Let's face it - we all have busy lives. Between work and family, we're lucky to have a few spare moments each day to relax and unwind. Those of us in the peace movement often try to use this time to keep up with what is going on in our respective areas of interest. It can sometimes become overwhelming, and is a major reason why people in the peace movement are often prone to depression or burnout.
As a result, the first rule of thumb is to always take time to relax, even when there seems to be a lot of work to be done. You're no good to anyone or anything if you're tired, cranky, and worn out.
Effective time management skills are also good to have. Sometimes it seems as though our society is structured in a way as to purposely render people ineffective for anything other than being corporate drones - work us to the bone, keep us tired, and whatever other time we have we try to spend with loved ones. This is a priority structure that is backwards.
Still, there are rather simple ways to keep up with events, both local and international, while still maintaining your sanity:
- Subscribe to a few listservs on topics of interest, as well as local progressive communications groups, where you will find out about upcoming events. Pick only a handful - it is amazing how fast one's e-mail inbox can fill up. Scan each e-mail for items of interest, and read in-depth the ones that are truly relevant to you.
- If you are involved with organizations, you know all about how time-consuming meetings can be. For those of you involved with more than one organization, alternate dates on which you attend meetings, so that you do not have weeks where you are at a meeting nearly every night.
- Newspapers and magazines are great to read, but can pile up to a massive paper attack if left unattended. Unless you truly have time to sit down and read on a regular basis, you can get most of your news online - besides, there are excellent progressive news sites to be found that can't be accessed anywhere else.
- Ditto for television - most of the major networks are corporation owned and operated, so head for more grassroots sources like independent videos that can be found on YouTube or various independent media sites. Besides, television can eat up time like no one's business.
Stay informed, stay turned, and stay balanced!
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