Category: time

business, career, entrepreneurship, fear, time

My Year of Hopefulness – Fear #5 of Entrepreneurship

Christa Avampato

“I don’t have enough time.”

Running a business, particularly as a side venture in addition to a day job, is time-consuming no question. There will be trade-offs. I’ve found that a good deal of organization and keeping initial goals small helps to temper this fear of not having enough time. Starting a business can be an overwhelming project, though breaking it down into small bite-sized action items makes the idea less daunting.

Here are some ideas to make the time management portion of your new business more manageable:

1.) Develop an action plan, a task list, and a timeline to stay on track with small goals

2.) Celebrate achievements small and large, especially at the very early stage of starting a business – developing the first draft of your business plan, meeting a contact that has the potential to be a partner, deciding on the name of your company, etc., launching your website. Every accomplishments is worth at least a little celebration.

3.) Get some help – could be an intern, a family member, a friend, or a potential business partner to give a few hours of their time. Sharing the load can take some of the pressure off.

4.) Fun organization tools abound at places like Target, Container Store, and Staples. Use them to keep you motivated in your quest for organization.

5.) Set a realistic time frame. There’s a lot of pressure in the world to move as fast as possible all the time. Running a business is a long-term commitment and slow, managed growth wins the race.

6.) Remember that the time will pass any way, regardless of how you spend it so why not invest in an idea that you have and see if you can make a go of it? The worst that can happen is that you’ll still have your day job, you will learn a lot about yourself and what you want out of your life, and you can always switch gears and work on a different idea if the first one doesn’t work out.

When I was in college, I was feeling overwhelmed by some paper or exam. One of my roommates gave me a very small two inch picture frame. To this day, it still sits on my desk to remind me that all I have to do at this very moment is enough work to fill that two inch frame. And once I finish with that first small task, I can move on to another. That two inch frame doesn’t reduce the amount of work I have – it just gives me a perspective that’s a little bit easier to deal with.

choices, decision-making, environment, family, future, garden, nature, time

My Year of Hopefulness – Stay on Path

Christa Avampato

At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden yesterday, Mom and I kept seeing these small wooden signs that said simply “Please Stay on Path”. As we talked about my life and career, we considered what my path might be and how I can shape it to encompass all of my interests and passions. We thought about all the different ways that we get distracted, what causes us to lose focus, and how we can regain our bearings.

Staying on path at the garden is much easier than it is in life. It’s easy to lose direction, to veer off our course, some times without even realizing exactly how it happened. Some opportunity seemed like something we wanted to follow or we had an experience that made us consider a different way forward. Sometimes these side trips are life changing for the better and sometimes our interest in these new pursuit fades as quickly as it appeared.

And then there’s the question of flexibility. We get new information all of the time and we want to make sure that we have enough flexibility to incorporate the relevant info into our plans. Think of it like our bones. We want our bodies to be flexible, though the strength of our bone structure makes all of our activities possible. Without the rigidity of our bones, we’d never go anywhere! A life road map provides the same kind support.

I’ve found very often that I make much better life choices when I am running toward something and not away from something. It’s the difference between looking forward and looking back, and making choices depending upon which of these actions has more say in our decisions. I like a good balance of both. I want to be informed by my past and not ruled by it. I want to be hopeful and excited about my future without sacrificing the wonderful things about the present.

There’s nothing that says a path has to be a straight shot. Mom and I wound through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, explored the different routes, and trusted in a healthy dose of meandering. Our map helped to make sure that we didn’t miss things we really wanted to see and that we headed only down roads that interested us. We had our priorities of what we wanted to see, things that would be fun if we had time, and things that we’d prefer to skip. And we took time to smell the flowers along the way. We enjoyed being surprised by things around the bend. We let our senses guide us on some adventures to things we had missed on the map. It’s a beautiful metaphor for how to live life.

change, schedule, time

My Year of Hopefulness – Time for Me

Christa Avampato

I am an over-scheduler. I am so worried about missing out on an opportunity that I routinely wear myself out with my scheduling. My sister, Weez, continually tells me that my weekends are busier than my workweek. She’s right. I’ve never learned the art of sitting still.

I marvel at my friend, Ken, who is so capable of carving out time just for himself to do whatever he wants depending on his mood and energy level. I’m so concerned with living up to expectations, put on me by myself and others, that I have a tough time scheduling Me time. And it’s critical – it’s something I’ve got to work on getting better at, particularly with my aspirations to start my own business at some point.

