Adulting can be difficult. But if you work full time, or have children (or BOTH!), you can often feel like you’re just compounding the amount of time that you DON’T have.
side bar: Have you watched #WorkingMoms on Netflix? It’s hilarious and right on the mark… binge watch it now! It’s so relatable…
I’m a mom of 2, I work full-time in the corporate healthcare sector, and I have numerous side endeavors. I try my hardest to prioritize my self care, but I often find that there’s just not enough time for me. Everything else seems to feel like a priority over my mani-pedi ( and I guess my children eating is in fact a priority)… BUT WHAT ABOUT ME!?!
When do I get to go out with the girls? (after quarantine, of course)
When do I get to have regular pamper days, and not just when I run away from my home screaming?
When do I get to lay around and do absolutely nothing?
Huh? HUH? HUH?!?
… I digress…
Do you always, always, always say that you are going to set aside me-time… but never actually do it?
Same…
Whenever I’ve wanted to set aside time, it always seem ed like there wasn’t any to set aside! I realized that almost any and all of my free time aka ME TIME was being swallowed up into my motherly chores. The key to having me-time was to become more efficient with what I could actually change.
So… here are my:
5 Things Busy Ladies/Moms Should Do To Stay Sane and Have Me-Time
1.Meal Prep Every Week
When I used to hear the phrase “meal prep”, I immediately would think fitness, portion control (which should’ve meant something to my greedy self), and same meals every-yam-day for a week.
NOT appealing!
It wasn’t until I saw this video (below) that I realized that I could completely switch up what meal prep meant to me! I began prepping multiple food items on Sundays that could be mixed and matched throughout the week. I began prepping items that could be used for any meal for anyone. For example: I would make a few chicken breast that could be cut up for my children, or my salad for lunch or dinner! Or I’d make a pot of rice that I could serve along side a meat and vegetables for dinner, or we could have rice with turkey sausage and fruit for breakfast.
Something else that I started doing is just prepping, not actually cooking meal items. So I would simply cut up whatever veggies we may eat, cooked or raw, to be consumed throughout the week. Or I would take out whatever meat items I would like to cook and season them so that they can marinate for a day or two . Then when I am off of work, I can just dump the meat in an oven safe pan and bake and it’s already seasoned and ready! Cook some of those pre-chopped veggies, and serve with the rice! Amazing time saver…
2. Buy/Teach Things That Give Your Children Independence
This was a big one for me!
As a mom of a 7 and 2 year old, someone always needs something. And as much as I would love to be at their beck and call 24 hours a day (NOT!), I realized that the only way I would be able to get any me-time (or through my Zoom meeting) was to let them spread their wings a bit.
I decided to get them (or teach them to use things) that allowed my children to do it themselves. This could be something as simple as buying cereal so that I can get an extra 30 minutes of sleep in the morning, teaching my son to use the toasted for a pre-made waffle (see previous step) for those days he wakes up late and I’m already full swing into my meeting, or taking the time to truly focus on potty training my 2 year old (once she was ready and showing interest of course. No pressure potty training over here!) so that I’m not having to drop everything that I’m doing every 45 minutes to change her diaper since she wants it changed IMMEDIATELY after she wets it. These were small things, but it helped my children learn to be more independent, and freed up a bit of time for me!
3. Wake Up Before Everyone Else
Yet another game changer for me has been to simply wake up before everyone else in my home. This has been especially crucial for me since we’ve been self-isolating and social distancing. Because I haven’t been alone in literally 3 months (except for this one time I went to pick up an order at Target) I literally haven’t had any me-time.
If I wake up at the same time as everyone else then I literally won’t have a moment to myself all day. So what I’ve been doing is waking up before everyone else and doing whatever I want to do. Maybe that’s my nails, my hair, working out, or just sitting outside and enjoying the stillness.
4. Declutter/Organize/Minimize
This step helped me be more efficient in ALL aspects of life, but definitely when it came to being able to free up my time. If you can take the initial time to get rid of what you don’t need and organize what is left over, it stops you from spending most of your time cleaning (which I feel like is the only thing that I do most days). When I start to feel overwhelmed with cleaning, I know that it’s time to start donating and throwing things out. It’s the ultimate cue that we have too much stuff and it’s forcing me to work overtime to keep it clean.
I’m not a minimalist, but I have adopted quite a few minimalist practices and my life is better because of it (not even being dramatic here).
I have a Type A personality, so staying organized has never been an issue for me and is actually on of my strong suits.But since having children, it’s been harder to stay as organized as I would like to be. Once I started organizing everything, it made my heart sing.
It’s kind of corny, but it’s true:
when everything has a home, it makes cleaning easier and less frequent. It also make it easier to teach your children what to do and where to put things away. Then watch them automatically put things back where they go. Or, if you have to tell them to put their things away, they know exactly what that means… it’s like having little fairies help you clean
Some of my favorite minimalist/organization Youtubers
5.Automate/Set a Timer for Whatever You Can
Does anyone else remember that late night info-mercial for that cooking apparatus where the cook and the audience would over and over again brag about how they could:
Set it, and FORGET IT!
I thought that little chant was the corniest thing ever as a kid. But now as an ADULT , I’m like:
yyeeesssss….. YYYEEESSSSSS!!!
It truly does give you more time to yourself when you just don’t have a million little tiddle-ee-winks on your to-do list. So what did I do:
Bills: Auto-pay them joints! (and sometimes you can get a discount for doing this, so ask!)
Savings: Auto transfer!
Hardwood floors: Bought a Roomba off of Amazon and scheduled the cleanings
Emails: Type them up and schedule their send dates
Set it, and FORGET IT!
Seriously, once you start automating your life, it’ll be like you hired a bunch of personal assistants without having to pay them. SCORE!
Conclusion
These are a few of my tips for us busy ladies that are having trouble finding the time for their self care. We need it, we deserve it!
What are some things that you do to be able to carve out time for yourself?
