Life in Harmony

I have said it before, and I will say it again…

Time is an unstoppable, non-renewable resource. We can’t create more, we can’t dictate its progression rate, and we can’t stop it.

It moves at the same rate for every person on the planet – one millisecond at a time. No one gets more time in a day. No one can stretch an hour into two (although wouldn’t that be a nice trick!)

What we can do is use it wisely, be productive with it, and not end up with the crisis of “no time”.

In my life and business this takes 2 distinct things:

1. Creating Harmony between the various aspects of my life
2. Recognizing the demons of productive time (and avoiding them)

“There is no such thing as work life balance, it is all life” – Sadhguru

Life of Harmony

Think about it, in a piece of music there are several things happening all at once: The percussion, the bass, the strings, the other instruments, the vocals, the lyrics…all working together, layered on top of one another to produce a beautiful song.

There may be a guitar riff, or a drum solo, or an acapella piece that takes the spotlight for a moment, but it is still in harmony with the entire piece.

It is when one aspect gets off key, or rushes ahead (or falls behind) that we get anxious, stressed, or an array of other emotions.

When a musician sets out to write a song they first determine their boundaries – what genre will it be in, what key signature, what instruments will be used. We too have to set boundaries. Just like a song, when everything stays within the defined boundaries we have set for our lives, we produce a symphony of joy, success, and happiness.

What are your boundaries? Think about your core values, what you want to be known for, what you want from your life. What you are willing to do and not to do, participate in and not participate in.

For me – I want to be available for my family first and foremost…so that means I have to plan my schedule around the activities that are important to all of us. This means I say NO to working nights and weekends, I reduce my client load around the holidays and summer break. It has been pre-determined how many 1:1 monthly clients I am willing to work with each season so that I can keep my schedule clean.

On the ‘time-saving’ side I have a wonderful lady that cleans my home (which saves me from about 8 hours a month having to do this dreaded chore). I have many systems and automations in place to help run my business and I don’t engage in very many one-on-one-get-to-know-you meetings, I group 3-5 people together to better use the limited time that I have allotted to this activity.

I try to stay at about a 4-hour workday, and there are certain days of the week that I don’t schedule client work, this gives me time to work on the business, complete projects, or simply have some moments to myself.

My way isn’t your way. You have to find your way – here are a few things to think about:

SAY NO

• To working nights and weekend
• To putting family on the back-burner
• To over-extending your client base beyond the hours you want to work
• To letting others have control of your schedule
• To activities that don’t match your values and intentions
• To creating deadlines that are going to put you under the gun
• To multitasking as your norm (that is like playing multiple board games with multiple people at the same time)

SAY YES

• To an intentionally planned schedule that leaves you time to think and act – flexibility is great but often results in loss of productive hours
• To primarily staying in your circle of expertise – and hire out/get help with other areas
• To being strategic with your growth initiatives  and activities
• To being held accountable by others (both personally and professionally)
• To being attentively engaged in whatever is at hand (when you are home/with family be attentively engaged, and when you are at work be fully engaged – divided attention creates distraction, inefficiencies and often chaos)

Boundaries are a great first step, but you also need to be able to recognize the demons to your productivity and attention. Again, yours may be different than mine, but here are a few common ones:

Multitasking

Seems like a good idea – right? You can cook, read/respond to that email from your client, and answer your child’s questions about his math homework all at the same time. Really? Chances are the food gets burned, you send a response that is not your best foot forward, and even if your child now understands his math, he didn’t get the experience of YOU being fully engaged in him. Not really a Mom-Win.

Remember, busy doesn’t equal productive or successful. It is not a badge of honor.

Switch Tasking

A bit different the Multitasking. This leaves projects ½ done, or ¼ done, or worse – 96% done! You get so close to completing a task and in your excitement, you think – “I’ll just finish this up in 5 minutes later.”

Now you have a laundry list of almost-done things that alone are not overwhelming but the combined certainly is! Mom always said, “A job worth doing is worth doing well…and completely.”

Don’t focus on the next – focus on the now and get it done, completely.

Domino Effect

Yep, you guessed it – you start on one thing, which reminds you of another…so you head down a rabbit trail, then another, then another, until you forget what you were actually working on to begin with.

Social media is a big culprit to this, as is Google! You start doing something and need to look something up – so you do. While you are there something catches your eye and off you go – down into LaLa-Land of the internet, reels, and posts.

Or, in the 3-D world, you start a project like locating an important document, which requires straightening your desk/filing/etc., which leads to cleaning out the office closet…then the attic. Before you know it you have straightened 20 years of your life and STILL haven’t found that document you were originally looking for.

Squirrel!

Indecision-itus

This is probably the most damaging demon of productivity…the inability to make a decision, so instead you spend hours researching, contemplating, or stressing over the right thing to do. Sometimes you have to just choose. If you have clear core values, clear boundaries, and clear priorities simply base your decision on these. NOT choosing, NOT making a decision, IS making a decision and 9 times out of 10 an indecision is worse than no decision at all.

Wishing and Hoping

That never got anyone anywhere. You can wish you had more time, you can hope for an outcome or result, you can blow out every candle, pick up every penny, toss change into every water feature and wishing well…but wishing and hoping is a demon in disguise. We need to dream, and to imagine, but then ACT rather than trying to wish and hope something into existence.

How do we maintain our boundaries when the unexpected happens? So how do we avoid a priority crisis?

Again, it comes back to keeping the Harmony, staying focused, making decisions, and keeping things in perspective.

When a disruption arises first determine if it is (1) urgent crisis or (2) a simple distraction.

How do you make that determination? Ask yourself these 2 questions:

1. Is someone in harms way (is it life/death)
2. Is it necessary to focus on it based on my core values (family first, integrity, etc.)

Beyond that you have to weigh it against your boundaries and the prioritization of activities you have predetermined to maintain the Harmony in your life.

Ask yourself…if I immediately shift my focus to this disruption do I inflict harm on…

…my family

…my income producing activities

…my growth activities (personally or professionally)

…my reputation and integrity

If the answer is no, don’t elevate the disruption to an all-alert media event that requires every resource to be thrown at it.

We all have a set amount of time in each day, no one has more, no one has less. It is what we choose to do with each minute, each hour, each moment of the day.

I encourage you to write your own song, blend your own harmonies, find the right key signature, the right genre, the right cadence for your unique symphony. Therein lies your boundaries – adhere to them, honor them and hold yourself not only accountable to them but also responsible for keeping the Harmony.