Whether you are new to our site or a veteran reader who knows exactly what to expect given the Shine logo, there is something in today's post for you.

This week, by the way, is National Take Back Your Time Week.

It's kind of fun to think about taking back your time. I have images of myself marching right up to my three year old son, stomping my feet, and saying, "Give me back the fifteen minutes I had to fight with you about brushing your teeth this morning." Or, how about the person who still uses checks. Wouldn't you love to tap him on the shoulder and ask for the five minutes back you just wasted standing behind him in the check out line?

Truth is, gaining time is a little like losing a bad habit. You never real lose a bad habit, you simply replace it with a new one. The same is true with time. You never really get time back, you just gain more by managing what you have better.

So, if you are Cheryl and this is the Year of Art or Lindsay Marie who is committed to the Year of Yoga, or Peggy all revved up for the Year of Balance, or me determined to make this the Year of the Book, or anyone else excited to make something new happen in 2010, then taking (or making) time is an important topic.

Our friend and companion for the next year, M.J. Ryan, pulls no punches in her book, "This Year I Will..." She explains that, "Falling into the no time trap when it comes to exercising is really like saying to yourself, 'I don't want to work out.' "

And since few of us would admit to such unabashed laziness, we must explore how to steal back the time necessary for making our dreams a reality.

I'll be brief, so I don't end up owing you time.

* I lose time when I allow myself to check email and read blog comments throughout the day. I take back my forty wasted minutes when I only check in twice a day. The extra time could be pages towards my book.

* I lose time when I stay up late watching Iron Chef on the Food Network. I take back the time when I go to bed at a reasonable hour and am able to wake up thirty minutes earlier. Thirty minutes is just enough time to fold and put away a load of laundry or to edit what I wrote the day before.

* I lose time when I don't plan my week in advance, because small pockets of free time are frittered away contemplating what I could be doing if I just had a couple minutes. Taking 30 minutes at the start of the week, to generate a list short tasks, could generate upwards of 70 minutes. That time could be used for reading books about publishing books.

Ryan reminds us, "Time is one of our most precious resources, Even if you can carve out only fifteen minutes a day to devote to your new habit, that's ninety-one hours over the course of one year."

Tell me how you might steal back some time in order to get what you really want this year?