How to Carve Out Time for Yourself

Wouldn’t we all be pleased if we had more than 24 hours a day?

Having to juggle responsibilities such as family, career, and friendship robs us of our personal time. We’re so consumed by our work that we often neglect ourselves and don’t prioritize our needs.

If you want to make time for self-care, then here are a few practical tips to carve out time for yourself.

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8 Ways to Carve Out ‘Me Time’

1. Track Yourself for a Week

The first step to making time for yourself is to analyze how you’re spending your days. Track what you do in 24 hours for at least a week continuously. Note down minute details like the time you take to eat, scroll your smartphone, do laundry, chit chat with your friends, or do work for others. 

Review it after a week and note where you are spending your time. As you track this information, you’ll soon see patterns emerge. You’ll find some time gaps and chances to multitask and complete jobs sooner and dedicate time for yourself.

2. Prioritize Your Everyday Tasks

While you don’t necessarily need to put your ‘me time’ at the top of your priority list, you need to include it as one of your priorities. 

Often, we waste time and tend to perform tasks that aren’t a priority. So break your day’s available time into chunks of tasks based on your list of priorities. Block off a substantial amount of time for yourself every day and schedule your ‘me time’ ahead.

3. Define Your Self-Care

For some, self-care is sitting down and meditating or taking a long, relaxing bath. For others, it’s taking time to do skincare or indulging in some artwork. You can even sit down and simply stare at the sky or watch television. 

You don’t have to bound your self-care according to the norms. Choose how your self-care would look like. Define your terms — something that feels joyful, soothing, and calming to you. You can even split your self-care time into multiple time slots spread around the day. Choose any format that suits you the best.

4. Delegate Tasks If Possible

Many of us like to do things our way. And so we keep doing stuff by ourselves and don’t trust others to do it as efficiently as we want them to.

But sometimes, we need to take a step back and realize how much it has affected our lives. 

When you feel swamped with so much work, take a look at your daily tasks and see if you can delegate some to others. It can be as simple as asking your husband to help you prep the meal for the day, hiring a maid to help you around the house, or teaching your kids to do some of their stuff.

As you assign tasks to others, you’ll soon have time to spend on yourself.

5. Keep Your Phone Aside

We assume that we spend all our waking hours productively. But there are times consumed by doom scrolling our smartphones that can be put to better use.

When you limit your phone time, you can make at least 30 minutes every day to spend on yourself. 

Try to keep your phone away as soon as you’re back from work and indulge in a task that you love to do. Or you can allocate phone-free time just before going to bed.

Make sure to pick a time when you won’t be tempted to reach out for your phone and instead focus on yourself entirely.

6. Have Some Cushion Time in Your Organizer

When we run on a tight schedule, we may end up consuming that one slot that doesn’t affect anybody else — ‘me time.’ We are so into the busy culture that we may overlook the importance of self-care and can sacrifice our time alone for other stuff.

So make sure to have a blank space, a cushion time, on your organizer. This way, when any of the allocated tasks take more duration than planned, you can take some of the cushion time without disturbing your slot for ‘me time.’

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7. Have a Distraction-Free Zone

The time you spend on yourself is precious. So make sure that it isn’t riddled with constant disturbances. 

Create a specific zone in your home where you’ll sit down calmly and invest the time for yourself. 

You need to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour during this time — because we need some time, in the beginning, to calm our senses and dissociate ourselves from the responsibilities for the next 30 minutes. And focus just on ourselves.

8. Set Clear Boundaries for Your ‘Me Time’

When you have a family with kids, you can barely get some time off to sleep, let alone spend it on yourself. But you can still take some time out for yourself if you’re able to set clear boundaries.

Communicate with your family and friends about that personal time you want to spend alone. Let it be known that you don’t like to be disturbed during that time and are pretty serious about it. 

Encourage your other family members to do the same and help them create a ‘me time’ for themselves. This will help them understand the importance of spending time for themselves and will, in turn, get their support and respect in your efforts.

Conclusion 

As you start spending time on yourself, you’ll soon discover and reconnect with that inner self that you love. Explore various stuff to do during this time and pick a few that you enjoy the most. These are precious moments in your everyday life and therefore, make the most of them in every way you can.