Fiber Biz Success Tips: Getting Time on Your Side (plus Giveaway Winner)

I don’t know one person who doesn’t struggle with the issue of finding time for everything they have to do, need to do, want to do. 

I grew up in a mostly orderly environment — lots of routine.  Monday was wash day.  Tuesday was a day for housecleaning.  Wednesday was grocery shopping.  Dinner was at 5:20 PM every night.  My life is not like this now!

For many of us, maybe even most of us, life is chaotic, often hectic and perhaps even over scheduled.  And, fiber…we fell in love with fiber…and in many cases, its presence grew bigger and bigger in our lives.  Maybe a side business or even a full time business came into being as a result.  And, our creative time faded off into the distance…

We are all graced with the same amount of time every day.  A long time ago, I set out to find out how other people seemed to be squeezing the juice better out of their time.  I talked to several friends that I considered successful in their lives and asked them what was their system or secret.

I did not get back good answers.  And, while that didn’t help me immediately, it did make me continue on to figure it out for myself.  I did all the normal stuff I do when I’m trying to figure something out:  I read books, took classes and looked at stuff online.  I started experimenting with what I learned.  And, some of it actually worked for me.  I am fairly certain I have made strides because I get asked or hear comments about this pretty often (“How do you get so much done?”). 

So, I am going to share a bit of an overview here as to my current techniques (this is evolving work, keep in mind) and then this summer, Suzy and I will do a broadcast where I can go into this in greater depth.  My hope is that I can stimulate your thinking a bit on this topic because any positive step someone can take in this part of their life can really pay big dividends — whether that be greater financial rewards or life enjoyment or both!

There’s a lot to this and I’m only going to lay out two big concepts in this post.  The first is that around the old adage that you are only as good to others as you are to yourself.  I’m talking specifically about your health and well being.  If I really took care of myself, in all the ways I would like, I would never get anything else done so that means I have to hone in on what is really crucial.  And, for me, what is really crucial is REST.  That comes first.  That is at the top of my list everyday and it has to be something extremely urgent or important for me to ignore.  In my world, this means going to be early enough to get up naturally, without an alarm clock, it means no caffeine after about 2 PM in the afternoon, and it might mean wearing ear plugs, if I’m travelling.   After rest, I have a list of my self care priorities and I do my best to work them in depending upon their level of importance.  One thing to note is that I’m aware of what they are and if they aren’t things I practice on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, I think about how I might work something else in.

The second concept is identifying roles  and organizing your to do’s around them.  In my case, I have my responsibility to myself and my environment as a role, my role here at FG, my role at my day job, my role in relationship to family and friends.  It really helps me to identify what I need to take care of by just thinking about myself in these roles.  I like to see my to do lists organized this way.  I am much less likely to forget tasks then when my mind has to skip all around.  Hint:  I also tend to work on my tasks the same way — I will sit down and take care of a lot of Fibery Goodness stuff all at once and then perhaps move onto a list of house chores instead of hopping back and forth. 

These two concepts are really my bedrocks.  While you may not follow this as formally as I do, even just taking a little time and thinking about this stuff can pay dividends for you.  More on this later!

Now, we have a giveaway winner to announce….Ardis Lunn, come on down!!!  You may select enrollment in either Sock School, Beautiful Bulkies, or No Rules Weaving!!!  Thanks to everyone for their interesting comments and so many lovely shares! 

Catch up with you again soon, until then, All my Fibery Best, Arlene