What To Do When It Feels Like Time is Flying By

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Are you wondering how the hell it’s this far into the year already?

I have to confess I’m having that feeling at the moment. I feel like time is flying by.

Last year was completely different. At this time last year, I had a good relationship with how the year was progressing. I had my finger on the pulse regarding the passing of time.

I felt like time and I had a good relationship going on.

This year has been the complete opposite. Each day is blending into the next, each week is flying by and I feel surprised when a new month commences.

Is time flying by for you?

Here are my time tips and yep you can bet I’ll be implementing these babies myself!

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Make sure you have a plan for every month

If you don’t have a clear plan for what you want to happen, a month can simply fly by.

If you have a set plan, it won’t slow down time but if you stick to the plan it will make you feel like you have achieved something significant over that period of time.

Achieving your goals will make that month feel more meaningful.

Stop obsessing over what you haven’t done yet

While it’s great to feel a sense of pride in what you have achieved, there’s probably something that you are doing that is the complete opposite.

You are obsessing over the stuff you haven’t done yet.

You’re obsessing over the to-do list in your head. I can so relate to this one because I do this myself.

Instead of being proud of what I have achieved, all I can think of is the to-do list in my head of all the stuff I haven’t got to yet.

That obsessing factor is a total time suck all by itself!

If you have a to-do list floating around in your head – write it down. Get those tasks and ideas out of your head and down on paper. Then prioritize your list, pick out what is important, and schedule it into your calendar. Ditch the stuff that doesn’t matter if it gets done or not.

Arrange to have more quality time

Getting more out of our time doesn’t mean scheduling the hell out of every last second of it.

Sometimes it doesn’t mean doing more – it means doing less.

It means savoring our time instead of rushing through it like a maniac. If your time is over-scheduled (and I am sure a lot of parents are all too familiar with this one) it’s time to think along the less is more line.

Are you running your kids from sports to music classes to (okay I admit I don’t have kids, so not sure what else goes on this list but I imagine it’s a long list) but not actually spending any time with them yourself!

Yes they need an education and you want them to do well going forward in life but they also need YOU. They need time with you.

Have some fun

Your plan needs to include some downtime to enjoy yourself and have fun.

It’s a total must!

I can always tell when I start to get frustrated and overwhelmed with life. It’s often because I am not having any fun and not going out enough. A lot of the time it’s because I am not laughing enough. When you go out with a dear friend and hear yourself laughing and think – man I haven’t done that in a while – you know you are not having enough fun!

When you find yourself in this state, get out into the world and have some fun. Meet a friend, watch a comedy, head out with a group of friends for dinner.

Whatever makes you laugh and feel relaxed – do more of that.

Make your life bigger

Life can sometimes feel very small. Let me explain that further.

You don’t need me to tell you that life is constantly changing. With those changes, our life can someones get bigger or smaller. Our number of friends might decrease at certain times and stages of our life and other times it might increase.

Our financial situation may change (losing our job) or we might make sacrifices to achieve a particular outcome (buying a house for instance). Changes can force our life to get smaller for certain periods of time. If we don’t have the money to go out as much our social life may look a little different.

We might make our life smaller by staying in our comfort zone. We don’t try anything new, take any risks or allow any new people into our lives.

Since so much of our everyday lives is a habit (getting up and going to work for instance) it can be easy to get bogged down in the mundane.

This is where we need to do something new and exciting. We need to try different things that get us thinking, looking at life from a different angle, and fired up about life.

Travel is one of the amazing ways to make your life bigger and do some incredible things with your time.

Remember your why

When we are slogging away at work, dealing with family drama, building a business, or chasing our goals and dreams it can be easy to get bogged down in the how, what, where, and when.

Yet while we are slogging away (and often fighting off feelings of exhaustion), we often forget to ask WHY?

We forget what our overarching WHY is. We get entrenched in the details and forget all about the big picture.

Why are you working 50-60 hours a week? Why are you trying to build a business? Why are you making sacrifices and saving money?

Reconnect with your WHY. And in case you were wondering, your why should probably be more substantial than – I’m doing it because I have to!

Look at how your time is impacted by technology

We know that smartphones have taken over the world. We all see people sitting in restaurants checking out their phones instead of talking to each other.

The thought of spending my childhood dinners with mobile phones on the table is hard to imagine. Yet when I think back technology was affecting my life even back then.

