{"id":5392,"date":"2014-03-27T12:01:18","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T16:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?p=5392"},"modified":"2014-03-27T21:49:55","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T01:49:55","slug":"how-do-you-handle-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2014\/03\/how-do-you-handle-chaos.html","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Handle Chaotic Times?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"phot<\/a>
phot provided by Laura Vanderkam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As spring slowly begins make an appearance as the winter tries to hang on, we\u2019re getting out more. This can make life feel a bit chaotic as we try to catch up after a long winter. There are times of the year that seem to bring the overload. So I\u2019m happy to have Laura Vanderkam\u00a0<\/strong><\/a> back as a guest today. Laura is the author of many books including, “What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast” — a paperback compilation of the bestselling ebook series, out from Portfolio\/. She has great advice or getting through the season.<\/p>\n

Thriving During Chaos<\/strong>
\nby Laura Vanderkam<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to some upcoming speeches, I\u2019ve been talking with a lot of accountants lately. Most have used two words to describe March: busy season. In the U.S., tax returns are due on April 15, so in the weeks before that, accountants work brutal hours. They describe a slog each early spring that they simply learn to endure as part of the job.<\/p>\n

Your line of work may not follow the same cycle, but many people\u2019s lives feature intense times. Retail is crazed before the holidays; a crash project in any professional service firm will have people working seemingly around the clock for several weeks.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing — it\u2019s never really around the clock. There are 168 hours in a week. Even if you worked 80 hours a week (see note below) and slept 7.5 hours per night, that would leave just over 35 hours per week for other things. Averaged over a week, that\u2019s the equivalent of 5 rest-of-life hours per day.<\/p>\n

The key to surviving — and even thriving — during a busy season is to make the best use of your precious off hours, and to schedule your work hours in as disciplined a way as you would if there weren\u2019t so many of them.<\/p>\n

The first part of that equation involves figuring out exactly what you need to do during your non-work hours to make life feel sustainable. What activities mean the difference between run-of-the-mill busyness, and burned out insanity?<\/p>\n

For many people, it\u2019s exercise. For others, it\u2019s making it to the Wednesday night poker game or the Thursday night knitting club (or both!) People with families generally want to see their families for at least a few hours, as many days as possible.<\/p>\n

Whatever your non-negotiables, take a hard look at your calendar and make sure they happen. Often that means doing them first thing in the morning; that 45-minute run probably isn\u2019t going to happen after the delivery guy brings dinner to the office again. Sometimes it also means doing what you want — like not going into the office until 3 p.m. on Sunday — and asking permission later. I saw a great quote recently from Steve Chandler, author of the book Time Warrior, that \u201cMost of our time-wasters result from a courage problem, not a time problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

And second, you need to plan work tightly. When you\u2019re working a lot of hours, they can start to feel amorphous and unfocused. You know you\u2019ll be there all day, so any 20-minute block of time can slip, unheralded, into the past.<\/p>\n

But you can do a lot in 20 minutes. Even if you\u2019re at the mercy of others — like you\u2019re waiting for a client to send you new numbers — you can pull another task from your list of to-dos if you\u2019re organized about what those to-dos are. Failing to account for your time and not telling it where to go means it will not go where you want. That\u2019s when life feels out of control. You feel like you\u2019re in a storm-tossed rowboat, rather than windsurfing in a strong but manageable gale.<\/p>\n

The good news is that, generally, \u201cbusy times\u201d don\u2019t last forever. April 15 comes and goes. A client merges with its new acquisition. But even during the chaos, life doesn\u2019t have to be lived in anticipation of a less busy time. If you look at the whole 168-hour mosaic of life, even intense periods can create a compelling picture.
\n*************<\/p>\n

Join The Self-Love Movement\u2122!<\/strong><\/a> Take the 31 Days of Self-Love Commitment<\/strong><\/a>—\u201cI commit to do my best to do something loving for myself, however big or small, for the next 31 days<\/strong>.<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0and get my book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways<\/a><\/strong> for free at http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com<\/a><\/strong>. Read my 2014 31 Days of Self-Love Posts HERE<\/strong><\/a>. Join the Self-Love Movement\u2122<\/strong><\/a>! on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>. Watch the video<\/strong><\/a> made with Hoobastank’s song–The reason–that illustrates the power of self-love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As spring slowly begins make an appearance as the winter tries to hang on, we\u2019re getting out more. This can make life feel a bit chaotic as we try to catch up after a long winter. There are times of the year that seem to bring the overload. 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Let Me Count the Ways, a She's appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Howard Stern, and Good Morning America and has been quoted in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Marie Claire, and Men\u00b9s Health. After being a consummate People Pleaser who felt unworthy of getting her own needs met for many years, Daylle found a path of self-love that enabled her to build her self-esteem and reinvent herself into a dual career. She learned to get taken seriously without being overtly assertive when she became one of the first women to start an independent record label (on a dare!) and learned to play ball nicely and successfully in an industry dominated by men. To help independent musicians empower themselves, Daylle writes music business books for Billboard\/Random House, including the very popular Start & Run Your Own Record Labe and I Don't Need a Record Deal! Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5392"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5412,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions\/5412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}