Have you ever been guilty of putting your health on the back burner? Have you ever thought "I just don't have the time" when it comes to taking care of yourself?
After I had my son, I put my health on the back burner for almost a year. My lack of self-care caused anxiety, insomnia and a raging case of low self esteem. It brought me to a low point physically and mentally, and my whole family had to deal with the consequences. Almost 4 years ago, I decided to make a change. Since I started this self-care journey back in March of 2014, I've been lucky enough to help many others in transforming their health and lifestyle. Today, I want to share with you my top 3 time-management tips that can help you finally "find the time".
1. Do a Time Audit
The is the first step because it's the most important. The reason why I say "find the time" in so-called quotation marks is because you'll never actually find more time. You need to make the time! And you can't successfully make time for new activities until you've got a clear picture of how you are spending your time. This is where the time audit come in. For 3-5 days, live life as your normally would and track how your spending your time each day. This means from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep, you should be tracking EVERYTHING that you do (showering, eating, cleaning, working, watching tv, social media, email, driving, etc.) I know, it sounds like a real pain to do this but I promise you it's worth it. Once you are able to look over what you're doing each day, you'll likely see that there are some pockets of free time and/or things your wasting time on. Here is the link to the time audit spreadsheet I made when I did my time audit. You can use this for your own time audit, or any other tracking method that works for you.
2. Prioritize
Once you evaluate your time audit, you should have a clear picture of the MUST DO activities and the time suckers/wasters. You need to add your own self-care into the MUST DO category and in order to add in something new, you need to make room by cutting back (or cutting out) some of these unnecessary activities. Think outside the box for ways that you can save time by combining activities, reducing frequency and setting time limits. If I was able to make the time to do this (working full time, commuting 3-4 hours PER DAY, and caring for my family) ANYONE can do this!
3. Schedule
You've done all the hard work now, so this one should be easy! Schedule your self-care time every day. You cannot leave it to chance, otherwise it will not happen! Just like you schedule work, appointments, and chores - you have to schedule your ME time. Consider your self-care an important appointment that cannot be missed. Even if you can only schedule 15 minutes a day, it's enough to make an impact. Once you start building up some consistency with getting your ME time in, you'll likely be motivated to re-work your schedule so you can increase the time.
Bottom line: Having no time can feel like a legitimate excuse. But remember, we have no guarantees on this beautiful life that we've been given. Take advantage of the opportunity to improve your health and quality of life now - while you have the chance.
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