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Alysia Stern has been writing for years. She is the mother of teenage twins, a published children's book author, and a humanitarian. Her passion in life is feeding the homeless and helping our Veterans. Alysia is an activities coach for the local senior citizens and enjoys making them laugh TrendingNow247@gmail.com |
| If you’re not on social media you may be considered out of touch. I must admit, I have lost hours each week caught up in everyone else’s life on social media but my own. I would spend my entire lunch break scrolling through my friend’s extra curricular activities and food pictures. One day, I tried to figure out why I had no time to do certain things in my life. We all have eight hours of work, sleep, and free time. Why were my eight hours of, “free time” becoming more like three? I started keeping a time journal. I wrote down everything I did in my eight hours and that’s when the light bulb went off. I gave away my day to social media. I wasted too many hours each week commenting on Joe’s steak dinners, Lila’s mountain climbing and Connie’s baby pictures. I recorded, edited and shared too many videos of my dogs. Seems innocent right? Well, truth be told, I was robbing myself of productivity and valuable time. I decided that I wanted to make my three hours of free time eight again, so I became a pilot. Before a pilot takes off on the runway, he/she makes a checklist. Pilots use checklists for: both (normal and non-normal) operations, routine situations, malfunctions, and emergencies…pretty much for everything. I bought a notebook and recorded every move I made. After five days, I evaluated my energy and where I could improve to make more time for things. Once I figured out where I had been unproductive, I created a checklist to add structure to my malfunctions, strength to my routines, and peace to my emergencies. My pilot journal started off daily at 6am with a cup of coffee and ten things that I was grateful for. Once I completed my gratitude exercises, I wrote my goals/checklist for the day and checked them off as they were completed. I was NOT allowed to go on social media until my goals were met. The more structured I was, I found that I had become a more productive, joyful and agile woman. I’d taken back the time that was lost and I was genuinely happier. If you’re finding that, you too are losing valuable personal time, try a pilot’s checklist. Give yourself some power hours and keep track of your days. Then, create a strict checklist and complete it daily. Reward yourself only when your list is complete. You’ll be amazed how an old school, black and white, speckled notebook can bring back sanity, joy and most of all…time. |
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20 lucky winners will win $500 each in prizes totaling $10,000. 