Changing your life style

During a lifetime, how many times a person changes its life style? Hair (size, color, style), clothes (formal, casual, elegant  and even values (economy, joy, love for family) are changed so many times in our life. Most of the time is under the influence of something external.

Advertisement takes advantage of that, sometimes being so powerful that helps the change to happen. For instance, the number of people who acquired a smart phone or tablet, which changed their life style in many ways, just because of a few ads here and there, and the implicit suggestion that by having those you will be smarter, cooler or anything like that.

Sometimes your life style is changed due to a need. With the present economic crisis, many people of richer countries are learning to live a simple life.

Well, what about changing life style based on a personal decision? That happens a lot among people who decide to take a spiritual path (like me) or in relation to personal health, but it can also apply on cases when the person acknowledges the need of a certain habit to be part of his or her life.

Habits are not created just like that - not in 21 days or one month. Some habits - like brushing your teeth or waking up at a certain times - can take years to be created. However, habits are very fragile as they normally rely on external factors - brushing teeth when mom and dad are around, or waking up later during holidays. To make a habit last longer, you have to change your own life style - carrying toothbrush around all the time or schedule early yoga practice during holidays.

Time management in its more useful way takes the shape of a habit, something the user is not even conscious but it is there, monitoring every act of the user's life. For the habit to be part of a person's life and to show its benefits, the person has to change their life style.

What is the best life style for a person who is concerned about time management? There is no "right" answer for that, but there are a few factors I have been observing along the years:

• Fashion, hair and clothes take a very pragmatic approach. One interesting case was a Brazilian senator who used to have EXACTLY seven EQUAL suits. OK, let's not exaggerate; but it helps if your fashion is an ally for your TM habits, or if you schedule a longer time for dressing at least.
• Clocks everywhere! Hook's nightmare, but the reality is that most "TM people" have more than one clock or watch: bedroom, over the table, kitchen, office desk, wrist, etc. As it's a life style we are talking about, take advantage of that to have the best or the most beautiful pieces.
• Diary, agendas, schedules. A "TM person" moves according to a fix table of activities, right? Not really. In this case, you have to understand the way you are and see how you want to handle this. I myself have: one schedule (GCal), another informal To-Do list (StickNotes), a prioritization scheme using draft paper and, when I lack a gadget, a small notebook to take notes of appointments and incorporate to the rest. Crazy, right? But it works, it helps my very flexible life style.
• Relaxation periods. You will find very important, to keep the balance, to have a fixed period of relaxation, which can take the form of yoga, walk on the park or sitting with your kids every Friday night.

Hope this helps you in your process of keeping your Time Management as part of your life, not at some course book. Take care!