Finding time and then using that time as efficiently and effectively as possible takes more than to-do lists, as you know. Especially when setbacks and unexpected changes arise – as they do every day - it can require enormous resourcefulness and resilience to continue along your most productive path.

Indeed, your instinctive response when plans are threatened may be to entrench yourself even more deeply in the way you think it “ought” to be. But when you’re in the midst of change, sticking with rigid patterns is often the LAST thing that you need to be doing. Turning away from flexibility when you may most need it introduces another layer of unnecessary stress, and can kick off a vicious cycle that then can set you back further and further.
What is the single most helpful thing that you can give yourself in this situation?

Compassion.

Compassion is one of the most basic and vital tools in your Heart-Based Time Management Toolkit. When you are overwhelmed or frustrated or afraid or angry … any time you feel stuck and are tempted to respond with rigidity in some form, compassion helps you to step back from this cycle.
Softening, rather than hardening your heart in the face of something that can feel threatening is a very courageous and empowering step. It’s a simple fact that the more you cultivate compassion, the more easily you will thrive in the face of change.

That’s because compassion frees you up. Its expansiveness helps you build flexibility, courage, and creativity, too. Given life's unending stream of challenges, fostering your power of compassion can provide lifetime strength.
Let’s take a closer look at how compassion helps. I hope these 3 heart-based time management tips will stimulate your interest in incorporating compassion into your everyday life and time choices. It’s really one of the most practical and life-enhancing gifts that you can give yourself.

1. Compassion enables you to take reasonable risks without fear of self-recrimination. When you accept that you are human and that experience is ALWAYS about learning, you turn off your debilitating, critical voices. Don’t let the fear that you turn on yourself in the face of "failed" experiments paralyze your initiative. Healthy humility always helps you bounce back and put your lessons to good use.

2. Compassion helps you use your mistakes to develop better systems. Don't fall into the trap of dismissing compassion. Compassion is about having the courage to keep going … NOT about "letting yourself off the hook". It’s a down-to-earth practical fact that the more compassion you show yourself when you make a mistake, the sooner you will recover. Not only that, but compassion allows you to reframe your mistakes as information. Mistakes are gifts, shining light on places where you can explore, grow and expand. Compassion turns many common concepts on their heads … and empowers us to not be stymied by mistakes but to learn, improve and move forward.

3. Compassion supports you balancing your priorities with your basic needs. When you compassionately accept that life is tough and you need to take good care of yourself, it helps you also accept the fact that you need to pace yourself. Living from a place of grounded, heart-based compassion, you won't feel drawn in by grandiose schemes. That’s because you are accepting of and comfortable with your essential self. Living with compassion helps you maintain clarity, balance and perspective with more ease.

As you can imagine, the ever-expanding practice of compassion helps you to safeguard your health and well-being, enhance your relationships and open new vistas as you move more freely, confidently and courageously in the world. From this position of benevolence towards yourself and others, you are energized and empowered, creating a new cycle in which you make ever more efficient and effective use of your time.

What is your next step to explore your heart-based toolbox, increase your effectiveness, and find time?

Here’s something to get you started right now! Sign up for our free gift, "The New Finding Time Boundary Template: 9 Simple, Sequential Steps to Find More Time and Recharge Your Energy!" at http://optimize.thetimefinder.com/templatesg/

This time template will help you move beyond overwhelm. Using a workbook format, with room to record your answers, you will discover that 24 hours really are enough!

Offered by Paula Eder, PhD, The Time Finder Expert.

Author's Bio: 

Paula Eder, PhD, the SelfGrowth.com Official Guide to Time Management, is an internationally-known coach and published author who mentors spirit-driven solopreneurs and small business owners to align their core values and energy with their time choices and behaviors so that they can make more money, create more freedom, and find more time.

Living on a working farm in rural New Hampshire, Paula's connection with time is as organic, spiritual, and down-to-earth practical as the vitality and resiliency of the seasons. From her base in New Hampshire she has maintained a thriving coaching practice for the past 35 years; is a Certified Coach in Kendall Summerhawk's Money Breakthrough Method™ Program; and is a certified graduate of the Vanguard class of the Authentic Happiness Coaching Program conducted by Martin E. P. Seligman, PhD and Ben Dean, PhD.

Her Heart-Based Time Management System helps busy people just like you develop the skills to make authentic time choices that lead to work success, personal growth, vibrant health, and an ever-deepening relationship with yourself and those you love.

To learn more about Paula's unique, Heart-Based Time Management System and begin your transformational journey, sign up for her Finding Time Success Kit. Discover how you can find time for what matters most.

http://www.selfgrowth.com/guide/paulaeder.html
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