Perception is Everything

     Sometime over the last several months, I read an article in Reader's Digest about how we handle what we perceive as shortages of something, like time for example.  I wish now I had kept the article for reference, but this is more or less how I remember the point of it:  When we perceive we have a shortage of something, we obsess over it, thereby creating a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.  The shortage becomes as bad as we think it is.  Only it doesn't.
     I think I have fallen into this--what would you call it?--pattern?  Or maybe trap is a better term.  Granted, I work two jobs, and my second job is teaching college English.  That means a couple of nights a week, I go to school after my day job, then home and to bed after class.  It also means that at least part of my weekends is taken up with lesson planning and grading papers. Add to that Mr. Weezy and the pups, and I have a pretty full life.  Still ...
     I am constantly complaining about how I don't have time for anything.  In fact, I would go so far as to say I whine about it.  A lot.  And it makes me unhappy.  Yes, I'm busy. But in reality, I know my time shortage is not nearly as large as I think it is. If it were, I wouldn't have seen so many reruns of Castle and Bones, right?
     My students are forever bemoaning their busy lives that make it so difficult for them to get their schoolwork done, and I forever reply that if they tracked their activities for a couple of days, they would realize things like TVs, computers, Smart Phones, and tablets are sucking up a lot of their time, and that in truth, they do have the time to do schoolwork. Hmmm ...  could this mean that if I stop watching reruns, I might be able to get all of my tasks done?
     I always take an inventory in my classes of how many students have daily planners, whether paper or electronic.  Very few of them do.  I proceed to give them the whole spiel about how a planner is crucial to their college success because they will never get everything done without using one.  I tell them that it isn't enough to have the planner though--they actually have to use it.  Time to take my own advice, I guess. I have a planner, and I do use it, but apparently not enough and/or not efficiently enough.
     So, from this point forward, my intention is to use my planner in the right way. I am going to schedule everything I have to do every day, making sure to schedule in some time for exercise and enjoyment, too.  I mean, all work and no play ... well, you know the rest.  Now, let's just hope I find the time to do it.