Have you ever heard of time blocking?
One of the biggest complaints I hear from Caregivers when it comes to taking care of their own needs is that there's no time. Actually, it's not just Caregivers, it's a lot of us. But is that really true? In the 16 or so hours that we are awake, is there really no time for some self-care? Even just 10 minutes?
What if we did a Mindfulness exercise to create some time? Are you in? By figuring out where all of our time is really going, how much time we are wasting, and how many pockets of time we actually do have for some "Me time," we could implement some simple 10-minute habit hacks that could improve our health, create balance and calm, and shift our way of thinking. Time blocking is just another exercise in Mindfulness. Its paying attention to how we are spending our time so that we can intentionally create time instead of making excuses for not having time to take care of ourselves.
Time blocking is crucial when making any kind of commitment, and without it on our calendars, our commitments become merely ideas that get lost in the shuffle of all of our “to dos.”
Since I started time blocking:
My stress level has gone down
My productivity has gone up
I feel empowered instead of overwhelmed.
My thinking has shifted from “how am I going to do this?” to “I’ve got this!"
Blocking time for your commitments on a calendar makes it real and holds you accountable.
The great thing about time blocking is that you can be flexible in how you schedule it. Let’s face it, life can throw us curve balls that cause us to have to make a shift. That’s OK. Still, get it on your calendar and don’t think about the curve balls. Make the shifts when they need to happen. If you spend too much time thinking about all the things that could potentially pull you away right now, the time for yourself will never make it onto your calendar, and that’s the whole point, right? Remember, we’re starting with 10 minutes a day. And no matter how busy we are, we all have 10 free minutes a day.
Do this simple exercise to help you create your own time blocks. Once you create them, you'll need to set some boundaries. But that lesson is for another day:)
Choose your calendar. I like Google Calendar.
Spend a day documenting everything you do and how long it took. And I mean everything! What can be removed? What took too long?
List out your non-negotiables - things you cannot leave off your calendar.
Use your list from step 2 and create your time blocks. For example, Non-negotiables, Errands, Appointments, Chores, School, Work, etc.
Add your time blocks to your calendar for the week (I color code mine). Blocks should be no longer than 2 hours at a time). Then assign tasks within the blocks.
Where do you have gaps in the day? Where can you create a gap in the day? Did you give yourself time to transition from one block to the next?
This should help you identify where in your day you have time for a "Me Time" block. And if you filled your day up with blocks, I am pretty sure you can scale back on a block and squeeze in 10 minutes.
Try it and let me know your thoughts.
As always, in healing love,
Christina