With Covid turning our work and school routines upside down in Madison, many of us are feeling more stretched than ever before. If you are juggling more responsibilities at home, you might feel as if you’re always “on.” If you’ve been wondering, how can I make time for myself? in the midst of juggling children’s school schedules and your own work schedule, here are some ideas for how to carve out time for yourself during an overloaded day.
- Make Use of a Low-Energy Time of Day
- Have a Set Start and End Time
- Postpone Non-Urgent Activities or Chores
- Limit Scrolling
- Ask for Help
Make Use of a Low-Energy Time of Day
Schedule personal time during the portion of the day when you’re routinely the least productive. If you wake up raring to go but start to lose steam after lunch, plan on scheduling the hour following lunch just for you. Use that time to go for a walk, read a book, or take a nap. After working hard all morning, your body will be looking for a way to disengage for a little while before starting in again for the afternoon [https://www.forbes.com/sites/alankohll/2018/05/29/new-study-shows-correlation-between-employee-engagement-and-the-long-lost-lunch-break/#1ca719cf4efc].
Conversely, if you’re not a morning person, own it. Spend an hour drinking coffee and planning your day in a pretty planner as you gather your thoughts and prepare for the day. Once your body wakes up, you can hit the day hard with your activities planned out.
Avoid using productive times of the day for yourself. Odds are, you may be in the mood to ditch your personal time all-together for your to-do list. Or, you’ll be left with a difficult task to accomplish when you’re not at your best, which could least to additional stress.
Have a Set Start and End Time
To keep the days at home from bleeding into each other, establish a set start and end point of the day. Just as if you were checking into work or dropping the kids off at school, choose a time that work and school work must begin and stick to it. Also, decide when dinner and bedtime will be for the children or yourself, and honor that. By keeping a firm end time for the day, you can plan in more personal time to unwind before getting to bed on time.
Honoring the start and end time for the day will help keep you from working too late into the day and then staying up even later to unwind, going to bed too late, and starting the next day tired. If you have unfinished tasks from the day, write them down. Designate a time at the end of the week to catch up on anything that you didn’t finish during the week.
Postpone Non-Urgent Activities or Chores
Odds are, you may have less time now than you did before. If you can, delegate non-essential tasks or postpone them indefinitely. During this especially stressful time, paring down personal and family activities might be a wise way to keep your focus on what’s most important.
Limit Scrolling
Make time for yourself and meaningful activities you’d like to pursue by eliminating less fulfilling habits, like scrolling through the news or social media. It’s incredibly easy to spend way more time than we’d planned on mindlessly scrolling and can lead us to feeling more anxious than before. (Last year, the average internet user spent almost two and a half hours each day on social networks!)
Plan ahead on how long you’ll spend on social media and other sites and stick to it. This way, you’ll have more time to spend on other activities that will better recharge your batteries.
Ask for Help
If possible, make time for yourself by asking for help. Hiring a babysitter or asking a family member or friend is an important step to take if you’re feeling overwhelmed by your situation. No one can do it all. We all need a little help once in a while.
Dr. Thomas Bartell
Dr. Thomas Bartell is the area’s premier cosmetic surgeon specializing in below-the-neck body recontouring. He provides services such as scarless breast augmentation in Madison, Wisconsin. Schedule your consultation today.
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