You deserve more time for yourself. More me time. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of me time your life must be miserable indeed. The next minute or so of our time together should help with that.
Here are seven strategies to find more time for yourself. Mix and match. Pick and pull. Gather what glimmers and make it work for you. You’ll live better for the effort.
1. Trick your schedule – Get up an hour earlier than you usually do. Going to sleep earlier will come naturally and you’ll find yourself making the happy trade between low-value distracted evening hours and wakeful starts to a more relaxed morning.
2. Recharge with a power outage – Turn of electronic gadgets for a day. Even better, set hours during which you allow yourself to use all the fancy gadgets you’ve surrounded yourself with. There’s really no need for that iPad to be in your bed and most of us don’t risk loss of life by powering down a phone for the evening.
3. Keep a “no” journal – Journal how many times you say “yes” to extra things that you really wanted to say “no” to then make a change for the better. You may need to rehearse saying no a few times before you get over the feeling that you’ve done something wrong. Soon you’ll see a trend of better energy put into things you really enjoy and aim to get results from.
4. Schedule abandonment – Look at your calendar and decide which things to skip out ahead of time, so you know that you have the time, rather than last-minute frazzled not showing up because life intervened.
5. Steer toward delight – Physically remove yourself from the things that make you feel like they matter more than they do. Determine to leave the house on Saturday at the same time that you do for work, and then use your Saturday morning to do yoga or write in a coffee shop or whatever it is that you don’t have time for because you always really need to clean on Saturdays. Got kids? Got a partner or friend you can ship them off to? The coffee shop or yoga class can still happen.
6. Quit your job – Not your primary job. The activity that takes up as much time as a second job but doesn’t deliver the paycheck or the joy to make it worthwhile. You might drink a lot. You might read weight loss blogs. You might watch TV for hours on end. Blow your schedule wide open by cutting the activity from your life and opening your world up to new opportunities.
7. Cash in some favors – Make time for yourself by asking others for their time the same way they ask you to give up yours. That coworker who leaves early because you cover for her? That partner who spends every Saturday evening on the town? It’s time for them to step up and give you some of the freedom you’ve helped them attain before.
Have you experienced success in finding time for yourself? Let us know in a comment and thanks for sharing Real Zest with your friends!
Photo: Navy Blue Stripe
5 Comments
Great post on an always-relevant topic. I especially like the advice to quit your “job”, the one that sucks your time, but doesn’t pay.
As a homeschooling mom and a writer, I have a few of my own tricks to make time more elastic (so I can stuff more into a day, including time for myself). It helps to stick to a clear schedule or routine. I can get waylaid for hours on twitter, but not if I’m following an established routine, where I know I need to get from A to B by one o’clock. That alone creates enough gaps in the day, enough time to recharge for all the rest.
Great thoughts! One thing I let get out of control is Words with Friends on my Ipad. Now, I look at only once a day. Last weekend, I went to Chicago for fun and didn’t check in on e-mail or voicemail. Funny, nothing much happened while I was gone!
Great post! Just found you via Twitter. My girls (3 and 2) have had swimming lessons, followed by pool time M – F this week. Being in and around water, my phone has stayed in my bag. It is remarkable and refreshing to realize that the world will go on without my comments/feedback/urgent responses. I also love the “quit your job” idea! Fun blog!!!!
Nice sweet article~ Personally I love #1 – be an early riser, have an energetic day and go to sleep earlier. Healthy and get to gain more ‘me’ time too.
I need to get up earlier and enjoy the morning. I am always rushed and untidy for work. Also getting up on Saturdays sounds like a wonderful idea also. we go to bed so late it ruins our morning!
Thanks for the post!
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