When you get done with the day do you ever look back and say: “Where did the day go? I feel like I didn’t get anything done.” How about if you were look back on 2016? Do you struggle to identify where you focused your time throughout the year? The most valuable thing we have is our time. It is precious and limited. Yet, we often hear ourselves saying “I don’t have enough time…” be it minutes, hours, days or years.

I promise, you do. You have enough time to focus on your priorities. It is a choice. One that many of us do not realize- we control.

How do you spend your minutes and hours?

For me, the more I walk through the day in a mindful way, with intention, the less stressed I feel about getting everything done. I breathe deeply when I leave my house at 2:30am, and take in the moon shadows. I want to fully experience my minutes throughout the day. Rushing from one thing to the next is not how I want to *live* my life. When you become mindful of your own time and minutes, you start to realize you have a lot of time in your day, 1440 minutes to be exact.

What happens when the distractions come?

Some estimates say it takes a total of two hours a day, getting back to what we were doing before we were distracted… by people, phones, emails, social media. Yes, we *allow* many of these distractions. It’s true, unless your phone delivers an electric shock until you answer it, most often *you* get to decide when to *allow* a distraction. I mentioned earlier, we are in control, we get to decide how we spend our time.

Planning is key.

Time management expert and author, Laura Vanderkam says – “plan your weeks, not your days”. Ever since I heard that advice, I’ve ‘found’ even more time. It’s about deciding where you truly want to spend your time, and then moving around the pieces to fit them into your week. Hint- if it’s not important, let it go. Give yourself permission. It will feel very freeing.

The takeaway is simple – “Don’t give away your time” especially to something that is not a priority for your happy life. Yes, there will be distractions, but at the end of the day you choose how to spend your time. May 2017 be filled with intention and may your minutes be spent bringing you happiness and joy.