Are you guilty of pushing yourself to the limit to be all that you can be, to earn your most desired promotion? To get the much-desired salary increase? In your drive for excellence, you tend to take on more projects than you can handle, then life often seems chaotic. In the midst of doing it all, do you still have time for yourself?
Spending time on YOU is crucial! It enables you to feel calm, rested, worry-free, stress-free, and fulfilled. When you’ve had enough rest, you can achieve more and maintain the stamina to continue.
However, if you neglect to make time for yourself, you’re more likely to become upset, angry, depressed, stressed, or unhappy.
You may feel that there’s just not sufficient time for you or you lost any time you ever had for yourself. The good news though, is that, with some determination and creativity, you can recapture some of that critical you-time!
Consider using these approaches to reap some rejuvenating time for yourself:
- Pencil yourself in. Make yourself a priority in your schedule. As you fill out your planner, write “you” on top of the list, then include your other important tasks below! Be decisive and stick to the appointment!
- Allow yourself 15 minutes time when you get home. Ensure to give at least 15 minutes of recouping and rejuvenation time when you get home from work. Lock yourself away from stressors or even family members, if you must. This time allows you to properly transition from your work life to your home life.
- Explain this new technique to your family so that they understand the relevance of what you are doing. This way, no one feels like you’re just avoiding them!
- A simple strategy is to soak yourself in the bath for 15 minutes. The water will relax you, and you’ll feel refreshed after a long day.
- Take advantage of your lunch break. Lunch breaks are meant for you to do what you please. After you eat, make good use of your time by exercising, going for a walk, listening to inspiring music, or even got out and do shopping if that’s what relaxes you.
- Enjoy a break while the kids sleep. This is a very good tip for stay-at-home moms. Allow yourself some much-needed “you” time whenever your children sleep. It is tempting for moms to get as much work done as they can while children asleep, but you’ll discover you actually get more done if you give yourself a chance to rest and rejuvenate yourself.
- Explore new ways of accomplishing things like household tasks while your kids are awake. For example, assign household chores to each child and turn these into learning games that you can all participate in.
- Go to sleep earlier. Sleeping earlier at night will enable you to rise up in time to enjoy some morning “me” time. Just think how enjoyable it would be to sip a cup of coffee in the morning without having to look at your watch.
- Take a vacation day. Take a vacation day to just relax and do whatever your heart desires. You don’t need to take a trip to take a vacation! Time spent on your much-loved hobbies will also rejuvenate you. You will be surprised by the renewed energy you have when you return to work!
At first, these strategies may look difficult to incorporate into your busy routine. It may be a good way to start with just one of the activities at a time. That way, you only have to adjust to one small change. As you become comfortable with that one strategy, you can add another, and then another, until one day you’ll find that making time for yourself is easy.
Once you learn to set aside time for yourself, you’ll have more energy and you can enjoy the good things life has to offer.
