The importance of time

Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Rick Warren

As I tell my friends – your time is the most valuable gift you can give someone. It’s something you can never get back. This week Happiness Weekly looks at how you can best use your time.

There are three very basic yet important things you should do to maintain good time management:

–          Use a calendar so you always know what’s on and schedule appointment reminders to give yourself enough time to get wherever you’re going – and try to always be ten minutes early

– Prioritise and delegate activities to assist in getting tasks done on time

– Learn to say “no” – if you can’t make an appointment, don’t waste people’s time trying. Moral: Don’t try to do too much because when you fail, you’ll let other people down.

OK, now that’s out of the way, you should have more time. The question is – what are you going to do with it?

Finding what to do with free time can be challenging and frustrating until you find exactly what it is that you enjoy doing. Many people forget that while time is the most important gift you can give away – it’s also the most important gift you can give to yourself. When we don’t give ourselves time out from our usual daily grind we risk getting burn out.

Here are a few ideas for how you can give yourself time as a gift:

– Review your goals, see how you’re tracking – it’s motivating!

– Get reading, learn something new by reading an online article or just snuggle in and read something fiction – whatever takes your fancy

– Exercise! Keeping fit and healthy is great for managing your stress levels

– Check in with yourself. Keep a diary, meditate, talk to your inner child about their day

– Make yourself a playlist. Select songs that YOU like and that make YOU feel good (no judgement!)

– Speak to your inner child about the day’s events. Like your parents or guardian would talk to you as a child, talk to yourself – explain things as though you’re talking to a child when you start to feel yourself grumble about something

– Make yourself a scrapbook of your favourite things

– Practise some mindfulness techniques. Sit by water (beach, lake, bay) and list all the things you can see in your mind. Then list all the things you can hear in your mind.

Need more ideas? Fifty ways to have fun by yourself on the cheap by the frugal introvert.

I also wanted to share a few ideas for how you can give someone else time as a gift

– Write a handwritten letter to someone telling them how important they are to you

– Help someone to do something they can’t do on their own

– Do something nice for someone who least expects it

– Write a blog or create a YouTube clip about something you’ve learned to teach others your lessons

– Listen to someone when they need you

– Buy someone a gift you know they’ll like, just because

For more ideas check out How you can pay it forward or Happiness Weekly’s best tips for helping others.