To approach this past week, I decided to write down everything I did, hour by hour, for the week. After Saturday, I would total up the hours spent on my tasks and evaluate them to see whether they are in line with my values and goals. Among other things, I found that I spend, on average, 2 hours per day watching tv but only three quarters of an hour exercising. I would like to balance these out, decreasing my time watching tv to an hour and increasing my time exercising to 1.5 hours (I know the math doesn’t work there).
In addition, I found that I only sleep an average of 6 hours per night. That is including “weekend” sleep and naps taken on the train during my commute. Factoring those out, I probably sleep only 4.5 hours a weeknight. This is definitely not enough and, though I’ve always been an early riser and have never been known for sleeping a lot, I would like to get to at least 5.5 hours per weeknight.
Thus, I’m going to need to develop a routine that allows me to adjust my habits according to my values. Go to sleep earlier, decide in advance what I want to watch on tv and limit myself to it, make sure that I head to the gym, practice yoga at home, or go out for a run when I get home, which means I need to know what I will be doing so that I don’t fall into the trap of getting home and not leaving until the next morning. This isn’t that difficult, and I’ve done it before, but I just need to make sure that I follow through so that it becomes natural to me.
I am pleased to say that, in evaluating my committments, I am well within my values. Up until a few years ago, I had the tendency to take on more than I could handle. I would do everything, but never have time to do NOTHING. When I moved to the east coast, I made a promise to myself to do only those things that I really want to do so that I could do them well. With the exception of my daily commute of 4 hours (total), I have stuck to that and it has proved to be a lifesaver.
This week was an enlightening one. Looking at everything I spend my time doing in a week and evaluating my commitments has given me the knowledge I need to create my own routine and find the time to do what I really want to do. If I can keep these past two weeks in mind whenever I approach a new project, I think I will be able to create a beautiful life for myself.
This week’s challenge: Simplify Work Tasks
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: simple living, time
