Creating Blue Sky Time

Giving of your time to help others is a good thing, right?

It's rewarding.

You get that warm, fuzzy feeling.

And it may simply just feel good.

But what happens when you're constantly giving to others and don't spend enough time taking care of yourself?

As a 17-year veteran of the non-profit field I can tell you exactly what happens.

Weight gain.

Increased stress.

High blood pressure.

Exhaustion.

Back and knee pain.

I used to suffer from all of these until I decided enough was enough.

I dropped 20lbs., got rid of all joint and back pain, and my blood pressure became normal again.

The best part was that I became more productive and had more energy to get me through the long days.

How?

I started by creating Blue Sky Time for myself.

Blue Sky time refers to the time that you make for yourself that doesn't involve work or chores.

It's your time to have fun, re-energize, rest and simply enjoy life.

There are variations of this technique but here's the one that I used and continue to use.

What you'll need:

• A calendar - phone, computer or planner will do
• 4 markers - red, green, yellow and blue
  

What the colors represent:

GREEN = ACTION: This represents your daily work responsibilities. Think of green as the ACTION color where you are able to accomplish your daily goals.

YELLOW = PLANNING: Create time in your day where you can sit quietly and plan. For example, before starting your daily work responsibilities take 15-30 minutes to organize and prioritize your daily To Do list.

RED = UNTOUCHABLE: This represents meetings, appointments and tasks that you absolutely should not move, reschedule or cancel. For example this may be a staff meeting, a one on one supervision meeting with a staff person, a meeting with your supervisor, even a doctor’s appointment.

BLUE SKY = “ME” TIME: This represents everything not related to work or chores. This time is meant specifically for rest, relaxation, re-energizing and enjoyment. For example, taking a nap, reading a book, going to the movies, exercising, having dinner with a friend.

Getting Started:
1. Select a week that has a clear start and end date. I would recommend Monday - Sunday to keep it simple.

2. Looking at your week ahead start by coloring in your Blue Sky time. Use "I" statements as seen in the sample calendar below.

After you've picked all of your Blue Sky Time then mark in your Red=Untouchable followed by Yellow=Planning and ending with Green=Action.

9-9:30a.m. - Create To Do List for the day
9:30a.m.-12p.m.
12-1p.m. - Lunch w/ Lisa (co-worker)
1-3p.m.
3-3:15p.m. - Re-visit To Do list to see what needs to be done and decide if anything needs to be pushed to the next day
3:15 - 4p.m. - 1 on 1 mtng w/ Amy to finalize project
4-5p.m. - 1 on 1 supervisory meeting with Steve
5-5:30p.m. - Wrap-up and plan for the next day
6:30-7:30p.m. - I will attend a Slim Down Fitness class (shameless plug)
8-9:30p.m. - I will attend Jose's birthday dinner

3. Once you have created your weekly calendar commit to it. It may be tempting to move your Blue Sky time around to accommodate other things happening in your life. Fight this urge.

Don't forget to join us next week for unlimited fat-blasting Slim Down fitness classes, our Foods that Fight Belly Fat mini-seminar, and our Summer in the City Happy Hour.

Simply click here to request your complimentary VIP pass.

You can find complete details here:

Slim Down with Fit 4 Life NYC

It's time you started making yourself a priority.

As always, I'm here to help so feel free to contact me at slimdown@fit4lifenyc.com.

Your friendly fitness pro,

Emil