I Wish i had time to...
I remember a talk with my friend on the first day of my maternity leave. During the conversation, my friend expressed his happiness over my excess spare time. And said “Good, now you will have time to do the things you really wanted to do”. And my immediate response was, I am able to do those things even when I am working! I don’t need a holiday for it. This was the moment that made me realize, I should write about it. May be it might be useful to someone.
Sometimes I feel Phrases like “I have no time”, “I am busy” are used at an exhaustive rate. Using these statements convinces us that we certainly have no time and we start accepting it as our reality.
Being busy is not only related with people who do jobs and handle home but also with homemakers. In fact they are the ones who use these terms more.
Whether we agree or not, it’s true we have confined time. Irrespective of we use it or not, the day is going to get over! So rather than fretting over the time gone, why don’t we take charge of the situation and change things.
Let me put you in a situation and check what will be your choice.
I understand that 20 mins is a short time. But it is not too short to pick a book lying on your table you were longing to read. There are number of things in your mind you desire to do but when you get time you try to shift focus on the tasks to do. Things which need to be done will somehow get done. But special efforts are required for the things that brings you happiness.
The possibilities are endless for what you can do with this 20 mins
· Few Sets of high intensity exercise
· Organizing a small corner, If you love to organize
· Any kind of craft work
· Calling a friend will definitely brighten you up
· Writing an Email / letter to loved one
· Gardening
· Want a moment to relax, go ahead and sip your favorite drink along with your favorite music
Ideas vary from person to person and you are your best judge.
Figure out and make a list of things that brings contentment in you. Keep the list handy and pick an activity the next time you get some free time. Doing things you love will definitely enhance your happiness.
Coming back to the messy work waiting for you, once you get the next free slot you can get onto it.
I hope by discussing a situation like this is helping you understand how with a simple switch we used an opportunity and did something we wanted to do.
You can implement this idea anywhere, like If you travel to and fro from office. You can use your minutes wisely. There must be things you want to learn, read or write. During travel, we usually are in a situation where we have time but we can’t do anything productive. Like waiting for cab, waiting for a friend, sitting in a train or any scenario where you are not in position to do much work.
You can make use of these blocks of time. Print the pages you want to read, learn and take these papers out from your bag the moment you have few minutes in hand. A better option than taking out your mobile and go through random stuff. This way you will be able to do something if not anything.
Taking care of home in a way is more difficult than doing a job. Job has a start and end time, but home needs 24/7 attentiveness there are no promotions, appreciations and holidays. So it’s very important to be happy and to take care of ourselves.
If we are a homemaker, we can plan our routine in such a way that we have time for ourselves too. Having a disciplined approach towards our life always helps us in doing so. Exercise is the best way to ensure self-care.
Try to get up an hour before everyone in morning, freshen up and start with your workout. Choose an activity which work for you. High intensity or low intensity, aerobics, yoga, Pilates, dance, weight exercises, walking, jogging, etc. Whatever suits you, go ahead and do it and make sure you do it every day. This will help you give an energetic start for the day.
Then go with your routine of breakfast and lunch. Most homemakers like to cook dinner near to the arrival time of their better half in the evening. Here, by making slight changes with your schedule, it will give you ample time.
Plan to finish cooking your dinner & evening snacks before 4.00 pm. So this way you complete your cooking for the day. Finish the end of the day kitchen cleaning routine as well. Brew your Tea/Coffee and have your evening snacks, and get ready for a stroll. With your evening walk, you can also pre plan to catchup with a friend or anything else that works for you.
Now when your better half and children arrive, you are in a position to give them your full concentration. Serve them snacks, ask about their day and talk about yours. The reward of finishing your cooking/cleaning early is you having a whole hour to spend time with your family without getting worried about chopping, cooking, and cleaning.
Now when everybody is having their own time before dinner, even you can have your time. Pick an activity from your list and enjoy!
Once in a while you can plan for a short distance outing with your family if everyone is in agreement. A trip to bakery, park, library, museum or anywhere which you can be completed within 2 hours.
