A Well-Paced Day: A Day in the Life Sunday

The alarm clock goes off in the morning and I am up.

No slow morning stretch here. I am instantly upright and out of bed as I wake to reminders, notifications and updates. Not the noisy ones I could set on my personal BB, my work BB or my iPad, but the imaginary - just as annoying ones - on the mental to-do list in my head. They are set off the moment my eyes open and they are all overdue.

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date . . . and so my days begin.

It is a frenetic pace that leaves me drained, ineffective and at times, feeling very alone, at the end of the day.

My friend, Becky Robinson, recently asked her readers, How Do You Pace Yourself?. When she described the pace of an enjoyable day for her, s I was right there with her. I know the feeling of a well-paced day and I've even said the words out loud, "This is such a great day. It has a nice pace to it."

In research from SHRM on the aspects most important to an HR professional's job satisfaction, communication between employees and senior management was at the top of the list with the largest gap (48%) between the level of importance and the level of satisfaction. My unofficial personal research says that this carries through to communication between a a stressed woman and her family, friends, and colleagues.

Those great days with such a nice pace I referenced earlier? They were filled with communication and in-the-moment connection. When I speed race through my days I get (a ton of) things done yet, if I am not careful, I can lose myself and my connection to those around me in the process.

In Alice, the White Queen believed in as many as six impossible things before breakfast. A well-paced day is not an impossible thing. Nor is a well-paced life. No rabbit holes required.

What's a girl to do? What do you do?

Photo credit: Return to Eden