10 habits to stop if you want more time

1. GIVE UP TOXIC PEOPLE - These are the people in your life who take up all the mental energy in your conversations and never leave room for you, and your concerns. Let them go.
   
2. GIVE UP TV - If you watch TV and still cannot find time in your life for creating the life you want, and you desperately want more time to live — and for you living might be writing that book you’ve been wanting to write or learning to cook or going on adventures or even just exercising — then giving up this one mindless luxury frees you up for more wonderful things.
   
3. DRAMA - Yep. Much like No. 1 on this list giving up drama and gossip and focusing on the past is a great energy booster. The less time you spend complaining and making up stories that only add to your negative mindset the more time you have to create the life you want.
   
4. PERFECT PINTEREST HOARDING - We, as human beings, are naturally drawn to beautiful things. However, there comes a time when you need to eliminate the desire to collect it all and collect perfectly beautiful ideas — and actually do the wonderful ideas, imperfectly or not. If you need time to live, it’s best to revisit your boards one at a time and make a list of what you want to actually do – and then do them and delete the pin.
   
5. FACEBOOK NUMBING - I love the inspiration I find on Facebook. I do. The information that people share is amazing. But now and then we slip into the “reading about other people living their lives” abyss and that never feels good. I want to be living my life, not reading about what others are doing to live theirs. Take Facebook off your phone, and never look back.
   
6. ERRANDS - Going here and there all the time is a serious time waster. The best way around this is to chunk your errands together and do them at the same time. Taking a few minutes to plot out what needs done — and where — and creating an intentional strategy to getting it all done with the fewest trips possible is a huge time saver.
   
7. SCREEN-TIME - Instead of emailing someone, can you call them? Instead of paying bills online, can you schedule them so they are just done for you? These slight tweaks to reduce your online use will only enhance your online experience so that it’s more meaningful as well.
   
8. OVER-CLEANING - There’s clean and there’s immaculate and perfect and over-the-top. If you fall on the latter half of that spectrum with your cleaning, there’s definitely some room for elimination. Or, better yet, get your kids doing most of it. Or hire someone.
   
9. BEING UNORGANIZED - Being unorganized is one of the biggest time wasters we have in our lives. When we can wake up and know where to find everything and get out the door without searching high and low for things like our keys or shoes or gloves, we have more time to do what we want in our lives.
   
10. SLEEPING UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE - This is a great bad habit to break if you want more time. Even just rising 15 minutes early can make a real difference in your day.
    

READ Get a free copy of Shawn Fink’s The Abundant Mama’s 10 Habits of Highly Effective Mamas at abundantmama.com.