it might mean reducing activities in your week and spending time together as a family, or it might mean getting up half an hour earlier for some quiet meditation alone each morning so that you're more centred. Maybe time management means going for a 20 stroll everyday just to breathe and connect to the world around you.

So, start with priorities, and then add the time management tricks around them to free up most of your day for living not existing.

And remember to have fun!