5 Easy Ways to Find Me-Time in Your Busy Schedule

Feeling overloaded and exhausted? We all have days when we feel overwhelmed and can’t find one extra minute to care for ourselves. But every single day shouldn’t be that way! Here are 5 simple steps to find me-time in your busy schedule.

We must protect me-time because life’s demands come at us nonstop. No matter how busy we become, we must still care for ourselves.

Our schedules ought to accommodate our crucial self-care needs.

For example, it’s essential to have time to:

• Meal plan, shop, and prepare healthy food for our family.
• Be active and move our bodies.
• Rest and have some quiet time.
• Have fun with family and friends.

If there’s no me-time in your schedule, you may experience chronic exhaustion, which could lead to burnout.

I used to struggle with this problem – a lot.

Now, I have time to take better care of myself.

This sounds impossible, but it’s not as complicated as you think. And, believe me, if I can do it, so can you!

If you prioritize your tasks, you can find me-time in your busy schedule.

Of course, you may already think you’re prioritizing your to-dos. But I found a way to change my approach.

Today, I will show you a better way to prioritize and be even more effective.

By the way, if you’d like even more help finding time to take better care of yourself, you can get your FREE copy of the Self-care Starter Guide HERE!

Make This List

Have you ever made a list of your values? You may already have a list of values in your heart or mind.

If you haven’t thought of your values before, don’t worry because we’ll do that now. (I have my list below as an example.)

1. To begin, consider the principles on which you base your decisions.
2. Then, categorize your principles.
3. Lastly, prioritize them.

Take a minute to write down your values and create an official values list. You can start now and keep adding to it as you think of more later.

Then, keep that list in front of you. It will significantly help you prioritize your time.

Below is an example of my list of values. The last two can fluctuate based on my season of life.

Yours may look similar; don’t worry if it’s a little different. It’s all okay.

But, I want you to notice where I have placed ‘self.’

My List

1. Faith/God
2. Relationships – marriage
3. People – children/family
4. Self
5. Work/service
6. Education

I listed myself as #4. I DID NOT place myself at the bottom of this list.

And neither should you.

I suspect many will have faith at the top of a values list. Most people believe in some Higher Power.

Depending on your stage of life, your marriage and children’s needs will also be high on that list.

That said, I advise you not to prioritize the value of work, service, or education above yourself.

Why?

You must take appropriate care of yourself to perform your work or service (or focus on learning) at your greatest ability.

Self-care will not happen if you (and your self-care needs) are prioritized below these other things.

Involving Faith

Here’s another reason I place ‘service’ after ‘self.’

God’s commands in Scripture influence us as believers. You may think that, as Christians, we should prioritize our service to others over ourselves.

I agree.

However, my reasoning for putting ‘service’ under ‘self’ is not that I am more important than the people I serve; instead, I can best serve the people I love and care about when I care for my basic needs.

Prioritizing work, service, and education before yourself can cause you to spend a lot of your time serving or working while you are stressed and tired, especially if your work or service IS YOUR FAMILY.

Often, the quality of your service or work declines when you’re worn out. And it can be difficult to stay motivated about self-care if you’re always exhausted.

Take care of yourself to have the ability to best serve and care for the people you love.

My referral and affiliate links are below. If you click through & make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. My full disclosure can be viewed for details.

If you’re looking for a way to stay motivated about taking better care of yourself, you might be interested in learning more about my book. Click my affiliate link to check out my Bible study.

Prioritize Your Tasks Based on Your List

People who do not use a values list end up living harried lives and not having time to do the things that matter the most to them or impact the people they love.

Not using a value list is a surefire way to have unimportant and meaningless tasks and activities on your calendar, or missing out on things that are most meaningful to you.

For example, I used to think that date night seemed like something that should be pushed off my calendar when my schedule was overloaded, but when I look at my values list, I see that marriage is on my list as my second-highest priority.

Then again, I also used to think that saying yes to my children’s requests to participate in every sport or club was a good thing.

But I often didn’t consider the entire commitment or ask, ‘How well does it align with my values list?’ That resulted in many crazy evenings, so we made a few changes.

