1. Prioritize your daily activities with this exercise developed by Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1990).
Write down everything you try to do in a day (from driving the kids to school, working and taking a yoga class to reading, spending time with your partner and making phone calls to friends). On another piece of paper, draw a line horizontally across the centre of the page; write important on top and not important on the bottom. Next, draw a line vertically across the centre of the page; write urgent on the right side and not urgent on the left.
Slot all the to-dos from your list into their proper quadrant (for some people, watching a TV show ends up on the urgent side because a particular show is only on at a certain time; for some, calling a friend might end up on the not urgent side because you can call any time). Sit back and ponder your choices and consider that activities that aren't urgent are often the ones that fall by the wayside when you run out of time -- but they're also the ones that slow you down overall. See If you can reprioritize some of your daily activities.
Try to focus on those activities that may not be urgent but are important over the long term, including working out and connecting with friends.
2. To help get you thinking about lifestyle choices, pretend you're 90 and looking back on your life, advises Lindsay Sukornyk, a life and leadership coach in Toronto. As that 90-year-old, think about the things you wish you'd done and not done, she says. Are you living in a way that will help you fulfil those wishes? For example, if you want to be a healthy grandmother who plays with her grandchildren, are you taking time to be active?
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