The Perfect Day *
Putting things into our calendar is easy. Yet that calendar tends to fill up quickly, especially if you have a family and a career. And even if your life isn’t completely filled, it’s rather hard to schedule yourself into your calendar.
There are a two aspects to this situation:
1) Why should I schedule myself into the calendar? I know what I want to do, right? And I fit it around everything else that I need to do.
2) I hate limiting myself by schedules, so I just use my free time for whatever I feel like doing.
Both beliefs add stress to our lives and drive happiness and contentedness away. I want to address them one after the other.
About 1) We tend to forget our own needs or put them on the back burner – especially we women. We really, really need to understand that we can only take good care of everyone else and our career if we take good care of ourselves first.
We need to fill our tanks and recharge. Only then can we deal with everything life throws at us in a calm and efficient way. That means getting enough sleep. (I can’t really stress this enough!) Getting enough sleep should be a number one priority for every woman. And yes, that means a minimum of 7 hours for most of us. Some even need eight hours. And even men profit from getting enough sleep.
It also means eating well. Now, there is lots and lots of information about good nutrition on the web, so I don’t need to go into detail here. However, eating well also means sitting down for a meal – preferably with your family – and actually savouring your food. It makes a huge difference on how your body receives that food.
Additionally, we need to fill up on things that help us stay calm and for women, feminine. That is different for everyone. For me, it’s reading a book, taking a walk, being around friends and – this is a little crazy – being close to trees and horses. Figure out what it is for you, and then do it.
All this takes time. And our calendar is the one way we can schedule our time. Whatever enters our calendar is important. It’s time to allow ourselves to be important too.
About 2) It’s a small wonder so many people hate using a schedule for getting things done. After all, the first schedule imposed on us was school. And honestly, who loved school?
Every hour that isn’t scheduled feels like free time, feels like it’s entirely yours. Yet this is deceiving. Very often we look at a free afternoon and think about what we’d like to do in all that time in a rather general way. But then Facebook happens and the afternoon is gone.
Scheduling tasks for yourself works. It is very helpful to structure such a free afternoon with a task or two – and then add time for activities that renew you and schedule them as well! After doing what you planned to do, you can enjoy your recreational activity – just read that word again: RE-CREATION.
In order to feel better, be more efficient, and surprise everyone with our good mood we only need to get over our hate of schedules and make them work for ourselves! Try it out. Schedule work and play for your next “free” afternoon or evening. And stick to the schedule. I promise it’ll make you happier and feel content.
So, when will you schedule your next fill-your-tanks activity?