The calendar on my Palm is my best friend – it keeps going to the right place at the right time, always prepared. What I need to focus on in the next few months is using it as a tool to get more Time for Me. While I can be flexible if something wonderful arises, I need to make sure I am setting aside some time every week that is not scheduled – some time that is free to take shape based upon what the world has in-store for me and what I’d like to accomplish independent of any other opportunity.

It’s the 9th of May and I’m wondering where the first 4 months of 2009 went. I shouldn’t be wondering how that happened – my life should feel full but not stuffed. I should feel engaged with life but not overwhelmed by it. And I have the power to change that by putting aside the time to let myself relax, breath, and just be present, right here right now.

change, death, family, friendship, legacy, time

My Year of Hopefulness – Our after-effect

Christa Avampato

Whenever I think about Penn, I imagine it to look like it did when I was there as a student. And every time I go back, I am always surprised to see how much it has changed. The place I imagine in my mind isn’t in the world anymore. Change happened without me.

My friend, Jamie, and I took a stroll along Battery Park at lunch time this week and a woman stopped us. She looked a little lost. “When does this park end?” she asked us. “I haven’t been in this neighborhood for 20 years and it looks completely different. This park wasn’t even here then!”

When we leave a place, we have a tendency to fix it in our minds. Even though we change and grow, we expect places we’ve been and people we’ve known to stay the same. It’s too much for us to imagine that life goes on without us.

Today I went to the funeral services for my Aunt Lorraine. She was a lovely lady that never forgot a birthday, an anniversary, or any other important occasion that involved her family members and friends. She lived a happy, long life, and I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to have her with us for so long.

On my drive home from the funeral, I kept looking at the clock, registering in my mind that all these minutes were unraveling, that I was traveling mile after mile, and my Aunt Rain wasn’t here with us anymore. Time went on, and we’ll all go on to make new memories even though she won’t be with us. And she’s going on without us, too.

I shed tears over the injustice of it all, of having to let go of people we love as a natural course of life. Change and time cannot be stopped. One day will fold into the next, whether or not we’re around. What changes because of our existence and the interaction we have in specific places with specific people is the how. How will one day become the next for me because I had my Aunt Lorraine as a role model? How does she live on in all of us even if she can’t be with us? And how do we want the world to go once our time has come and gone? This is really the only work that needs our attention.

The above images is from http://clock-desktop.com/screens/shiny_clock/palms-clock.jpg

charity, family, hope, time, volunteer

My Year of Hopefulness – Dress for Success

Christa Avampato

My mom keeps everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! She has magazine that are older than I am. It drives me nuts, though I there’s also something endearing about it. She feels comfortable surrounded by her things. And in these times, who among us couldn’t use a little more comfort?

It was with great surprise that my mom emailed me yesterday and asked for a name of an agency that donates business clothes to women who are looking to get jobs in offices though cannot afford appropriate clothing. In some ways, it pains my mom to give away her things and here she is finding a way to make that task less painful by giving away extra clothes to people who need it most. I pointed her to Dress for Success.

I was thinking about this and considering this lesson in my own life. I enjoy waking up early, though I don’t enjoy having early morning obligations. However, I’m so excited to volunteer with God’s Love We Deliver that I’m willing to be there at 6:30am once a week. What better use could I have for any early morning that packing up meals for people who are in need of them?

It’s a good lesson for me to consider. We all have things we don’t necessarily like to do, though they may be necessary to do them. The trick is figuring out how to do them in a way that gives joy rather than in a way that causes discomfort.

productivity, time, to-do lists, work

In Praise of Emptiness

Christa Avampato

I’m looking at my to-do lists for the weekend. 23 items, some of them time consuming. And this is just a typical low-key weekend for me. No traveling, I’m not hosting any event, none of the tasks require advanced preparation. 23 items – exactly who do I think I am that I can finish a first week of a job, jam pack my weekend, and be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for Monday morning?


This week in the New York Times, there was an article entitled “A Place and an Era in Which Time Could Stand Still“. It discusses the need to let kids have some time with nothing to do during summer camp rather than cramming activity after activity into their days. And this consideration is worth a look for adults, too, especially those engaged in creative pursuits. We need time to let our task-master minds unwind if we are to get at our best creative thinking. It’s buried beneath all of our to-do lists and action items.     

Why do we keep doing this to ourselves? Why are we obsessed with the need to be productive at every moment. Our European neighbors have a way of looking at life that is practically the antithesis of the American view – they enjoy life and the people around them. They savor the experience of life and the simple happiness that comes from lingering over a cup of coffee and a good book in an outdoor cafe. We chug the coffee and speed read the book in a packed subway car. Is it any wonder that we are dealing with so many health issues and a general lack of enjoyment in this country?

