How to Make More Time for Self-Care
What do you do when the small, everyday acts of self-care don't feel like enough?
You don't have the time for elaborate spa days or weekend girls' trips to "fill your cup" so you've been relying on the acts of self-care that you can squeeze into your everyday life.
Maybe you're getting up early and getting "ready" in the morning, taking deep breaths when you feel overwhelmed, taking your vitamins, drinking water, or squeezing in a workout here and there, but it just doesn't feel like it's enough to chip away at the stress and burnout you feel.
How do you do more when you don't have more time?
Well, you make sure that's absolutely true. True that you don't have more time.
Maybe there's not a single minute more to be squeezed from your days, and it is true.
But maybe there's more flexibility than you believe.
Either way, the only way to truly know is to audit your time.
Listen to the full episode "Learning to Audit Your Day" on the Lead From Within podcast:
A time audit is something I regularly do for myself and something that I ask my clients to do as well.
It's data and information that we can use to either recommit to how we're spending our time or change it.
When you have to track something, you pay more attention.
And when you pay more attention, you start to notice all of the things that you're doing without even being aware of them.
And from that awareness, you can start to make decisions:
Do you have to wipe the kitchen table spotless before you go to bed or does it not bother you to leave it until tomorrow?
Do you need to respond to that email right this second or can it wait until you're finished with this project?
Or my favorite, do you have to throw a big elaborate birthday party for your kid or do you want to have a small family gathering?
Too often we get caught up in the default of what we've always done or what we see everybody else doing.
That's what Pinterest shows or what Instagram tells you is what a clean kitchen or home should look like and so you do it without even thinking or deciding for yourself.
But when you audit your time you get to truly see what you're doing and ask why you're doing those things.
Now, you may review your time audit and decide that, yes, everything you're doing is absolutely mission critical and there's nothing you can let go of. It's all stuff that you do want to do.
But you could also audit your time and realize that you're doing a lot of things that you could let go of, pull back on, or lower your standards on.
And from there you can try out alternatives:
What would it be like to let that email sit for a full 24 hours before responding?
What would happen if you left the laundry unfolded in the hamper?
What would a small, family gathering feel like for your kid's next birthday?
And how much time would you stand to gain if you didn't do things just because you've always done them?
Maybe you'll find that the world doesn't collapse around you. Everything's okay. And you free up just a little bit of time or space or mental capacity to entertain the idea of doing something more to take care of yourself.
Something beyond the small, everyday acts to get deeper at alleviating your stress or recovering from burnout.
Without an audit of your time, you won't know what's possible.
Remember that an audit is not a commitment to change. It's just information that you can use to make a future decision about potential change.
Schedule Your Planning Intensive
If you want support, accountability, and most importantly, an action plan for what to change following your time audit, book your Planning Intensive today. In 90 minutes we can have it all mapped out with more time and space for you on the other side.