Astrology of Time Management: Bringing Balance Into Productivity

Being extremely busy is inevitable for most of us some of the time - especially if you have passionate commitments in several life areas, and/or you need to support your family. During certain heavy transits or progressions (e.g. Pluto's hard transit to Saturn* or vice versa), the responsibility and workload may increase to an overwhelming degree, creating potential for a lot of stress.

When feeling overwhelmed, it's important for us to gain a clear perspective. Here I share with you a tool that I learned in one of my coaching sessions. You might have heard of it:

The Mind Dump
It's very simple - you take a sheet of paper (larger the better), and begin writing everything you want/need to do that is on your mind, in any areas of your life. Don't stop to figure out how to complete each task at this stage, just keep listing your problems, goals, concerns etc, from the most mundane (change the light bulb, make a minor car repair, call that person) to most significant (your life goals, or dreams of traveling to a foreign country etc.)

If you're overwhelmed, chances are you'll end up with a quite long list. I just did mine and ended up with some 80 or so tasks...No wonder I was feeling overwhelmed! The benefit of taking time to do this may be self evident as you go through it, but here are some of them:

• It frees up the mind enormously not to have to carry these tasks/concerns in our head.
• By having it on paper you can begin to tackle the tasks one by one, and ensure to get everything done eventually.
• It's easier to prioritize between tasks if you have them listed in one place.

If you feel overwhelmed or stressed out (or if you simply want to be more productive,) give it a try - I promise you will feel a lot less burdened after completion.

Mind Dump & Holistic Time Management - Astrologer's Version
Here is how you might want to work with the result of the mind dump: As I went through the list, I noticed that about 75% of the tasks were related to work/business, and other 25% of them related to nonprofit work. As these have to do with 10th and 6th house (and naturally correspond to 2nd house of finance and self worth, as well as 8th house of others' well being), you could say these are the high priority life areas for me at this time in my life.

The thing is, I can easily make myself work from morning to late evening and burn myself out - that would be an imbalance, with too much focus on 10th and 6th house. However, if I find myself avoiding work and spending lots of time doing other things (say 5th house of entertainment or 9th house of inspirational study) I'd be out of balance there as well.

To be balanced, I'd need to recognize my priorities, then manage my time accordingly, without losing sight of other important life areas. Consider the following life areas:

12 Houses and Possible Ways of Spending Time
Fire House (Improving Self image; Re-creation, Inspiration)

• 1st house - Taking time to exercise and reinforcing a positive body image as well as improve health.
• 5th house - Entertainment (TV, reading fiction, sex, watching sports, and creative hobbies.) Taking care of your children. Letting your inner child come out and play.
  
• 9th house - Elevating the Mind: Studying a spiritual text, traveling abroad, learning about another culture or language, attending an inspirational seminar, etc. Changing the worldview.

Earth House (Work, Service, Creating Values)

• 2nd house - Taking care of your finance (saving, investing long term etc.) Improving your self worth. Clarifying what you value.
• 6th house - Engaging in service of/with others. A job. Helping people.
  
• 10th house - Your career and vocation. A calling in life. Taking on responsibilities in an organization.
  

Air House (Intellectual growth, Social Life, Relationship)

• 3rd house - Reading periodicals (keeping up with news), gathering and sharing interesting/useful information. Fixing your car. Commuting.
  
• 7th house - Relationships with significant others, or the public in general.
  
• 11th house - Being among a group of like minded people. Helping others.
  

Water House (Nourishing Emotions, Intuitions, and the Spirit)

• 4th house - Taking care of your home and family. Nourishing yourself through physical/emotional food. Home improvement. Or simply relaxing at home.
  
• 8th house - Healing activities. Being a custodian of others' wealth or well being.
• 12th house - Private suffering. Enjoying solitude. Having a retreat. Working with dreams (taking time to sleep). Meditation. Releasing ego's attachment to all other houses.
  

Summary
If you feel overwhelmed with too much to do, try the Mind Dump. See where your priorities are, and where your time is going. For me, I found that I wasn't taking enough time with Water house activities (or non-activities) - and being a very Watery-horoscope person, I felt dried up after a few weeks of overwork. I took time for Fire house activities through exercise, entertainment and inspirational study, but they didn't substitute for the rest and quiet time represented by the Water houses.

If you try this exercise and make any helpful discoveries, please feel free to share through comments or emails.



*Saturn represents responsibility, and Pluto transit magnifies its symbolism to an extreme degree. Hence the hard aspect transit/progression between these two planets signify hard, hard work, with emphasized threat of loss (Saturn.)