Recognizing this need to unwind, the editors at Real Simple Magazine put together a 14-day stress detox program. I looked for an on-line link but the list is only available in print and includes things like taking time to be grateful and investing a little time in gardening of any kind, even if it’s just a windowsill house plant. It’s well worth the look with one caveat – I would recommend stretching out the changes and enjoying them, reflecting on them, and fully ingesting their meaning and power. The last thing we need is another deadline and a another item on a rushed to-do list.   
health, insomnia, sleep, time

Smoothing ruffled minds

Christa Avampato

Last night, I went to listen to my friend, Dan’s, DJ mix at the Time Out New York Lounge at New World Stages. His show, Lush & Lively, features a fabulous mix of groovy re-creations of old standards. The music really just makes me smile. I hadn’t seen Dan in over a month – a travesty as I am used to seeing about once a week. Times gets away from us too easily. This started me down the road to thinking about how much our busy lives actually effect the state of our minds.

I came across a quote today by Charlotte Bronte that could be the mantra for all of us that suffer from time to time, or all the time as the case may be, from insomnia. “A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.” A large part of my sleeping problems are self-induced. My mind is working so fast so often that it has a hard time going to sleep. It is stubborn about turning off.

Meditation helps. Yoga helps even more because it pairs meditation with physical activity. I’ve been known to run simply to exhaust myself as much as possible. What really helps is slowing down and I am growing more conscious of my ability to slow down my life despite the world’s efforts to continuously speed it up.

Yesterday, I was meeting Dan at 6, precisely, so that way I could get somewhere else by 7:30, and be home by exactly 10 to finish up some work before going to bed. Fine to do on occasion. Ludicrous to think that kind of rigid planning in my social life is sustainable. So I moved my 7:30 back half an hour, and lengthened by then-8:00 by half an hour. I gave myself some room to breathe, and I was able to get a better night’s sleep because I hadn’t felt rushed all evening long to get here, there, and everywhere.

To be sure, valuing your time as the most precious resource on the planet is a difficult task because demands are placed upon you by external sources. However, giving myself the permission to control the impact of those outside sources, even if just for one evening, yields such good results that I’m having difficulty valuing my time as anything less than precious. Could that one decision be the key to calming down our ruffled minds?

The image above can be found at: http://startupblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/salvador-dali-clock.jpg

blogging, career, New York Times, sleep, time, work, writer, writing

The occupational hazard of blogging and other creative outlets

Christa Avampato

This week, the New York Times ran a story on three prolific bloggers who, it is believed, blogged themselves to death. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/technology/06sweat.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=media) The stress of the constant need to publish as quickly and as often as humanly possible caused them to fall into poor health. Several friends immediately sent me the article, knowing that I try as best as I can to publish daily on my own blog. I don’t always make it, though I am always on the look out for new content and new ideas.

I feel terrible for the families and friends of these writers, the oldest of which was only 60. It is always tragic to see anyone consumed by what they love. I read the article closely, several times, and there are a few things that on the surface I feel may have saved these people. I hope by sharing them with you that they may help other people who feel obsessed with their jobs for whatever reason.

I completely understand insomnia – I’ve suffered with it for most of my life. I understand anxiety about money – I grew up in a family with very little, and only recently have been able to breath a bit easier about my finances. There were a few huge things in my life that have made a difference in my level of anxiety – I consciously decide to not be a workaholic, and I practice yoga every day, no matter how short an amount of time.

When I worked in DC, some of my office mates would make fun of me because at 5:30, nearly every day, I was out the door. I would feel angry about their teasing sometime, though most of the time I let it go. My mom works herself to the bone. I mean to the absolute brink. It was painful for me, as a kid, to watch her. A year and a half ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and from her recovery bed, she was on her computer. Some call this dedication. There’s no denying my mom is a dedicated woman; unfortunately, she is dedicated to a fault. A very large fault, that very easily could cost her, and her children, her life.

Even today, I will come in early, I will work on things at home at night, but I never, and I mean never, allow myself to fall into the habit of staying in the office past 5:30. On occasion, I get it – deadlines pop up, and an occasional late night is necessary. When I went looking for a job after business school, I was adamant about finding one that afforded me a life and time to live it. This is a conscious choice – I ALWAYS have more work, I could always be doing more. I choose to let it lie for the next day. I could very easily become a workaholic; it’s in my blood. I fight that temptation every step of the way, and I refuse to back down in the face of my impulse to work “just a little bit more”.

