How do you keep track of your schedule?

Perhaps you have an electronic PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), like a Palm Pilot? These are incredibly powerful devices with built in alarms, to-do lists, date books and address books.

Maybe you prefer to use a paper-based system like a Day Timer. Some of the advantages to these systems is that they never need new batteries and are much more forgiving if you drop them.

Whatever mechanism you use for recording your schedule, if you are anything like me, you are absolutely lost if you forget or misplace it. Today, many of us have our entire lives in PDA's or fancy notebooks.

But take a moment and think about exactly WHAT you are scheduling. I'm sure that you record appointments, meetings, errands and dates. You probably also store birthdays, anniversaries and holidays. But how often do we schedule the REALLY important things like time to exercise, mediate, pray, or catch up with friends? Does your schedule include items such as "play with the kids", or "spend some time for myself"?

Why is it that far too often we let the outside world dictate our priorities and set our timetable? When was the last time your boss came to you and said, "Next Monday morning from 9:00AM to 10:00AM, I need you to make sure that you are undisturbed while you reflect on the upcoming week"?

If we don't take (or make) the time to look after ourselves, the long- term consequences will not be pretty. I'm talking about looking after ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. I firmly believe that it is only when we are strong in these areas that we can be productive in other areas of our lives.

So let's all pull out our schedules and make some much-needed changes - starting with this Monday morning!

ENJOY NOW!

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National Library of Canada ISSN 1708-0606

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