You have to get a handle on all the things you have going on in your life. If you don’t know what you’re doing and where you’re going, you are going to constantly run in circles. By doing a lifestyle inventory, you get a clear picture of where and how you spend your time. Once you know this information, then you can start to evaluate all you have going on.
Do you have to be on every committee? Do your kids have to be involved in every activity? Is it necessary to be doing all the things by yourself? When you start to ask yourself these questions, you start to reframe your thinking around time and energy and you also open the door for you to fill your plate with more of the things you love and enjoy.
One of my favorite ways to do a lifestyle inventory is to get a paper plate (this can also be done as a brain dump using a piece of paper) and on this plate write down everything you have going on in all areas of your life. From there you can start to evaluate things and make adjustments. Ask yourself: “Do I need to do this?” “Does this need to be done by me?” “Does this need to be done right now?” “Is this something someone else can do?” “Is this something I can take off of my plate?”
Of course there are many non-negotiable things in life but I can almost guarantee your life is full of a lot of fluff. Cut the fluff and free your time. By cutting the fluff you find that you start to create more time for you and your goals in your life.