We all have 24 hours in a day. How are you choosing to use that time?
Wow – so much pressure in what should be a motivating statement. When I think about 24 hours, it gives me anxiety, because there are somehow never enough hours in the day to get everything done. The days I work from home, I get so consumed in my work that I don’t eat, go to the bathroom, or drink water. I know this is terrible of me, but I am still trying to adjust to self-employed life. All of a sudden after working so hard, it’s 5 PM and I have to convince myself to take a break and take myself to the gym, despite often feeling unaccomplished.
It is easy to get angry with ourselves when we don’t accomplish all that we want to in those short and sweet 24 hours. But the thing about those 24 hours is that those hours are all we have, we can’t slow down time. But we do have a choice to be kind to ourselves a lot more during those hours. Some days we may have a goal to get 24 things done, and each of them take an hour. It’s okay if you realistically can only do 6 or 7. It’s okay if you don’t get to everything on your list. What I am learning is to trust the process. On days like today when the one thing I wanted to do, I didn’t, I remind myself that I have time. I want things done now, but I have time. So I push my tasks back a little bit and have faith that they will still get done, right when they need to be. And I remind myself that taking breaks allows me to be more effective, and can refresh my mind.
Make sure to take breaks and to treat yourself, and to know that everything will get done. Forgive yourself when you slept in a little too late, or accidentally fell asleep early when you wanted to get work done. I promise you that work is still going to be there, but what matters most is your sense of wellness. Try to reframe your mindset and restructure your confidence in the universe. If you remain core in your wellness, the rest around you can go up and down, but you will stay central, which will allow you to remember to take breaks and remind yourself that you are doing an amazing job.
We all have the same 24 hours and society pressures us to utilize those hours wisely otherwise we may be deemed as lazy or a failure. But I say we cheers to being okay if our 24 hours didn’t go as planned, to doing what feels right in those 24 hours, and knowing that above all else on our lengthy to-do lists, our mental health should come first.
We all have 24 hours, how will you make sure you make time for you during them?