Learning to Say No: Time Management Series

Good Morning! 

Today is the last post in my June series on Time Management and I feel I saved the best for last.  You can catch up on the other posts about spending less time in front of the TV here, Planning Ahead and Setting Goals here and Getting Up Earlier here.  

My final post on Time Management centers on making conscious choices on how you want to spend your 168 hours.  Many of us spend a lot of our time doing things for other people or participating in events that aren't something we would chose to do with our time.  Granted not everything we do day to day is going to be fulfilling and meaningful, we all have to clean our toilets at some point.  The point I am trying to make is that if you say YES to all of the things that come your way you will begin to lose your focus on what is important to YOU.  

I think most people want to be reliable and help others, we all want people to like us and therefore feel we have to say yes a lot.  I am working on learning to say no and making my yes more meaningful.  I am the queen of over commitment and I am working on saying no more than yes.  It is important to remember that the people we care about want us to be honest with them.  I would hate if someone told me yes and then quietly resented me the whole time.  Saying no can be really hard and I still have a difficult time with it.  There are times that I hear myself saying yes when I really do not want to do it.  As much as I love being out and about I also crave my time at home.  This year has been a very full year and I don't see much of a slow down in the near future.  If I continue saying yes to everything that comes my way I will end up not actually enjoying anything that I am doing.  

I am working on signing up for less races and saving my time and money for half marathons.  The half marathon is my bread and butter and my favorite distance.  I decided this year I'll be signing up for less 10ks (my least favorite distance) and keep my race calendar to no more than 2 per month with 1 being ideal.  My weekends are precious to me because it is our time as a family and when I am doing a race every weekend I begin to resent running.  

This is what happens when I begin to hate running, it isn't pretty

All of this is a learning process and I know there will be things I still have to yes to because sometimes we all have to do things we aren't crazy about.  The important thing for us all to remember is that saying no doesn't mean you are being selfish. Saying no makes your yes much more powerful.  I don't want to be a yes girl, I want to be a good mother, wife and friend who values not only my time but also my family's time.  I want my friends and family to know that when I say yes I mean it and they can trust I'll be honest with them at times and say no.  Also I hope those closest to me know that I value their no just as much as their yes!           

As promised it is GIVEAWAY time, I'll announce the winner next Tuesday July 2nd.  There are lots of ways to enter to win Laura Vanderkam's book 168 Hours, good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Edited to Add**
I am giving this book away because I really enjoyed it and plan on reading it again and again.  The author probably doesn't even know I exist but maybe one day she will! :) so no this isn't a sponsored post.