Are bad habits easier to stick with than good ones? Think about the actions you do every day. Some of them will be good, productive activities and others will be time-wasters and self-gratifying with no particular positive value. What’s the ratio of good to bad? From which activities do you derive the most pleasure?

These are some great questions. This isn’t just about time management. This is about how you live your life. This is about your own personal values and your own sense of self. It’s important to realize that the things we do every day are a direct reflection of our real values and priorities. As I wrote about in my last post, our true priorities in life are reflected in the time and energy spent on various activities. It’s what we actually do that is most important to us.

With that in mind, how are you spending your day? At the end of my last post, I mentioned that I would be reflecting on my own life. I’ve been doing that and I have to tell you that I’m not pleased with the results. In some respects, I’m doing well, but in others I feel like I’ve fallen flat. When examining your life through the prism of actual prioritization, you may find like I did that you waste a lot of time and energy on activities that aren’t benefiting you in any way.

Here’s an example. A long time ago, I wrote a post titled, Don’t Read The News! In this post, I talked about how much time I wasted reading the news and also what a negative influence it had on my outlook on life. There is so much negativity being reported. I asked myself what positive contribution did this information make in my life and the answer was a big nada.

The problem is that I realized that I was still doing it! I have still been reading the news sites at lunch time every day to see what’s going on in the world. Is this really so important to me? Sure, this may seem like I’m overreacting, but what else could I be doing with that 20 or 30 minutes each day that would be a positive addition to my day?

The reason for wasting time like reading news sites is to blow off steam or to let your mind relax. Is it having the desired effect? Maybe it would be better to spend this time doing something else that allows me to relax while at the same time moving me closer to the realization of my goals in life. Remember my post where I said your behaviors should be in line with your goals? It was great advice then and still is now.

The moral of this story is that our lives need constant maintenance. We must be vigilant in keeping ourselves on track with our own values as well as our own goals. You have to change the oil on that car every three months or so to keep it in good shape, right? The tires must be filled and the alignment periodically checked, too. There are lots of factors involved in maintaining a car and our lives are similar. Today is a great day to make sure your tires are properly inflated and your alignment is dead on.