Having more time for things you love and want to do can seem quite often as a dream. Especially for us women, it may not feel natural spending time on ourselves rather than others. It seems that we serve everyone and everything first and we collapse in the evening to enjoy a bit of time for ourselves. However, the challenge is not to do that and do not use your precious sleep hours to catch up with work or your beauty regime. The key is to find those few mintues during the day to fill your cup with love for yourself, your body and soul. We are awake 16 hours on average, so they key is to manage ourselves in that time to have a bit of it for self-care. I recently delivered webinar on the self-care for business women. I strongly believe you can show up really energetically for clients and sales calls when your cup is full. I mentioned using your top 5 strengths (Gallup survey) as well as your Human Design (more on that soon) to establish a routine that you will love and like and continue on regular basis.
Time is limited in supply
This is true. We do not have endless time resource so when it comes to management it is not time we need to manage but ourselves in it . It is no secret that I like good morning routine which I can’t imagine myself without. Is it perfect everyday? No it is not. In the research done couple years ago women still have less time to take it for leasure spending most of the time on household chores and childcare so mainly unpaid activities.
I split the time into three categories: self-care (a must and no compromise), time for the house (that includes some cleaning and meals) and time for my business ( the biggest chunk during the week which includes customer service, development and education). I admit I have one child, 11 year old daughter who is quite independent but still requires some supervision. I know for many it seems like an easy ride. It does not change the fact that I left my corporate job and decided to build the business. I need to be in it every day no matter how I feel and no matter how everyone else feels in the house. Without managing myself and especially social media time, TV time and procrastination, I would have no business.
This pandemic revealed a lot of how we can manage ourselves within the time we have. At the begnning , everyone needed to settle in into new routines. Homeschooling, household chores, cooking many times a day and among all of that either running your own business or working full time. Furloughed employees may also not had it easy. When you are used to work, solving problems and being busy , sitting in the house with no work may not be so easy as it seems. Also many of them worried and stiil are worring if they have anything to come back to.
So what have worked for people? It would be interested to find out but I believe there are few things that worked well. Routine , self-disicpline and accountability to somebody else other than yourself could work well. Also acknowledging the fact that you do not have to be superproductive all the time, you do not have to take on all these projects you always wanted to do and that you need to be compassionate with yourself on the days when you just have enough.
Invest in the Bank of Health
I call it this way as the results are not seen next day. When you invest in something the minimum time recommended for investment is 5 years. However, it seems that we think we can get good health tomorrow. The true is, not we cannot. Getting healthier is the combination of several factors and time can be on your side if you are making improvements most of the days (even if it is only drinking more water).
Investment factors to consider:
Getting out of your comfort zone to try different things, foods and schedules.
Giving up things which do not serve you.
Being kind to yourself and others.
Learning new skills and applying them every day.
Staying in your lane – nobody knows you better than you know yourself. That was evident with exercise. A lot of people jump on to exercise with Joe Wicks and many people stayed with him for a long time. I tried if few times and it was not for me mainly due to schedule. I stayed with my group of people I always exercise , we just did it online – I missed the training maybe twice but always made it up.
Coming up with routine, testing, trying and staying with the one you will love.
Reflection is also an important element and connecting with your feeling. How did you feel when you planned and prepared few meals in advance and did not have to frantically thinking about what to cook and if it was healthy or not?
Return on investement – there can be many such as: better energy, good quality life, no medications, simpler life, right to new partner, change of career and full on transformation. more clients.
Few tips for better self-management
Everyone is different and we all have different lifestyles. However, during the pandemic , we probably can find a lot of similarties. I am not sure how about you, but I wanted to make sure whatever I do this will be my new normal. I may need to adjust it to when the schools are back and up and running. I tried to avoid scenario when I would put everything on hold and then go back to it. I wanted to create a new better normal for me and I largely succeeded.
Below I share few tried and tested tips:
- Mental Resilience – build it over time; stay in your lane no mater what; give yourself a break when you need it , do not push it. This is your super power. It is easy to give up so having your WHY for lifestyle change visible and in your mind always is critical. We spend a lot of time in our heads with hundreds of thoughts, while refection is good spending too much time on what it scenarios is a waste of time; use meditation or mindfulness app.
- Plan in advance – use you calendar for booking time slots for your tasks; give them time like 5,10,15 minutes so you have an idea how long they last should you only have 5 minutes to do anything (I usually use it for grabbing more water, few streches or going outside in the garden)
- Plan your meals – it will save you time and worry; prep few meals in advance on Sunday – chopped up veggies, cook soup – make it easy and colorful ; organise salad bar in your fridge
- Prep some healthy snacks – when you work intensively your brain needs power- I love oven roasted nuts in a bit of maple syrup and tamari
- Schedule tme for self-care – yoga, meditation, journalling , walks, family hugs (also virtual) and play
- Schedule time for exercise
- Cut down on time wasters – social media, Netflix, arguments, gossips, self-pity
- Delegate some of your tasks; if your other half works full time it is not an excuse for not doing anything in the house; everyone has responsibility to contribute.
- Leave your ego at the door, you will have low days and acknowledge that, give yourself grace, don’t be a super woman thinking you can do this any time and any day
Having a routine you can follow most of the times and the one which you will love can help you immensely. Routine takes time to work out and get used to. Motivation here is the key but it only works for few weeks , the rest is self-discipline, and not giving up. People who consistently follow the routine find they have more time for what they love, are happier and feel safe.
How about you, who you would like to feel. Would you like to establish routine you will love and able to maintain? If yes and you do not know where to start, let’s chat. My 60 minute Discovery Session is free – book here. During the session I wil have few questions for you, to understand where you are on your journey, what is holding you back and how we can work together.
P.S. And If you are after delicious roasted chickpea salad with sun-dried tomatoes – find it here .
Take Care
Love M.