Thrifty Time

When we think about the word thrifty, the first thought that comes to mind is using money wisely. But a"Thrifty Sissy" is wise in every area of her life. This especially applies to time. Now don't leave this page just yet. Maybe you have read a bunch of time management books or even taken a course or two in your lifetime. But still time flies away much too quickly. Even with all the knowledge we have gained it is increasingly hard to keep up with everything in the twenty four hours we have.

There is an old saying which applies as much today as it did when someone quoted it. "Inch by inch life's a cinch, but yard by yard life is hard." This is the first thing that comes to mind when I read these words: When we try to do too much, nothing much gets done. There has to be a plan, some focus, or we can become overwhelmed and give up before we ever get started.          

A example of this was Christmas with all the company, food, shopping, decorating, gift wrapping, cooking and parties plus all the regular everyday stuff it takes to live life. Even though all that extra Christmas stuff is over, how do we manage our everyday jobs which maybe out of control and overwhelming us? How do we begin to bring order back to our home and be thrifty with the time we have to make it happen?

The first thing is to start right where you are. Just handle what is right in front of you. Whether that's the trash which needs to be emptied or the dishwasher that needs to be unloaded. Just do something. Once you are in motion more than likely you will keep going. In essence it is liking digging out of a hole. You just keep scratching and you will get to the top. I have seen this recently with the Christmas put away/cleanup. It all looked like too much before I started but as soon as I did one thing I was motivated to do another, then another and pretty soon it was all done. It is easy to think things will take a lot longer to get done than they really do. For instance, the dishwasher needs to be unloaded. I can think, oh that will take too long. I don't have time to do that right now. But when I get up and do it, it only took three to five minutes. So instead letting those three to five minutes go by, I am being thrifty with my time (using it wisely) in going ahead and unloading it. In seeing how long a job really takes, we come to realize we do in fact have more time than we thought we did.

Nike has it right. JUST DO IT and let's add NOW to that slogan.

Happy "Be Thrifty" With Your Time!