Yoga, quite honestly, saved my life. It helped me forgive a lot of sadness and disappointment. It helped me cope during times of extreme stress. It gave me the strength to get up, again and again, with an open heart. It is a discipline. After years of practice, I can sleep, in relative peace. And when I can, where I can, I am out in the world singing yoga’s praises, sharing my knowledge about it. Everyone needs a healthy release – yoga is mine.

Anything in the world can get the best of you – food, drugs, gambling, smoking, love, an obsessive hobby, and yes, work, no matter what field you’re in. You have more control over you than anyone in the word, whether you realize it or not. At every moment we have a choice. If we are doing something, anything, that harms us, it’s easier to blame someone else. Our boss, our romantic partner, our friends. The truth is others control us when we allow them to. Ultimately, our happiness, the very activities that compose our lives, are all choices. And choosing what to do among many options is the hardest, and most important, task we have. I consciously remind myself every morning that my time is the most valuable resource in the world, and I treat it accordingly.

time

Keeping time on your side

Christa Avampato

” Who forces time is pushed back by time; who yields to time finds time on his side.
~The Talmud”

Every once in a while I have a day when it seems that every one of my efforts to do anything productive is thwarted. And I get so frustrated that I think it would have been a better use of my time to just stay home. So, I work harder and put in more effort to try to get done what I need to get done. I fail miserably, and eventually I do give up and go home. Some days, the world has other plans for us.

What I should do in these situations is take a seat somewhere, breathe, and just re-collect my thoughts so that my actions aren’t wasted. So when I stumbled on this quote the other day, I wrote it down and tucked it away in my wallet to pull out the next time I’m having one of these “why can’t I get this to work?” moments. Because sometimes, staying home is just not an option.

happiness, Real Simple, self-help, Sue Monk Kidd, time

On Happiness: A Matter of Time

Christa Avampato

Some people are surprised to hear that the self-help section on a book store often has the most robust sales. Closet self-helpers like me are the reason; I am a fanatic about it. It often took me many hours to slog through accounting and finance books while I was in school. Self-help books I have been known to fly through at lightning speed.
So when the Today Show launched its most recent series, “5 ways to improve your life”, I naturally made a note of it a la David Allen, the author of “Getting things Done”, so I could check it out later. I must say the writers and researchers of the Today show are working overtime these days. About a year ago, I was becoming very disenchanted with them, though now they seem to be back on track. The information is useful – 5 ways to healthier bones, 5 ways to tone up, 5 ways to ride out the market, 5 ways to save for college, etc. In their section “5 ways to live longer”, one of the suggestions is “make the decision that your time is the most valuable thing in the world.” This, by far, is my favorite. An entire self-help book in one sentence.
I think of all the times that I hand over my time willy-nilly. I do it grudgingly on occasion, though I often treat my time as if it is entirely flexible. What if I compared my resource of time with ways I use other resources? Money, energy, my health, the love of my friends and family. I would never even dream of wasting those resources, and not in small part because those resources have a quantifiable limit. If I waste any one of them, there are dire consequences. I haven’t been thinking of my time that way on a consistent basis. Yes, I know when I am doing a project and my time is running out, then I see how precious it is. But what about my free time? Why do I give that away on a daily basis? Why do I treat it as if it is a resource in abundance rather than something precious?
The root of the problem is that I have not been looking at my time as something I truly own. It belongs to work, to my hobbies, to people in my personal life, to my community. What I need to do is flip that around. I own my time and have every ability and every right to decide how to divvy it up. It goes back to what Sue Monk Kidd wrote in The Secret Life of Bees, “The hardest thing on Earth is choosing what matters.”
And everything always comes back to this choice, this decision of how to spend time. No matter what decision I am pondering, at the root, it is all about time. Even decisions that seem to be about money or health or family. They are really based on “how much time do I have and how much of it do I want to spend on (fill in the blank)?”
This revelation is game-changing. We cannot help but live our lives differently if we begin to place an increasingly high value on the actual minutes that make up our lives. And not just those crucial moments or highlights like getting married, having a baby, graduating from school, getting a new job, buying a home, taking a vacation. Every minute – they all count. They’re all precious. They’re all unique – truly. We cannot repeat a single one of them. There is no do-over, no rewind.
I am a huge fan of Real Simple magazine, and one of their website features is wallpaper for the computer that contains a simple, brightly colored picture and an inspirational quote. On my desk top right now is one by Arthur Ashe and it seems particularly relevant to this post. “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” And what we give to everything we do is time. Treat it like a gift.