I was visiting the blogs of some of my fellow writers today when I happened on a post by Terri Forehand (heartfeltwords4kids.blogspot.com) about a book titled A Talent for Quiet.

It made me think about what I loved most about growing up. Some of my best memories are of times when we didn't have to be anywhere or rush to do something. Those long, lazy days of summer when I could just settle down with a good book or sit outside and enjoy the smell of fresh cut grass or feel the warmth of the sun on my face. We need to learn how to do that again.

We rush around so much these days, taking the kids to ballet or baseball, to clarinet lessons or soccer practice. There is so little time left just to relax and enjoy this beautiful planet, to watch a sunrise or see the sunset, to observe a colony of ants hard at work or to follow a butterfly as it flits around the garden.

We need to turn off the TV and get out of the house, stop playing the computer games and go for a bike ride. Life is too short to spend it sitting in front of a screen, asking someone else to entertain us.

Identify Your Time Wasters

If you feel stressed much of the time and are always falling behind, certain that you'll never get caught up, one simple way to attack this problem is to identify your time wasters.

Television is a big one for most people. Have you ever watched someone walk through a room where a T.V. is on? Before you know it, that person has stopped and is drawn to the television, mesmorized by its content, even if it's a program they've seen a hundred times before. T.V. has a certain attraction for most of us (and our kids too) and it's easy to spend hours wasting time that could be used doing something productive.

You don't have to give up T.V. entirely, just schedule your favorite programs into your day and stick to your schedule. No channel surfing for two hours! Even better, get down on the floor and do some leg lifts and crunches while you watch T.V. Get your kids to join you. Burn those calories from dinner while you relax.

If T.V. isn't your biggest time waster, then take a minute and think about what is. Maybe you like to read the paper cover-to-cover every day. That can take awhile. Try skimming it for the most pertinent articles and catch up on your reading on the weekends. What other habits are wasting your time? Do you chat on the phone more than you need to? Do you spend too much time planning projects rather than just jumping in and getting them done?

Whatever your biggest time waster is, try to identify it today and make the changes that will give you more free time to get to the important things in your life. Eliminate whatever is keeping you from accomplishing all that you wish to and soon you will see the difference it makes in your life.