Lately I’ve been working a lot on time and money management. I’ve been doing terribly boring things like analyzing spending, minimizing expenses, and creating a budget. Staying conscious around money has always taken a lot of effort for me. Meanwhile, as I try to juggle the demands of work and family, I have this new microscope on my time. I’m always conscious that I have only so many hours and that I have to discriminate on how I use that time. So I’ve gone back to an old practice of making a list every morning of 5 things that I have to get done that day. If I get those 5 things done, I had a successful day, it keeps me on track and it’s a way to feel like I got something accomplished every day that I work.

In my accountability group (the one I’m in) my commitments are sometimes around business, sometimes around money, but most often they are things like – work out 3 times a week, no refined sugar Monday through Friday (I’m not crazy), wake up at 5am Monday through Friday (ok, maybe I am crazy). It gives me a means of measuring how I’m doing in areas of my life that wouldn’t usually get that type of focus on them. I’m meditating and doing yoga. I’m keeping a gratitude journal. I realize I’m a much happier person when I manage the things in life that matter to me, like being healthy and present for the people in my life. It energizes me so that I can face and tackle the more difficult things like my budget, or running my business, or putting myself out there.

What places in your life could use some attention, focus, management? What energizes you?