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26 Simple Ways to Nurture Your Creative Life #14

Notice Your Lifecycle

What do you pedal your day away to?

By Chris Dunmire

"I'm late / I'm late / For a very important date. / No time to say 'Hello.' / Goodbye. / I'm late, I'm late, I'm late." — White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland

Do you wear a watch? Do you watch time? By design we can't help being conscious of time — our lives are structured and milestoned by its natural rhythms and man-made measurements: sunrises, sunsets and seasons; seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years.

How old are you? When were you born? What are you doing next Sunday?

Time management is integral to the smooth running our of lives. Agreements on scheduled events synchronize our efforts in cooperative tasks, allows for planning, and makes productivity more efficient.

It's true: we all have 24 hours allotted to us in a day, but how we use this time varies according to our needs and responsibilities, or as I like to say, our Daily Lifecycle (say "lifecycle" like "bicycle"). Different for each of us, the cycle of activities within a 24-hour period requires a semblance of balance to take care of life's business and meet our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.

Questions for Reflection

(Feel free to use as writing prompts):

• Do you need more time to meet your responsibilities?

• Do you set aside regular time for your interests?

• Do you squeeze in more activities even when you're tired?

• Do you give your energy to others without reciprocation?

• Do you have an endless "to do" list?

• Do you feel "run down"?

• Do you play, watch TV/Web surf/recreate daily?

• Do you nourish your body with nutritious food?

• Do you deprive yourself of needed sleep?

• Do you exercise?

• Do you meditate or allow "down time"?

Your Daily Lifecycle: Your Time as Energy

One way to manage your time with more balance is to think of "time" as "energy." Yes, how you spend your time is how you spend your energy. Want to see if your investments are paying off?

I love the bicycle metaphor so much that I've created this Daily Lifecycle exercise as both an assessment you may use to show where your energy is being "pedaled away" to, and if desired, a plan you can make for your daily ride to be more balanced.

To benefit the most from this activity, be honest about your personal needs and how you are spending your energy. Then ask yourself if you are gaining satisfactory returns on your hourly energy investments. Are they paying off? Are you feeling replenished? Or are you wasting your valuable time? Once it's spent, you can't get it back.

(For more helpful perspective, see the article Managing Your Energy, Not Your Time by Jeannine McGlade.)

• • • Take Action Now • • •

Download Printable Daily Lifecycle
Assessment & Plan Packet
230KB PDF

Awareness is a very cool tool we use with clients in Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching™. Jill Badonsky teaches that "Awareness of the realities of the creative process makes the conscious and subconscious activation of solutions possible." Awareness of how you spend your time and energy is important when you are seeking to nurture your creative life.

Print my free Daily Lifecycle™ Assessment/Plan packet and follow the instructions to get a pulse on how you are spending your time and energy, with the option of creating a more balanced plan to better enjoy the ride.

Consider doing this exercise on a weekly or monthly basis as needed to create more awareness in you. If you benefit in any way from using this assessment I'd love to hear from you. Send me your stories. •

© 2010 Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com. All rights reserved. (11/12/10)

About the Author | More by Chris Dunmire
Creativity Portal® founder and coach Chris Dunmire works with individuals through deep listening, good humor, and compassionate guidance to excavate, process, and share their rich experiences of living and reach more meaningful levels of creativity, artistic expression, and everyday being. Contact Chris to discuss possibilities in working together.