When I was young we had dinner at close to six pm every night and we were not allowed to talk, because the news was on. The television was on and it held priority. We were not allowed to speak at dinner. We also didn’t sit around talking after dinner. As soon as dinner was over, it was off to do the dishes (no dishwasher at that stage either – that was my brother and me).

We didn’t discuss our day or our feelings or what was happening in our lives or the world. We didn’t communicate at all.

It was no wonder that I enjoyed going to my friend’s place for dinner because they talked to each other. They sat around afterward and talked and laughed and then got up and cleaned up as a family.

Technology impacting our relationships and communication is not new. Obviously, it’s more intense now because you can carry television, email, and social media with you anywhere.

No matter what age you are or what technology you do or do not own, be honest with yourself about how technology impacts your time and relationships and implement some changes if you need to.

Be in the moment

This is by far the best way to make friends with time.

Be in the moment.

One situation where I don’t feel like time flies by is when I spend time with my baby boy (aka my gorgeous cat). The reason for that feeling is that when I sit down to give him a cuddle, I am totally in the moment. I’m not thinking about what happened yesterday or what is going to happen tomorrow or all of things I haven’t done yet.

I am totally focused on him. I’m immersed in the sound of him purring, the feel and texture of his fur, his breathing, and the cute little sounds and movements he makes when he is blissfully happy.

In many ways, he’s my form of meditation. Not to mention my source of unconditional love (which is also another great way to appreciate and fall in love with time).

Be in the moment as much as possible. When you find yourself going off track (i.e. through the past or into the future), pull yourself back into being in the moment.

Spend time around people who genuinely care for you

Have you ever spent time with a dear friend laughing and talking and the night has flown by quickly?

Then have you been at an awkward, uncomfortable family gathering where one hour feels like four hours and you can’t wait to get the hell out of there?

The same could be said at work. If you have an amazing boss who supports you and acknowledges your input, your day will be a lot more pleasant and you will be much happier with your investment of time and energy then when you have a boss who bullies and harasses you.

Who you spend your time surrounded by is important. Vitally important. Spend your time with people who genuinely care for you and your time will feel better spent.

Related post – 12 Thought-Provoking Time Quotes

Try to avoid doing things you hate

I would love to say – only do the things you love but I live in the real world as do you and I know that life doesn’t work that way.

Sometimes we have to do things we don’t like and yes sometimes we need to do things we hate.

When you hate something, time will go incredibly slowly. It will drag out like crazy.

I remember when I had a tooth pulled out and the dentist said it was going to be a quick 20 – 30 minutes. In the end, it took a bit longer than that but for me sitting in the chair, stressed and uncomfortable it felt like hours! After having the tooth pulled, I had to catch a train for nearly 5 hours, and believe me I’ve had long-haul overseas flights that have felt shorter!

Try to limit doing things that you dislike. Easier said than done I realize but give it your best shot. Just in case your job is something you hate, I wrote a post about that recently you can read here.

Get honest about your relationship with time

Okay, I admit this one isn’t always bags of fun. But it’s about being upfront and honest about your current relationship with time.

Do you feel any of the below?

I’ve got no time or I don’t have enough time
I’m wasting time
I’m stuck in time
Time is flying by
I’m running out of time.

You might feel all of these at different times. You might feel something that’s not on this list at all. Feeling any of the above is perfectly normal, so don’t feel bad or be hard on yourself.

Here’s a question for you. What is your most dominant thought about time?

Which one has the greatest impact on your life? Let’s be brutally honest here, which one scares you the most?

Once you have worked that out, it’s time to take action.

If your dominant feeling about time is that you are wasting it, then you need to do something about using your time more wisely.

When it comes to wasting time or not having enough of it, monitoring can really help. Monitor your time for a day or a week (whatever you think will be most helpful for your personal situation) and get honest about where you are wasting time or not using your time in line with your priorities and values.

If your fear is that you are running out of time, it’s time to start doing the things that you want to be doing. It’s time to stop waiting. It’s time to stop procrastinating. It’s time to take some risks.

I know you might be thinking well that’s fine for everyone else but I have responsibilities, commitments, and financial constraints. I recognize all of these things can be a factor.

But you can start somewhere. Start small if that helps but start.

Because each of us is unique, while we might have similar relationships with time our experiences and emotions put an extremely personal spin on how we each think of and value our time.

Each of us has to find a way to get comfortable and ultimately make peace with time.

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