I recently had a conversation with someone, let’s call her Selina, about lack of time. She resented that she didn’t have enough time to work on her own project – her passion. Between her day job, medical appointments and social dates, she could only find pockets of time to work on her project. And those pockets were mostly during a time of day she felt tired and not creative.
Does this scenario sound familiar?
There are two things I find extremely valuable in a situation like this:
- Change up your routine
- Focus on your priorities
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Change up your routine.
Ask yourself: Where can I make a radical change in my routine this week?
Most of us are used to doing things a certain way, and particularly during a certain time of day. Now the reason, why you do things how you do them, probably makes great sense. Yet sometimes we do them simply out of habit and shaking up your routine can release time and energy you didn’t even know was there.
- Do you usually do the dishes before you go to sleep? Try it out in the morning and read the news at night
- Do you jog in the morning? Try out the afternoon after work.
Now, the main point of changing your routine is to release stuckness. After a day or two you may decide that you want to keep doing things differently, or that your usual routine really did serve you best ; )
In the above example Selina realized that she actually had some flexibility with her day job. At least once a week she could come in an hour or two later, which allowed her to work on her project early in the morning – a time where she felt full of energy and creativity!
It had just never occurred to her, that there might be a benefit to starting and staying late at work.
This is where your priorities come in.
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Focus on your priorities.
There are so many great things to do and seemingly important things to get done – you just don’t have to do them all this week. Do what’s most important to you at this point in your life.
My current priorities are: self care, expanding my business after maternity leave, spending quality time with my kids.
A few weeks ago, you would have found de-cluttering my home and meeting my friends on this list.
Now, if you take a look at your routine again, you might realize you set up things in a way to support your priorities. That’s ideal! You might also notice that some of your priorities have shifted yet your schedule did not adjust. This is where that “lack of time” feeling kicks in.
Selina recognized her health and her project as her priorities. So instead of seeing her medical appointments as a burden, she embraced them as time she spent on herself and her health. She still wanted to see friends, it just didn’t have to be three-four times a week. So by giving herself time one morning a week to work on her project, and not seeing friends that evening after staying later at work, she was able to live her priorities and shift from a feeling of lack to the feeling of: I have time for my priorities!
Now, that’s a great feeling : )
You deserve to spend time on the things you want. Allow yourself to focus on your priorities. And allow some flexibility in your routine, so your week schedule may support you in the best form possible.