This past weekend I was busy from the time I logged off from work on Friday evening to the time my head crashed onto my pillow on Sunday night. We spent the weekend traveling to Knoxville to move my oldest daughter into her first apartment as she starts her junior year of college. This is college move in number three for us and they are always busy, fun and bittersweet!! This week I feel so off my game, extremely tired and just overall blah. It hit me last night that the past few weekends and this summer in general I have been traveling, working harder, busy and on the go. I realized a correlation with how crazy my weekends are and how I feel during the entire week.
I came across an interesting book called the “The Weekend Effect” by Katrina Onstad that challenges people to rethink their weekend routines and how their leisure time is spent. She focuses on helping you change crazy Saturdays and Sundays into times where your body, mind and spirit can truly get the break that it deserves.
Here are some terrific tips for crazy folks like me who are always on the go!
- Restructure your week!
Tackle chores during the week taking a few evenings to pay bills, do laundry, clean the bathroom and house etc. However much you accomplish, stop working after Friday. This will probably require a bit of change to your standards and learning to be okay with a little mess. 😊
- Organize your weekend into time blocks!
Professional organizer, Julie Morgenstern suggested to break your weekends into seven units:
- Friday Evening
- Saturday Morning
- Saturday Afternoon
- Saturday Evening
- Sunday Morning
- Sunday Afternoon
- Sunday Evening
She suggests that you dedicate time within those blocks for what matters to you. If you have family obligations, work or projects that are a must to limit the time you spend on those items to only one or two of those units and then get back to focusing on you. Brilliant and just so simple!
- Make YOUR fulfillment a priority!
Another great tip suggested by Morgenstern is to implement the PEP formula that focuses on spending time on (P) Physical health, (E) Escapes, and (P) People. Using this formula will help you spend your time getting extra sleep, exercise, eating healthy meals, recharging through hobbies, fun activities, or other passions that might get pushed down to the bottom of your to do list. The final ‘P’ helps you to really focus on spending your leisure time with people who nourish you and not drain you! Our leisure time is precious!
Overall, I know that we are over committed and over scheduled on many levels. This book showed me a new way to look at how I spend my time. For many of us we work 9-5 jobs 40+ hours a week that is not our time but focused on others so placing more value on OUR time is very important.
I always get super excited when we move into the fall and winter season. First there is pumpkin spice everything! PSA - Starbucks starts serving pumpkin spice lattes next week - Yay Yay Yay!!! Fall is also Gods natural way of forcing us to slow down with shorter days, to drop leaves/things in our lives that are weighing us down so that we can nourish our soil/soul and to go within and reflect on what is working/not working in our lives. See why I love fall!
I hope you take a closer look at how you are spending your weekdays and weekends and make leisure time is a priority! I am googling house cleaners as I am typing this right now - let the reclaimed time begin! 😊#operationreclaimmyleisuretime
Leave a comment or tips on how you plan to reclaim your time!
Cheers to QUALITY leisure time and pumpkin spice lattes!!
By Kara Norman- Empower Her, Inc.
Kara Norman Atlanta Based Women Empowerment Thought Leader and bi-weekly blog contributor.
Kara Norman has been working with Women and Girls for a number of years. Her nonprofit organization Empower Her Inc , have led to many opportunities in the space of making social changes as it deals with women and their many roles in society. You can learn more about Kara Norman and Empower Her Inc. at http://www.empowerherinc.com/