Dads Need to Take Time Too

The alarm goes off at 6:30am. You get up, have some breakfast and take a shower. Since you have children your morning is even more hectic. You have to make sure their needs are met before getting a chance to brush away the morning breath. As the day goes on: it feels like you were on the phone forever and were glad you got to squeeze 8 1/2 minutes in for lunch. Now it's 6:30pm and you start the nightly routine of finishing up work you didn't get to earlier (plus doing some laundry). Finally the kids are in bed and you get to watch a little TV or read a book while a little pink pill helps you fall gently asleep. Somewhere around 960 minutes have just gone by and how many of them were just for you?

Dennis Waitley, a motivational speaker, said "Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day." Sometimes we feel there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish all of the tasks we set out to do. Some of you are already waking up 15 minutes earlier to exercise. Now you're supposed to find more time in the day? The minutes are already there, now just practice using them more effectively!

• Learn to say no. I'm not telling you to ignore your core responsibilities of work, children, or chores. Rather say no to constantly checking email or voicemail. Say no to people who are just calling to complain about nothing. Say no to doing favors that are never returned. Say no to new taxes (I was just getting too excited there).
  
• Practice judging time. Since time is something that doesn't really exist, it's easy to get away from us. Have you ever started a task you thought would take an hour and then 90 minutes later you're still not done? Practice learning from that and adjusting your schedule. More often than not we're doing something we have done before. If it took you 2 hours last time, plan for 2 hours.
  
• Let everyone know it is your time now. Tell someone outright you're taking 30 minutes for lunch and just let the cell phone go to voicemail. This is an important part of your 960 minutes, so enjoy it! Relax, think about your upcoming vacation, or escape to a good book. A half of an hour is just about 3% of your minutes; you deserve them (and more).
  
• Learn to say yes. There's a perception in American corporate culture if you take vacation time, then you may not be working hard enough. Similarly if you're self-employed then when you are on vacation, chances are your not making money either. Dictionary.com defines vacation as "a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel." Whether you take 4 or 5 mini vacations or go abroad for 2 weeks, just use it. You'll be a better employee, manager, parent, friend, spouse, and YOU when you take a vacation.

Practice being aware of how you spend your day. Some days will naturally allow you to use more time for yourself than others; however, when you're making a conscious effort to use your time well it will become habit. The more positive patterns throughout your day, the happier you'll be.

You have learned a new skill of happiness... start practicing today!