May 28, 2010

making time for myself

I wrote recently about helping children to follow their passions, but this is something I also believe is important for adults (and something that is important to model for your children). For me, since I have had children my range of interests has narrowed.  This is natural because it is important that some of my focus shift to them.  But I feel now that my youngest is 20 months that I am able to spend some more time on my interests.  I’m going to write more about how and what I’m doing in this area later, but first I want to share the ways that I’ve freed up some time to have to myself …
Getting Organised
I started menu planning which has made cooking and grocery shopping quicker and more streamlined.  I started by using Planning With Kids free menu planner, but now I have planned the menu often enough that I just chop and change what I have done before.
Having a daily, weekly, monthly and annual cleaning schedule has always worked for me, but things were getting put off (and not returned to) when I was busy so I put my schedule into an reminder system which comes up when I turn on the computer.
Getting into a daily rhythm with times for cooking, cleaning, play with my children, blogging and so on.  These ideas from Steady Mom and the Magic Onions helped me with developing a rhythm that worked for our family.
And not to forget that spending some extra time with my husband is nice too, we now have a date night.   Love, Actually has lots of ideas if you want to do something a bit special for a date night. 
Now that I’ve planned everything and I feel like things won’t get forgotten or be left undone if I do something else, here are some ways to use the time while I’m figuring out how I want to use the time.  These two ideas are my favourites
How do you create time for yourself?  What things do you love to do with time for yourself?

7 comments:

Aspiring Mum said...

I agree that our children need to see us having time for ourselves. I've got a draft post on this very topic. Enjoy discovering your interests.

Aussie Mum said...

I think all mums know that we need some "me" time but we never seem to find the time to fit it in. Thanks for this post and the great links, it has given me some great ideas and some inspiration to plan for it. Thanks for sharing.

PlanningQueen said...

Thanks for the mention! Going to the gym 3 times a week is my thing. I put the headphones on and I don't have to listen to anyone for an hour or so and it is bliss!

I love the Steady Mom blog too!

AVecchioni said...

My wife goes to her pottery class every Saturday, and I draw and paint whenever I have the chance. We try to do fun things together too, like go for walks, go out for coffee or do gardening.

Meeks said...

What a lovely post with so many good links too!
Thank you for mentioning discovery dates. It is something I wish I started sooner. Sometimes it is hard to make ourselves a priority, but I think we should start shifting our thinking to "a couple of hours a week to do something completely selfish is ok".
Keep us posted on how you get on with making time for yourself!

Kat @ Inspired To Action said...

Thanks for sharing my weekly retreat post with your readers! You're assembled a great bunch of links...I'm off to go check them all out, especially the menu planner one. Thanks!

Melissa Taylor said...

Your post is making me really think about making time for myself -- I just don't unless it's working on a writing project, a blog post, or around the house. That barely counts as me time.

I feel guilty and motivated. Thank you!

Melissa