I'm busy. It seems like my life is a perpetual state of "busy". Managing my time is a true challenge. I always have too much to do for the little bit of hours that I have in my day. I want to be able to do the best that I can with my time given everything at my disposal.

1. Limited Hours

That's a given. We have 24 hours in the day, 60 minutes in the hour, 60 seconds in the minute. There never seems to be enough of it, but there are ways to take advantage of every minute, if I plan accordingly.

2. Too Many Things To Do

I love everything that I do. I choose to do what I do, because I love it, find it interesting, want to grow from it, or all of the above. I often say that I'm "over-involved", but I think that I wouldn't be happy doing anything more or anything less.

3. Planning

I currently have and use two planners and two different calendars. I try and put all of my meetings in one planner, all of my minute-to-minute plans in another planner, and all of my important upcoming dates on my calendars. It's not easy to keep up with everything, but writing everything down makes each task seem like so much less of a big deal than it does in my head.

4. Breaks

Because busy days are packed with activities, breaks definitely necessary. Sometimes breaks just come up or they just somehow make it into your schedule. Even if I have many things going on at once, I make time for mental breaks to make my days easier to deal with.

5. Breaking Up the Day

Looking at the day in full can be intimidating. I like to separate my day into chunks. If I think of my day as having different parts, then I can plan to move things around within those blocks of time.

6. Flexibility

If something doesn't go according to plan (which almost always happens) or if something else comes up, moving things around might be stressful. The best thing to do, and the hardest, is to just let it go. Everything ends up working out, and whatever doesn't get done or has to be cancelled was just not meant to be.

At the end of the day, all that matters is that I tried my best and that I made it through the day with a genuine smile on my face.