I have so much to do! Yes. True. But, if I do not get dirt under my nails from gardening, or make a mess with candle making, then what kind of life is that?
I find hobbies get pushed to one side as we over schedule ourselves with all the 'important' grown up stuff we need to get done. I have made a real effort to schedule my reading into my schedule as I gain immense pleasure from this. I also enjoy early morning walks, not just for exercise but they make a real difference to my quality of life and creating priority space in my schedule for these things is important. My husband loves the gym and so he is understanding of the need for personal hobbies and we support each other to create a space to pursue what we enjoy. Great article April..
One cool trick I’ve discovered this week is to keep a log when I carve out time to work on something for me. I write down my start time and the project I’m working on, then write down ‘intentional breaks’ underneath. At the end of the session I write down my total time not including the breaks. My kids know it’s to be uninterrupted time (I remind them if necessary) but if I need to take a break for whatever reason, I just log it under my intentional breaks - logging out and then in again once the break is over. I used to not like doing things for myself during the day because I felt I was constantly interrupted. This way I minimize interruptions and the interruptions I do choose to let in don’t have to interfere with the total time I spend on me because I can usually add in extra time at the end to make up for interruptions if necessary. And logging it really helps me focus.
![April Edwards [Embracing Home]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_36,h_36,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F35117ace-74f5-4db4-b7ac-543a660db102_1280x1280.png)
I find hobbies get pushed to one side as we over schedule ourselves with all the 'important' grown up stuff we need to get done. I have made a real effort to schedule my reading into my schedule as I gain immense pleasure from this. I also enjoy early morning walks, not just for exercise but they make a real difference to my quality of life and creating priority space in my schedule for these things is important. My husband loves the gym and so he is understanding of the need for personal hobbies and we support each other to create a space to pursue what we enjoy. Great article April..
One cool trick I’ve discovered this week is to keep a log when I carve out time to work on something for me. I write down my start time and the project I’m working on, then write down ‘intentional breaks’ underneath. At the end of the session I write down my total time not including the breaks. My kids know it’s to be uninterrupted time (I remind them if necessary) but if I need to take a break for whatever reason, I just log it under my intentional breaks - logging out and then in again once the break is over. I used to not like doing things for myself during the day because I felt I was constantly interrupted. This way I minimize interruptions and the interruptions I do choose to let in don’t have to interfere with the total time I spend on me because I can usually add in extra time at the end to make up for interruptions if necessary. And logging it really helps me focus.