If you don’t have time to do what you wish you would do, ask yourself, “Will this specific action contribute something rich and precious to my life? If I die in one year, will I be happy I did this?” If not, and if you’re under no obligation (like paying bills), I have a suggestion for you: stop wanting to do it – you’re wasting your energy, and irritating yourself.

We accumulate dust in our houses, in our cars, on our clothes, but we accumulate dust in our schedules as well. We hang on not only to old habits, but also to old objectives. Our priorities change, our needs change – sometimes abruptly – and we don’t always adjust. We stopped studying Spanish 10 years ago and we keep trying to go back to it; we imagine going to Mexico and communicating easily with locals, we imagine impressing our friends (and ourselves) when we’ll speak this lovely language… but we never find time or energy to study it. Maybe we don’t really want or need to speak Spanish perfectly, after all… Or maybe we don’t really need to do laundry every other day… maybe we can stop volunteering at our children’s school if we don’t get much out of it anymore.

When we dust our schedule (and our outdated objectives), we make room, we create space for those effervescent priorities that correspond exactly to what we need, at that precise moment; we free ourselves from activities and wishes that do not serve us anymore. Nothing is a true waste of time, of course, but some choices are far more constructive, and fun, than others. You may not be able to order a chicken tortilla and a green salad with dressing on side if you go to Mexico. You may not become a size 0 and fit in your wedding dress, or tuxedo. You may not have 10 clean towels piled up all time. But changing your standards, your expectations, and your objectives, will make you feel like there is room for you in your schedule – and in your life. What would you change in your life if you assumed that living was meant to be a lot of fun?