Slow down a little and you’ll get somewhere

The Pennsylvania Dutch have a saying, “The hurryder I go, the behinder I get,” and today many of us are overwhelmed with things to do and it makes us feel tired, fatigued and stressed.

If we try to recall what we were so busy with last week, last month, or last year, we often can’t remember.

Christine Hohlbaum, the author of “The Power of Slow,” claims we can be more productive when we go slowly and learn to treat time as a friend, rather than a foe. She feels you can expand your experience of time itself simply through your mindset.

Time abundance, like time starvation, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. After all, time is something we have designed so that we have some sort of order and sense to our lives; so we can all meet up at a designated place at the same moment.

Following are some of the author’s suggestions for gaining more time in your day:

‰Manage expectations: If you always feed back to the other person what you think you have heard, there will be fewer miss-understandings; saving lots of time up front because both sets of expectations are in alignment.

‰Set your priorities: Make a note of your top items to be done each day. This prevents them from simmering in your sub-conscious and causing stress. Check them off as they are completed so you will have a visual for all you have accomplished at the end of the day.

‰Exercise: Take a twenty minute mid-day walk to get a break and a new perspective.

Movement will increase the oxygen level in your blood, which helps you think more clearly. Exercise can also help you to sustain your energy level later in the day.

‰Get enough rest: Going to bed an hour later does not expand your day. Although individuals’ sleep needs vary, you should know what amount you require to be at your best and stick to it. Irregular sleeping patterns can stress out your system as much as irregular eating habits.

‰Stop multi-tasking: The brain can’t concentrate on two or more difficult things at once.

‰Unplug: Go off line or off cell for a few days. (I have some young friends who would rather hang by their thumbs than try this).

‰Be present in the here and now: Now is all there really is.

I do think Mrs. Hohlbaum has some good pointers but before ending this column, there are a few others I would add to her list:

1. Learn to say “no” to others and to tasks that are either beyond your capacity to accomplish or that you truly dislike doing.

2. Organize your things and your time. I am not a “naturally” neat person, but I make a big effort to put things back in their place so I don’t waste time looking for them. I also try to get rid of things I no longer need or use.

As for time, I watch very little television and strictly watch how long I am at the computer; these two activities can be time stealers.

3. Remain positive and grateful for all that is good in your life. When we allow negative or “poor me” thoughts to dominate, they drain our energy and cause stress.

Over my desk, I also have a framed, sort of modernistic sketch of a girl with a balloon. Underneath the sketch, and the reason I purchased it many years ago, are the following words: “Everything changed the day she found out there was exactly enough time for the important things in her life.”

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