How to Find Time for Yourself! Time confetti is the problem and solution

How many times have friends advised you to find time for yourself and your health? Plenty! But it’s hard to do when you have so many obligations, right? Here’s how to make the best use of your time, so you really can take care of yourself.

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Apparently, you and I have more free time than we realize. That’s what the experts say anyway.

If that’s true, why do I always wish I had more hours in the day? Why do I look at my to-do list and wonder how is it already 3:00 and I still have all these things that haven’t gotten done?

I’m not alone. I just heard a woman in the spiraling line at the post office complain she didn’t have time to get to yoga class. She wasn’t even sure she had time to pick up takeout for supper tonight.

If we feel so time famished, it’s no surprise we whine we don’t have the extra moments to exercise, pack lunch, or wash and slice radishes for a salad. If I understand what the experts are saying, the problem and the solution are one and the same. Time confetti.

I learned about time confetti on my favorite podcast, The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos. Even though it feels like we’re starved for time, we actually have more free time than we did about 20 years ago.

Whaaaat? Yes! Records show we have more free time now, but we have much smaller chunks of it. Five minutes here. Ten minutes there. Time confetti.

Use it to find time for yourself.

Five or 10 minutes hardly feels like enough to do anything with! How do you manage diabetes with that? Or reverse prediabetes, chisel away at high cholesterol or develop a meditation habit?

Why we have so much time confetti

Distractions – often thanks to technology – rip our time apart. You imagine cozying up with a cup of tea, a good book and a fluffy blanket for a 30-minute reading break. Yet your time gets torn into half a dozen shreds when you answer the phone, tend to text messages, and jump up to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer.

 

All these shreds of time steal our opportunity to become fully engaged in our leisure activities and to feel refreshed and replenished. It’s why you feel you can’t take time for yourself.

We must use the free time we have

You deserve that 30-minute reading session. Heck, you deserve 60! You deserve time to meditate, exercise, and wash and slice those radishes.

Find time for yourself

 

What would it be like if you set a timer for 30 or 60 minutes to read after dinner, watch a favorite show or dig into your craft closet? Could you build a wall around that time the way you guard time for other important things like getting a mammogram or a vision test? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t pull your phone out for a text message during either of those appointments.

Don’t use your free 5 minutes to scroll social media

We feel like we don’t have free time because we don’t use our time confetti in deliberate ways. Instead of scrolling Facebook or Instagram during the 5 minutes between grabbing dog food at Target and picking up your kids, what could you do to make your life better or more meaningful? What is the best way to use your time confetti?

Find time for yourself with a time confetti list

• Meditate
• Take long, deep breaths focusing on extending the exhale
• Write in your gratitude app or journal
• Connect with a friend – even if it’s just to say “hey there, thinking of you.”
• Find a new recipe to try next week
• Do 100 lunges or 10 lunges
• Stretch your hamstrings
• Play with your pet
• Sketch
• Pick a few weeds in your garden
• Sip a fragrant cup of tea outside
• Recite a mantra or affirmation
• Wash and slice radishes

I have the dreadful habit of wasting my time confetti by checking the news headlines – even more so during election season. (Also, it seems like it’s always election season!) But, since working from home, I’m also much better at purposefully using my time confetti.

For my mental health, I drink tea outside. I drink espresso outside. I play with Benny outside. And inside.

And for my physical health, I prep part of dinner early. I swirl my hips with a pink and orange weighted hula hoop. And I stretch my hamstrings every time I reheat tea or coffee in the microwave.

Find time for yourself with action

Scraps of fabric become a treasured quilt. Broken pieces of glass turn into a statement lamp. What can you do with your fragments of time?

Now you see how little shreds of time make us feel like we don’t have an extra minute to breathe deeply. And you see how we can use those 5 and 10 minutes here and there in better ways. So what are you going to do next? Here’s what I suggest.

1. 1. Identify sacred time and tell everyone about it. You know you deserve downtime, so pick a window that’s solely yours. For me, it’s eating my breakfast outside all by myself and reading before bed. You will not interrupt me during these times.
   2. Create a time confetti to-do list. Include things for both your mental health and your physical health. What will help your mood? Your blood sugar? Your heart and mind?

I have about 8 minutes before my next Zoom call. Bet I can get those radishes washed and sliced – as long as I can divert my eyes from the news headlines.