It might be hard to find time for yourself at the moment. Maybe you’re on lockdown, trying to homeschool your children. Maybe you’re a key worker struggling to get some time.
It might just be you have a demanding and busy day job. The truth is, you need to make time for yourself.
This is true whether in a pandemic or not and it’s easier for some than others.
Some need to make drastic changes to be able to claw back time while others just need a shift in perspective and a little motivation. Self love is important. It’s great for your mental health and allows you to take a break from a busy work and family life.
Here are some tips for you to apply, which will hopefully help you to take back some time for yourself. You might have tried some already, but see if the others can help. Perhaps they can give you further ideas and change your perspective on how you view your time.
Try Something New
Sometimes you don’t take time for yourself because you don’t have anything pulling you away. If this is the case you may need to try something new. Think about a new hobby. Or even something a little different. You could free psychic reading, do some different exercise, call a friend you haven’t spoken to for a long time.
There are a lot of different things you could do. It might mean something a lot more time intensive. You could look at taking up a class which you can study from home.
Think about what you enjoy and pursue it. It might be something like learning a new language. If it’s something you want to get into for a hobby, try picking up a book. Maybe it’s a new genre, one you haven’t experienced before. Or, you could try getting into gaming. There’s a huge social aspect to gaming too, and you can do it with your friends. If exercise was what you wanted to try, you can start out nice and easy with a walk or run. Ease into the new, instead of jumping in and you might be in it for the long haul.
Speak To Your Boss
A lot of the time when people don’t have the time, it’s because they’re committing too much of it to work. This stems from a multitude of reasons.
First, you might have delivered high targets, and are now caught in the loop where you keep having to deliver. Second, it might just be a high powered job which demands a lot of your time. The way around this is to have a serious and honest chat with your boss. Book some time in their calendar and have a proper discussion. You don’t just want to do it in a passing way, or over emails. Simply outline your problem.
You feel like you’re too busy and have little time for yourself. If they’re a good boss, they’ll understand and go the distance to help you feel better. They want you at your best, to get to this, they know you’ll need to be happy. The only way you can pull some time back for yourself from work, is to speak out. Otherwise you’ll just be cutting back without telling anyone, meaning you might end up getting into trouble.
Set A Family Routine
If people in your family know a certain hour is one which you set aside for yourself, they’ll be less likely to come and bother you during that time. Even if it is for an hour, it means you’ll be able to pursue your own interests for a short time. Kids like routine.
If you set this in place it’ll be a lot easier for everyone involved. If you want the time for say, going for a run, then you can do this whenever you find the time. Don’t be confused though. You shouldn’t have to struggle to find this time. If you do, then you need to take it back.
You might find other parents or families struggle with the same issues. If this is the case, consider coming together to solve the problem. You could look after the kids one day, they could do it the other.
Then you’re enabling yourself some free time. Besides, when the other kids are over they’ll be keeping your own busy. You’ll be supervising them but in a capacity which allows you to take a little time for yourself, depending on their age.