by DLCC Coach Ndidi Yaucher
It takes a lot of time and energy to work or run a business and, before you know it, you are spending more time on everything except yourself.
When you focus on reacting to external stimuli, you tend to miss opportunities for inner growth and renewal. Balancing your needs with your business and personal commitments can be tricky, but it is important to your overall well-being. No matter how busy you are, it’s essential to carve out time from your schedule to slow down, enjoy life and rejuvenate yourself.
Here are a few tips on how you can make time to take care of yourself.
Identify what is most important to you.
Do you sometimes wish you had more time to spend on a hobby, work on a goal or nurture a relationship? Maybe it could be adding exercise or meditation to your routine, working on unfinished crafts, finding time for yourself
or spending time with family. This is an opportunity to PAUSE and THINK about what things would you like like to spend more time doing.
Take time to clarify and identify those things that matter most to you. Knowing what you value most and why it is important to you, makes it easier to schedule time to make it happen as it has a deeper emotional meaning to you.
Organize your schedule to create space for what’s most important.
Once you identify what is important to you and what you would like to spend your free time doing, the next step is to ACT by freeing up your calendar. This involves slowly clearing your plate by learning to say no to activities that are not important to you, cutting out of commitments that you have no passion for, or delegating and/or asking for help.
Scheduling time for yourself may require a change in routine. For example, exercise is important to me as it helps set my day and is a great stress reliever for me. Unfortunately, with my crazy work and family schedules I was having a hard time fitting it into my day. I tried exercising in the evenings but I would end up so exhausted by the end of the day that I had no energy to get it done. So I often skipped it.
It took some time to realize that I wasn’t fitting it into my schedule. So I rearranged my day to get my work out in early mornings instead! The key takeaway is to keep finding ways to schedule time for yourself. Take your pulse to see if it works for you. If it doesn’t, make the necessary changes and try it again until you can make it work.
Aim for a B+.
Perfection can sometimes get in the way of making time for yourself. It can take a significant time and energy trying to produce A+ work. Sometimes B+ is good enough. Avoid getting frustrated that things have to be perfect (especially if it is taking a significant amount of time to get it done). Do you spend your weekend doing work that could have been accomplished during the week? The goal is to not produce sloppy work but work that is good enough so you are not spending hours trying to make it perfect. The takeaway is to not aim for perfection when B+ is good enough.
Making time for yourself requires a lot of thought, time and energy. Knowing what is important to you, clearing your calendar and aiming for completion (not perfection!) are all important ways to make sure you have time to rejuvenate and spend time doing those things you truly love.
When you take care of your own needs first, you will be amazed at how much better you perform at work and at home!
