Are you saving something for a special occasion?

A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a
silk-paper-wrapped package:
'This,' - he said - 'isn't any ordinary package.'
He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.
'She got this the first time we went to New York , 8 or 9 years ago. She has
never put it on, was saving it for a special occasion.
Well, I guess this is it.'
He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing he
was taking to the funeral house; his wife had just died.

He turned to me and said:
'Never save something for a special occasion.
Every day in your life is a special occasion.'
I still think those words changed my life.
Now I read more and clean less.
I sit on the settee without worrying about anything and just relax.
I spend more time with my family and friends and less at work.

Money is to be spent not saved.
I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to,
not survived through.

I no longer keep anything.
I use crystal glasses every day.
I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it.
I don't save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it whenever I
want to.

I go out with my friends whenever I want to rather than thinking I don't
have the spare money or time.
The words 'Someday...' and 'One Day....' are fading away from my dictionary.

If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see it, listen to it or
do it now.
I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't
be there the next morning, this nobody can tell.
I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends.
She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels.  
She might have told everyone how much she loved them.
I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her favourite food.
It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had
come.
Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.
Live for today, for tomorrow is promised to no-one.

A technique to overcome procrastination

Quick Quote


"If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it." ~Olin Miller

A technique to overcome procrastination (1 hour of productive time)

1. Take 2 subjects/projects/areas of work which are very different, including one which you have been resisting. We will call them project A and B

2. Get a kitchen timer or stopwatch or use your mobile timer

3. Use the following sequence to work on your projects:

• Project A (5 minutes exactly)

• Project B (5 minutes exactly)

• Project A (10 minutes exactly)

• Project B (10 minutes exactly)

• Project A (15 minutes exactly)

• Project B (15 minutes exactly)



Tips to make this method work:

• Do not allow yourself to get distracted by anything else. If you do get distracted, just restart the timer from the time at the beginning of the distraction

• Be strict about stopping when the time is up - it is easier to restart something which is incomplete than to start something new

• Start the next project immediately without a gap

• Make sure the projects are quite distinct from each other

• Give yourself limited targets for each time burst (break your project down into bite-sized, manageable chunks)

• Be prepared to have unfinished work lying around. Use a plastic folder to keep it in if it's paperwork. This will give you an incentive to finish it!

PS I like having time to focus on one thing so I was seriously sceptical about this approach, but believe me, it works! Just give it a try...

If you like this, then you will like my course: http://www.balancedmum.com/Time-To-Achieve.pdf