Fork Off!

Protecting Your Pie Whole

Don’t get your hopes up…Mary Cherry does NOT bake pies. And the only recipes I have for you aren’t edible. But before we get to that, I have a confession. I was overserving my pie. All day every day, giving away free pieces. Leaving crumbs of goodness behind. And most importantly, I was cutting the slices into the wrong size.

Say what? Too many double entendres? Okay, let’s break this recipe down!

 6 Scrumptious Slices

Imagine this. . . your juicy, mouthwatering [theoretical] pie is divided up into 6 slices:

1.     Family

2.     Friends

3.     Marriage/relationship

4.     Job/career

5.     Self-care

6.     Travel

Cutting Defined Slices

First things first, the slices must be cut into defined slices. No custard oozing from the side. No chunks dropping over.

For instance, take the self-care slice. Let’s say you set aside a couple of hours on Saturday to work on your oil painting. Your easel and supplies are set up in the office. And before you know it, your kids are pounding on your door and breaking and entering on your self-care time. Suddenly, your self-care slice and family slice have merged into one big blob! The result: you’re neither here nor there.

 Individuating Slices

So, now what? How do you individuate slices? Here are a few examples:

• Set up your self-care outside of the home

• Refrain from excessively face-timing kids when you’re at the Bahamas with your honey pie

• Answer your friend’s call later when your playing Monopoly with your kids

• Silence personal calls when at work

Permission to Fork

Now that the slices are divided, the real decision-making starts … how will you break down each slice into smaller sub-parts? For example, if your friendship slice takes up 20% of your life, how many people are you willing to split that slice with? Does each friend get the same sub-slice?

Or, say you’re making travel plans..do your kids and family get to bombard every trip? Or do you split up that slice into sub-parts where each group gets 1/3 of the travel slice?

A Savory Recap

Good news … you own the pie AND the damn fork. Pieces of your life only go where and to whom you’ve handed off the dish to. As for the rest…well…they can fork off!   

*Note to Reader: This pie was originally baked and served to me as a new way of looking at time management {and life} by the Belle of the Ball, Belinda.