How to create “Me Time”
Congrats
you are a parent. You know all the joys
of raising children. You remember the
first day you brought your baby home.
The joy you felt as your held your baby.
As your child grows you love him/her even more. You love changing the diapers, washing their
clothes, helping with the homework, cleaning the house, and you love the many
“thank you’s” that you receive each
day. Ok, you may not hear that as often
as you would like.
It is
true that we love our children, but somewhere along the line many parents seem
to lose the sense of “self”. Raising
children is a full time, in addition to that job many work another job in
corporate America. So where is your
time?
I hear
from mothers often “I want my pre-baby body back”. My response is “How old is your baby?” I am surprised to hear answers like “23” or
“18” or “12”. Sure I hear the younger
ages as well, but I am shocked to hear the older ages. We know the reasons why you have not gotten
back to your pre-baby weight…TIME. We
could even add in…ENERGY. After a long
day taking care of the house and all its necessities, it becomes hard to leave
to do some type of workout. If you are a
working outside of the house parent than you understand that after a long day
at work you come to work again. So what
are you to do?
*Budget
*Prioritize
*Assign
*Commit
When
using the word “budget” we immediately associate this to money. In this case, I am not referring to money,
instead I am referring to Budgeting your time.
Time is valuable and is something that we cannot get back. There is only so much of it in a day. So just like many of us do in reference to
our money we must budget our time. How,
first make a chart of your day, hour by hour.
Then revise the chart to include activities for you.
Here is an example:
6 am Wake Up
6:30 am Breakfast for Kids
7:30-8:30 am Kids to school
8:45 am Back Home
9:00 am Look Over Bank Account Pay Bills
10:00 am Clean Bedrooms
11:00 am Clean Living Room/House
12:00 pm Hour rest/Lunch
1:00 pm Wash
Clothing/ Clean Kitchen
2:00 pm Run
Errands
3:00 pm Pick up
Kids from School
3:30 pm Help kids
with Homework
4:30 Take 1 child to Soccer
5:15 Take 2nd Child to Dance
6:00 Take 3rd Child to
Baseball/Basketball/Football
7:00 Pick up all
children
7:30 Home Make Dinner
8:15 pm Eat late dinner
9:00 Kids Ready
for Bed
10:00 Clean Kitchen/ Get yourself ready for bed
11:00 Try to go to sleep
Throughout this typical day you are taking care of
everyone else’s needs, but where are you taking care of yourself? To be fully engaged in all of your
requirements you must be around to be engage.
This means making time for YOU.
Where within your daily schedule have you budgeted time …FOR YOU. You are not displaying narcissism by putting
yourself first. In fact by doing so, you
are making it possible for you to accomplish all the other things that need to
be done for your family. If you do not
take care of you, how can you take care of others? If you Put Yourself First, then you can
always find the time for you. I know, as
a parent we take on the responsibility of putting our children first. That is admirable, but we must be honest with
ourselves and say that if we do not take time for ourselves, we may not be
around long to take care of our children.
Here is an example of a revision:
6 am Wake Up
6:30 am Breakfast
7:30-8:30 am Kids to school
9:00 am Group Fitness Class or Personal Training
10:20 am Look Over Bank Account, Pay Bills
11:00 am Clean Living Room/House /Clean Bedrooms
12:00 pm Hour rest/Lunch
1:00 pm Wash
Clothing/ Clean Kitchen
2:00 pm Run
Errands
3:00 pm Pick up
Kids from School
3:30 pm Help kids
with Homework
5:00 Family Martial Arts class
6:00 Back Home
make Dinner
7:00 pm Clean Kitchen, Kids Study finish Homework
8:00 pm Get Kids
Ready for Bed
9:00 pm Get yourself Ready for Bed
10:00 pm Try to go to sleep.
This
example allowed for you to BUDGET your time. By having a schedule for each day of the week
you are able to prioritize not only you, but family time as well. With this example you have accountability by
belonging to either a group fitness class that is not a large one so that you
are able to get to know the others in the class to hold yourself accountable
to. You can also supplement those group
classes by having a Personal Trainer whose sole focus is upon you.
What did the above example accomplish:
1. It added a smooth flow to your day.
2. It supplies YOU time
3. You now have family time
4. You freed up more time
With
the above revision you can easily see how you have included an activity for you
in the morning BEFORE the fatigue sets in.
Your children are at school, so when you leave from your home continue
on to your Personal Training Session or Group Fitness Class. Taking away the excuse of hating to leave
from the house….AGAIN.
Prioritize! With a busy schedule, take all the activities
that you have throughout the day and put them in an order of priority. With of course Putting Yourself First when constructing your Time
Budget. This allows for you to always have
a main priority your Health, Fitness, and Stress Relief.
Assign!
“Everyone expects for me to do everything!” Is something that we have all thought or have
said as parents. It often seems that if
we do not do everything, nothing will get done.
What we fail to realize is that often we have created this problem. This is why it is imperative that we ASSIGN
tasks to be done by others and we hold them accountable to complete those
tasks. In the beginning, it may seem
that you have added to your workload until you have your family vested into
this program. But with consistency they
will complete their assignments on time and completely. What type of assignments? All the things that you take upon yourself
such as cleaning of the rooms, house,
bathroom, dinners, kitchen, etc.
Commit!
To follow through. Set your
Time Budget and be committed to follow it.
More revisions may need to be made, but keep the same principle of
Putting Yourself First. As long as you
do that, you will always be able to make time for you. Difficultly in application does not justify
the action of quitting. All changes
bring some discomfort, but for all of us to grow we must go through this period
of discomfort.
I am sure that if you follow these tips you will find
that you will be able to enjoy your life while living it. These simple tips allow for you to become a
participant in your life and not just a spectator. If you are single we have a Time Budget for
you as well. Contact us at www.cfmaf.com to find out more ways to improve
the quality of your life and the lives of those around you.
