Are you the kind of person who, if you have somewhere you have to be at 3pm in the afternoon, you feel like you can’t do anything the entire day leading up to it? It’s like the day is a wash and you have to lay in wait, immobile and ready, for that planned “thing”. Me too!
I’ve noticed this about myself in recent years and I have to say, it’s pretty inefficient. As we have busy professional and family lives, we should be aware of how we organize our time and events.
My professional life is where most of my time is allocated these days. I know this will not always be the case, but while I work two jobs (one at an agency for families and children, and the other my private practice), I’m finding less and less time in the cracks.
Personally, as my schedule is getting busier with clients in private practice and as I approach having to implement a waitlist, I’m finding that it’s not the best self-care for me to not use my in-between times during the workday.
Let’s say I have a client at 11am and then at 3pm. My initial impulse is to feel rushed and agitated that from 12pm-3pm I have “dead time” where I “can’t do anything”. This is a fallacy and a thought error. In reality, that’s two whole hours where I can get things done or do some self-care!
So lately I’ve been challenging myself to take advantage of these times and it’s been a nice exercise in flexibility and seeing that behavior change is possible. The excuse that “this is just how I am” doesn’t fly in the therapy circle and it shouldn’t fly in our personal lives either.
If you’re like me and feel like you’re stuck in a weird schedule, try to look at things a little differently. Where can you truly open up space for yourself?
What kind of thoughts do you have around time management, and what kind of behavior and thought changes can you put in place to make the most of the day?
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