And around dinner time may be around 7.00 pm, you will be left with lot of time to connect with family again. Just putting back the dinner plates in dishwasher and running it, is all the work left for you.
If you have toddlers/kids at home, you can attend them. After which by around 9.00pm you will have a chunk of time to spend the way you desire.
Spending time with your partner, listening to something soulful, writing journal, reading few pages of a book, any prayers you want to do… the list is open ended. Just preponing the time to cook dinner, you can turn a busy day in your favor!
This was about our working days and here I have something related to our weekends too. By applying few tricks, we can add more value to your weekends as well.
You must have noticed that many times we feel the weekend is over without we realizing it. This happens when we don’t have any plans and we try to do random stuff as the necessity emerges by.
Mostly it’s seen that we let the Friday end in front of TV. If we chalk out a plan for our weekend during week, it will help us to use our weekend effectively.
The best thing you can do to make use of the last working day of week is to finish your grocery shopping on Friday itself. You might be exhausted and doing something new needs freshness. Grocery shopping does not need mindfulness, but just a shopping list. And once you are in the store, you will have enough energy to complete your shopping.
The advantages are …
1. You are not putting your valuable Saturday or Sunday in something which does not require more energy and focus.
2. You are completing a major chore of the weekend
3. And lastly, accomplishing an important task will make you feel that the weekend is long. You are still left with 2 complete days for meaningful tasks!
Also if we do special things during week, we are not waiting for weekend to create memories. Like inviting someone over Tea, having dinner with family outside, evening snacks in your backyard, a game of chess, anything which connects everyone.
With little magic in the way we see things, we can make our ordinary days as well as weekends extraordinary .The idea is just with a little switch in the way we see our schedule, we can open door to ample of time to dedicate to things we desire. Instead of letting time pass, with little mindfulness we can create memories with our loved ones using these invisible blocks of time.
Sometimes I feel Phrases like “I have no time”, “I am busy” are used at an exhaustive rate. Using these statements convinces us that we certainly have no time and we start accepting it as our reality.
Being busy is not only related with people who do jobs and handle home but also with homemakers. In fact they are the ones who use these terms more.
Is it really difficult to find time for things you love to do? Meeting and talking to people made me aware that, mostly everyone craves for some or other activity they wish to do but are tied with the things they need to do.
Time flies on, day after day, week after week and we realize a year has gone. It’s correctly said that, if we keep doing things we are doing, we will always get what we kept receiving. Some tuning is definitely required, not with our schedule but with our mind.
Whether we agree or not, it’s true we have confined time. Irrespective of we use it or not, the day is going to get over! So rather than fretting over the time gone, why don’t we take charge of the situation and change things.
Let me put you in a situation and check what will be your choice.
Your partner has gone to a shopping trip, your child is busy playing near you. And you are surrounded by a messy kitchen, overflowing laundry bag, random stuff lying around pleading you to take to its respective place. You take a deep breath and get filled with overwhelming thoughts seeing all of this. And the moment you see your child engrossed in game and won’t need your attention a minimum of next 20 mins, you rush to finish the pending work. Right? Or you have some other plan? Here is the catch.
I understand that 20 mins is a short time. But it is not too short to pick a book lying on your table you were longing to read. There are number of things in your mind you desire to do but when you get time you try to shift focus on the tasks to do. Things which need to be done will somehow get done. But special efforts are required for the things that brings you happiness.
The possibilities are endless for what you can do with this 20 mins
· Few Sets of high intensity exercise
· Organizing a small corner, If you love to organize
· Any kind of craft work
· Calling a friend will definitely brighten you up
· Writing an Email / letter to loved one
· Gardening
· Want a moment to relax, go ahead and sip your favorite drink along with your favorite music
Ideas vary from person to person and you are your best judge.
Figure out and make a list of things that brings contentment in you. Keep the list handy and pick an activity the next time you get some free time. Doing things you love will definitely enhance your happiness.
Coming back to the messy work waiting for you, once you get the next free slot you can get onto it.
I hope by discussing a situation like this is helping you understand how with a simple switch we used an opportunity and did something we wanted to do.
