Five quick tips to help you find ‘me’ time
Do you often feel at the end of your tether? If so, read five quick tips to help you find more ‘me’ time and learn to prioritise YOU!
One topic that’s always popular on our site is how to find ‘me’ time. As working or business mums, we’re often pretty bad at prioritising our needs. Instead of recharging our soul by devoting time to things we love ‘just because’, we pack our days (and often evenings) with meaningful tasks that clutter up our unending to-do lists.
As a result it’s easy to burn out. We get tired, grumpy, disillusioned and lack the energy or passion to do anything brilliantly well.
So ‘me’ time isn’t just a selfish vanity – it’s essential if you want to be the best partner, mum, friend, employee or entrepreneur you can.
Five quick tips to help you find ‘me’ time
Everyone loves the idea of ‘me’ time as a concept, but finding that much-needed (and sanity-saving!) relaxation time can be tricky. If you’re struggling to make room in your jam-packed schedule, then check out these five quick tips
1) Book out some time with yourself
Start by stepping back from your life and looking at where you can make time for you. This might involve shuffling around your daily routine, getting up earlier, or delegating some home or work tasks to colleagues, your business partner or family.
Make sure you keep this time free for yourself, just as you would if you’d made an appointment or had a meeting planned.
2) Think about how you’d like to spend your time
Once you’ve blocked out time in your schedule, it’s important to figure out how you’d like to use it. To avoid falling back into doing daily tasks and chores, plan how you’ll spend the time in advance.
You could start by making a list of all the things you enjoy doing, or hobbies you’d like to take up, but haven’t previously had the time to do. By blocking this time out for you, you won’t feel bad about not spending it ‘usefully’.
3) Disconnect
In our constantly connected world, it can seem impossible to go offline and escape the online noise. A recent survey by bathstore found that 20% of Brits are online even when they’re attempting a relaxing soak in the tub, doing anything from emailing to their online banking!
While technology allows us to constantly multi-task, it can prevent us from actually relaxing. That’s why it’s important to go offline and make the most of your ‘me’ time.
So, as important as it may be to be in touch with the rest of the world most of the time, make a point of consciously switching your phone (or other devices) off for some time every day. That feeling of being completely unavailable and releasing yourself from the slavery of the ring tone, or beep as an email or social media alert comes in is so deliciously sweet!
4) Amalgamate little tasks
One of the best ways to both free up your schedule and disconnect from the online hubbub is to consolidate little tasks you deal with throughout the day (email, online banking, paperwork etc) and complete them in one go.
While these minor tasks may only take a few minutes each, collectively they can eat up a huge chunk of your day when separated out. But by consolidating them into a Power Hour (or less) you can work through them quickly and efficiently.
You also eliminate any guilty niggles that you haven’t finished everything – so not only can you create more time to spend on something you want to do, but you can enjoy it without the nagging worry you’ve overlooked a task.
5) Make lists
Make a list of the things you want to get done in a day. But rather than allowing your list to spiral out of control, list the three most important tasks that you want to achieve.
Have the confidence to prioritise and be brutal about chopping non-essential tasks out of your daily schedule. As you add tasks to your list each morning, ask yourself, “Does this really need to be done today?” And if so, is there a way you can delegate it?
If you can master the art of an effective to-do list, you’ll be surprised at how much easier it is to find guilt-free time for yourself.
Make YOU the priority
Underpinning all these tips is one very important principle. And that is that YOU are important. If you don’t value yourself, and make your physical and mental health a priority, you’ll inevitably succumb to stress, stop enjoying your life and family, and work less efficiently.
So stop seeing ‘me’ time as a guilty luxury you can’t afford, and treat it as the daily essential that everyone in your life will benefit from.
