Creating space by cutting down on commitments

What would be the one thing that would improve the quality and enjoyment of your life?

 For many people, the answer to that would be to have more time to do the things they really love.

The good news is that having more time is within our reach, but it does mean looking carefully at our lives and how we tend to spend those precious hours within each day.

Apart from obvious ‘time thieves’ like spending time online and on our devices, we very often tend to fill up our lives with activities and commitments that, when we really sit down to think about it, do not add true value or meaning to our lives.

We can create some more time and space in our lives by carefully evaluating our commitments:

1.       Make a list of all the commitments in your life – these are all the things that you are regularly involved in e.g. hobbies, clubs, online groups, courses that you’re enrolled in, volunteer work, community involvements, sports, your kids’ activities.

2.       Look carefully at each one and ask yourself:

  •     How much value am I getting from it?

  •    Does it bring me joy/enjoyment?

  •      Will I be getting significant long-term benefits from it?

3.       Take note of the ones that you find is not adding value and enjoyment to your life, or that will not benefit you significantly in the long term.

4.       What will happen if you were to give it up? Make a list of all costs and benefits that you can think of.

5.       Lastly, ask yourself, will giving up this commitment still matter 5 years from now?

It can be hard to get out of some commitments and activities, as it can often feel like we are letting people down.

However, remember this…

Every time that you say “yes” to something,  you are in fact saying “no” to something else (e.g time for self-care, spending time with your kids or partner, doing the things you love and  that fill you up.)

Sometimes a simple “I don’t have the time anymore”, can be all the explanation needed.

NB!!  Once you have freed up some space, make sure that you don’t fill it with new commitments. Make it a rule of thumb that whenever you take on a new commitment, you have to open up space by letting a current one go

x Lineé

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