Plan Your “Free Days” for 2008

 

 

Today’s Post was written by Fairy Godmothers Carrie & Danielle. Their anticipated book, Style Statement will be available in April.

 

Harnessing time can be especially tricky when you’re creative and ambitious, and when you want to rock your career and have uninterrupted weekends. Quadrants of importance. Priority grids. Sticky notes. Ginko Biloba.

 

Between the two of us we’ve tried every time management and memory improvement system out there. What works beautifully for us is the Entrepreneurial Time Management System. As its creator, Dan Sullivan puts it, “…it allows one’s personal and professional lives to receive an equal amount of attention—indeed, to be in balance—and thus generate energy for each other.” Whether you’re running your own department or running a household, Sullivan’s principles are truly helpful for designing a balanced life.

 

There are 3 ‘Types’ of Days:

 

Free Days: A 24-hour period in which you do not engage in business-related action. You don’t even think about it. The best Free Days are planned in advance.

 

Focus Days: Spend 80% of your day on your most important business-related activities, relationships, and opportunities. This is your day to make things happen, without interruptions and with support systems in place.

 

Buffer Days: “If Focus Days are for performance,” says Sullivan, “Buffer Days are for rehearsals.” Handle all of the details that would otherwise distract your attention on a Focus Day. Catch up, clean up, delegate, brush up on your skills.

Personally, we’ve set Mondays and Fridays for Buffer Days. We return calls, explore, read our newsletters and artsy rags, and prioritize. We indulge in meandering conversation and doodling ideas (guess when our best ideas come to us?). For the mid week we zoom-zoom focus and resist the urge to be distracted by things that don’t fulfill our very immediate objectives. Velocity is our driving intention. As for free evenings and weekends and holidays—we have them! Plenty of sacred, unplugged free-flow time.

 

 

Today’s Magic Wand: Plan your Free Days for the year. What are your desires? More time with your family, a month in Hawaii, a naughty trip to Vegas, or a meditation retreat. Free Days can be also be for the very simple pleasures that you never get around to, like lunch with an old friend or an afternoon at the art gallery. Pencil it in to your calendar, months in advance if necessary. Even if you can’t immediately see a way to get the time off or where the resources will come from, create the space for it so that you and life can start conspiring for your freedom.

 

Funny thing about time…it’s what you make of it.

 

 

 

Could You Give Away Your Most Precious Gift?

I love this post about giving by Fairy Godmother Danielle LaPorte of Carrie & Danielle. Enjoy! Carrie & Danielle’s book Style Statement will be released in Spring 2008 and I hear Oprah’s been calling.

Again, I must bow to Pema Chödrön, whom I think is one of the coolest Buddhists nuns in action. I am reminded of a wonderful, gentle exercise of hers that always rocks my sensibilities and softens my heart.- Danielle

THIS WEEK: Look at your stuff.

Step 1: Ask yourself this question: In terms of stuff and your lifestyle, what do you hold most precious? Scan your home, all that you own. Review your schedule, your hobbies, your favorite activities. What would give you acute panic to part with? What are you loath to let go of? What do you dig so deeply that the very thought of giving it away or not having it in your life makes you want to hurl? Your mother’s diamond? Your morning yoga class? Your yearly vacation?[I adore plenty of things, but for the most part, I consider most stuff … well … just stuff. No problem, I thought. My wedding ring? Yep, I could part with it. Our love is stronger than gold. Family photos? Whatever. The memories live on in my heart. My ritual bubble baths? Life would go on. I ran through it all in my mind, grooving on my Zen-ness, until I hit a jaggy snag … my car. My new zippy wheels! My freedom! My independence! My comfort and ease! I couldn’t part with her, my shiny Fitserella (yes, I named her, attached as I am). These Buddhists must be joking if they think I’m going back to a bus pass and schlepping my kid and laptop in the rain. Puhleese.]Deep breath. Regain Composure.

Step 2: Imagine giving away your Most Precious Thing. Not just doing without it yourself, but actually giving it to other people to enjoy. How do you feel? Heavy with guilt? Panicky and pissed off? Enlivened and relieved?Keep going…. Now, imagine giving away hundreds of your Most Precious Thing. Freely. With a smile. To anyone and everyone. How does that feel?Whether you experience dread or universal oneness, don’t judge yourself for it (that would be a backfire of all this good Buddhist introspection). Just notice. Simple awareness is the aim.Because, somewhere in that awareness, messy or clear, is a soft and open place from which many things can just come, and many things can just go.