You can implement this idea anywhere, like If you travel to and fro from office. You can use your minutes wisely. There must be things you want to learn, read or write. During travel, we usually are in a situation where we have time but we can’t do anything productive. Like waiting for cab, waiting for a friend, sitting in a train or any scenario where you are not in position to do much work.
You can make use of these blocks of time. Print the pages you want to read, learn and take these papers out from your bag the moment you have few minutes in hand. A better option than taking out your mobile and go through random stuff. This way you will be able to do something if not anything.
Taking care of home in a way is more difficult than doing a job. Job has a start and end time, but home needs 24/7 attentiveness there are no promotions, appreciations and holidays. So it’s very important to be happy and to take care of ourselves.
If we are a homemaker, we can plan our routine in such a way that we have time for ourselves too. Having a disciplined approach towards our life always helps us in doing so. Exercise is the best way to ensure self-care.
Try to get up an hour before everyone in morning, freshen up and start with your workout. Choose an activity which work for you. High intensity or low intensity, aerobics, yoga, Pilates, dance, weight exercises, walking, jogging, etc. Whatever suits you, go ahead and do it and make sure you do it every day. This will help you give an energetic start for the day.
Then go with your routine of breakfast and lunch. Most homemakers like to cook dinner near to the arrival time of their better half in the evening. Here, by making slight changes with your schedule, it will give you ample time.
Plan to finish cooking your dinner & evening snacks before 4.00 pm. So this way you complete your cooking for the day. Finish the end of the day kitchen cleaning routine as well. Brew your Tea/Coffee and have your evening snacks, and get ready for a stroll. With your evening walk, you can also pre plan to catchup with a friend or anything else that works for you.
Now when your better half and children arrive, you are in a position to give them your full concentration. Serve them snacks, ask about their day and talk about yours. The reward of finishing your cooking/cleaning early is you having a whole hour to spend time with your family without getting worried about chopping, cooking, and cleaning.
Now when everybody is having their own time before dinner, even you can have your time. Pick an activity from your list and enjoy!
Once in a while you can plan for a short distance outing with your family if everyone is in agreement. A trip to bakery, park, library, museum or anywhere which you can be completed within 2 hours.
And around dinner time may be around 7.00 pm, you will be left with lot of time to connect with family again. Just putting back the dinner plates in dishwasher and running it, is all the work left for you.
If you have toddlers/kids at home, you can attend them. After which by around 9.00pm you will have a chunk of time to spend the way you desire.
Spending time with your partner, listening to something soulful, writing journal, reading few pages of a book, any prayers you want to do… the list is open ended. Just preponing the time to cook dinner, you can turn a busy day in your favor!
This was about our working days and here I have something related to our weekends too. By applying few tricks, we can add more value to your weekends as well.
You must have noticed that many times we feel the weekend is over without we realizing it. This happens when we don’t have any plans and we try to do random stuff as the necessity emerges by.
Mostly it’s seen that we let the Friday end in front of TV. If we chalk out a plan for our weekend during week, it will help us to use our weekend effectively.
The best thing you can do to make use of the last working day of week is to finish your grocery shopping on Friday itself. You might be exhausted and doing something new needs freshness. Grocery shopping does not need mindfulness, but just a shopping list. And once you are in the store, you will have enough energy to complete your shopping.
The advantages are …
1. You are not putting your valuable Saturday or Sunday in something which does not require more energy and focus.
2. You are completing a major chore of the weekend
3. And lastly, accomplishing an important task will make you feel that the weekend is long. You are still left with 2 complete days for meaningful tasks!
Also if we do special things during week, we are not waiting for weekend to create memories. Like inviting someone over Tea, having dinner with family outside, evening snacks in your backyard, a game of chess, anything which connects everyone.
With little magic in the way we see things, we can make our ordinary days as well as weekends extraordinary .The idea is just with a little switch in the way we see our schedule, we can open door to ample of time to dedicate to things we desire. Instead of letting time pass, with little mindfulness we can create memories with our loved ones using these invisible blocks of time.
Beautiful ideas
ReplyDeletenice article
ReplyDeletevery thoughtful
ReplyDelete