How To Stop Wasting Your Time & Live With Intention

I’d like to first thank Clarrisa of Later-Means-Never for allowing me to guest post on her blog today. For those who aren’t familiar with my work, my name is B & I am the writer behind Mind Beauty Simplicity where we discuss intentional living & ways to downsize your life to live more happily. In today’s chat, I wanted to discuss the ideas of procrastination & how we can stop wasting our precious time & learn to be more intentional as creators & regular individuals in our daily routines. 

I’ve been blogging for almost a year now & as a minimalist, I have really tried to learn to be smart with my time & where I place my energy. With that being said, I am in no means perfect & this realization didn’t start to occur to me until months into the passion project. I felt like I was burning the torch at both ends.

And of course that led me to completely burn out. At the end of March, I finally told myself I needed to step back for a while. So, I did the thing I was dreading to do & stopped posting on the blog & social media for almost two weeks. Readers may think, “two weeks doesn’t seem like that long.” But to a content creator & blogger, I woke up not knowing what to do with myself. 

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When I returned to the grind of blogging, I no longer wanted to make it feel this way. I wanted to be more intentional as a blogger & create a routine that would give me the breathing room I desperately needed. Here’s how I made a change:

(1) I AM ON SOCIAL MEDIA LESS OFTEN

As a blogger, you don’t just post content & just hope it reaches large audiences. It takes a lot of promotion on our ends to see the traffic flow. But I was becoming exhausted sitting by my computer all day & just wasting my day on such a task. Instead, I spend Sunday evenings scheduling out tweets & sometimes go as far as a month out. It truly has made a huge difference with my blogging routine. I get so many other things done & almost feel like a superhero in multitasking. 

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(2) GOOGLE CALENDAR IS MY BEST FRIEND

I plan everything out. Call me Type A but it works. I keep a monthly rundown of my blog post line up as well as photo ideas for Instagram. Having everything written out keeps me sane & on top of things. If you aren’t into the digital world, you can always keep a journal planner & hand write out your schedule. I actually have both because I’m insane. Haha. But seriously, having things lined up in this fashion really keeps my routine flowing. 

(3) A TO-DO LIST SHOULD BE WHAT YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH

Instead of telling yourself you NEED to do a task, why don’t you start telling yourself you WANT to do the task? This change in wording & mindset encourages productivity & motivation. When you want to do something, you are more eager & excited to do said task. But when it needs to be done, it can feel like a drag. 

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(4) I SWITCH UP MY  ROUTINE COMPLETELY 

Sometimes, instead of taking a break, you simply need to shift your routine. At any point you are going through the motions & not feeling fulfilled is a sign to yourself that you need to mix it up a bit. Whether it’s learning a new workout routine or even just eating a different meal, those little changes can spark the inspiration to get stuff done. 

(5) I AM KINDER TO MYSELF

I always love to end with this sentiment because I feel as though we as a society can be extremely hard on ourselves. We work ourselves to the bone & rarely feel enough & that is NOT the way to be. We need to learn how to celebrate all parts of our journey & provide grace when times feel difficult or lackluster. Always know you are simply doing your best. Life doesn’t have a rule book. 

Ideally, I want you to find encouragement with this chat & hopefully help you create a routine that ignites that spark of motivation. It’s normal to lose it once in a while, but I hope with these 5 tips, you can maintain a routined flow that will lead you to better time management & a relaxed way of being. 

-B

**NOTE- Thanks so much B for guest posting on my blog about living with intention! I love this post and hope it helps others too.

I know I’m too hard on myself a lot, so I thank her for sharing these ideas.