Slow Down And Prioritize What Truly Matters

(Adapted from Julie's YouTube video)

When I woke up and realized that the lifestyle I was leading no longer aligned with what mattered most to me. I knew I had to make some big changes. 

There were things that I would need to stop doing and there were things that I would need to do differently. And if you're someone that's feeling the pressure of a really fast-paced lifestyle, it's my hope that by sharing my story here today it will inspire you to make some changes for your life as well.

Looking back I had thought when I quit my corporate job to start my own business, that regardless of knowing that it would take a lot of hard work, that I still would be able to control my own schedule and that as a result, I'd be able to put the things that I valued most–my health, and my family at the top of my priority list. And it seemed to me that I was doing that–until I wasn't. Or until I realized that I wasn't doing this good enough for me. Waking up to this realization, it wasn't easy.

I really didn't want to believe it, because a portion of me felt like in some ways that I had failed at what I was trying to do. My journals, they encourage seasonal slow living, which I so believe in. Yet somewhere along the way "the business" of creating these had started to seep further and further into my life. 

This is about the changes that I made to get my time back and to more fully embrace my own teachings and the teachings of the women in those journals.

Starve the Social Media Monster

The first thing that I knew I needed to make happen, was that I needed to tame the social media monster's massive consumption of my time. A year ago I was on practically every platform besides Twitter and that had to stop. Doing this was such a huge relief, as it freed up a lot of time and it allowed me to be able to create more content on YouTube, which is a platform I feel the ability to provide greater value and that I had been enjoying creating videos for.

A Shift in My Conversations

Probably the next biggest thing that I quit doing, was that I stopped always thinking about what I needed to do next while I was having a conversation with someone. This was something that I really hadn't let myself be aware of, because it doesn't feel good. I guess I realized that because I was so focused on trying to get through my to-do list each day, when I had conversations with friends or family I wasn't being a very good listener. 

Often, these conversations would take place, when I'd be standing up or  while I was doing something in the kitchen. I'd be ready to get on to the next thing or I'd start to multitask and do something during the conversation, just so that I could keep being productive. Looking back, this is something that I really regret. You never know how much time you'll have with the people you love, so it's really important not to squander it.

On a more positive note, it made me feel really good recently when the other day, my mother told me that she had noticed a change in the way that I was spending time with her. Now I sit down and I listen and I have a conversation and it feels really good. I feel more deeply connected with her, and my husband, and my friends because I no longer hurrying through our time together.

Reduce Productivity Expectations

Another thing that I quit doing was expecting so much productivity out of myself each day. To keep things from falling apart, I did have to spend a fair amount of time changing up the way that I worked and simplifying my processes–both my work processes as well as those personally. I also did an extensive amount of decluttering, both physically and digitally too. Then I took the time that I should have taken a long time ago to get really organized.

Rather than fill up my schedule with the time I saved through these efforts with more productivity, as I would have done in the past, I have consciously limited the number of tasks that I plan to accomplish each day. This allows me to be able to slow down, to contemplate more, to brainstorm how to do things better more often, and just to enjoy life more. I feel like I've been more creative in my work as a result too.

Work Time Boundaries

Work had started to creep into my evening and weekend hours and now I generally don't let that happen anymore. Sometimes if I'm on a creative role, I might keep going, but usually I give myself a hard stop and call it quits when I'm getting ready to start making dinner.

Not working in the evenings by giving myself that boundary of not working after dinner time, has made it a whole lot easier to relax and unwind at the end of the day. This in turn, has improved the quality of my sleep.

Mealtime Became Mealtime

Thinking about meals, back when I was in corporate, I had gotten to the point where almost every lunchtime I would continue to work right through it. I would eat, but I would continue to work while I was eating, just trying to get more done and trying to accomplish more things.

Sometimes I still find myself wanting to be distracted like that, because it had become such a habit for so long. I find myself wanting to read while I'm eating or look at my phone. This particularly happens when I'm eating alone. But now 95% of the time, when I eat, I simply eat. I know this is really beneficial for your gut health–I've experienced this myself.  

Stopping the Hurry

Another big shift that I consciously made, was to stop hurrying. I realized I didn't even recognize how much I was doing this, until I decided to consciously slow down. In my online community, The Art of Intentional Living, there are quite a few people that have expressed that they really relate to this. 

I began to recognize that I had developed patterns over years of hurrying. I walked fast. I drove fast. I even noticed that I was eating fast. I did everything in a hurry. This was definitely a habit that took some time to change, as it was so ingrained in me, having been acting like the Energizer Bunny for so many years. I had to train my body to physically slow down. Honestly, at first it felt a bit uncomfortable, but what I did notice after a period of time, was that my stress levels dropped.

I didn't even realize that hurrying was causing my body stress, until the times when I would then catch myself hurrying and then notice what was happening in my body. Now when I notice, it feels good to just let myself relax, flow, and enjoy life a bit more than I used to.