Now that you have your values list, you can refer to it when deciding whether you have time to meet your demands or activities on your to-do list.

Activities like the following should be highest priorities.

• Sleep
• Meal prep
• Exercise and movement
• Quiet time, prayer, or meditation
• Relaxation

Relaxation is often inappropriately categorized as a treat or reward, such as a spa day, massage, manicure, etc.

But it can and often is just downtime.

Some people call downtime me-time, and some people think downtime is self-care. All are fine. The point is to make sure to have some time for rest.

Remember, relaxation or respite is the activity you need to manage stressors. Not every spot on your schedule should be filled with tasks that require energy!

As new activities or requests arise, filter them through your values list.

Questions to Ask

Everyone will see success differently – our family has three nights of activity and four nights of family time. We also eat dinner as a family before the children’s activities.

The point is that not everything will become your top priority when you’re true to your values.

You can’t say yes to everything and still expect to be able to spend time on the things that matter the most to you.

That’s just not how it works.

Here’s a list of questions to consider asking.

• How many evenings are tied up with practices and other requirements?
• If Faith/God is your top priority, and your relationships and family are also at the top, how does recreation fit into that?
• Do I even want to say yes to that thing?

Here are the steps to use your values list and questions to prioritize your tasks:

1. Develop & prioritize your list of values or Values List.
2. Filter each request through your values list.
3. Prioritize appointments, tasks, or activities based on your values.
4. Use your question list to determine if you say yes or no to requests. Need help to say no? I gotcha covered.
5. Triage tasks as needed (see next 2 steps)

Assess – How to Find Me-Time in Your Busy Schedule

Routinely assessing and triaging your calendar and to-do list is a great way to find me-time in your busy schedule.

This simple process will help you identify low-priority tasks.

How to Assess

I like to assess or survey my calendar at least once or twice weekly. I look for tasks that are not priorities for me.

Although I work hard to filter appointments through my values list, some things still get through, especially during holidays or when my kids have busy school months.

Glance through your commitments, appointments, tasks, etc., to ensure every (or most) of them align with your list of values.

Highlight those that do not align with what you’ve determined to be your priorities (which are in your values list).

Then, triage (prioritize) the task to determine if you can remove it.

Triage

Now it’s time to prioritize your identified questionable tasks.

I like the word triage because it’s used in emergencies. The most critical are prioritized first.

That concept applies to our calendar tasks, too.

We all have seasons when we are more relaxed than others. Sometimes, low-value tasks will be on your schedule, and it’s not a big issue.

But the point of this article is how to find me-time in your busy schedule.

When you’re busy, you must make hard choices.

When struggling to find me-time, you must make space in your schedule. The best way to do this is to put a standing daily me-time appointment on your calendar.

It’s okay to start with 15 minutes. You can even begin with a 5 minute appointment if you have to!

The way to open your schedule is to eliminate the low-value tasks, appointments, or commitments.

Stop doing things that aren’t important to you in the first place!

These are the things that keep you from taking care of yourself.

When you say yes to other non-valuable things, you place your value beneath those unimportant things.

That cycle needs to end today.

So let’s do this!

Eliminate Tasks to Find Me-Time in Your Busy Schedule

I’ve written this above, but it’s important to remember that you need to assess and triage your to-do list or calendar regularly.

To start making room in your schedule for me-time, first identify the tasks that don’t align with your values.

Remove any unimportant tasks that you have control over. Do this first, these are the easiest.

Then, with the rest of the tasks, use these questions to help find me-time in your busy schedule:

• Can I delete this task? Will anyone miss it?
• Can I delay this activity? We can’t delete everything of low value, but you can see if you can push it back to a less busy time.
• Can it be delegated?
• How can I bundle tasks efficiently?
• Where is my village?

Other Thoughts to Consider

• Have you ever found yourself doing something you thought was essential to your family or friends, and later, you learn they weren’t interested at all, but they thought it was important to you? Think holiday or seasonal traditions.
• Parents – should you ask kids to help with chores?
• We all have errands we can’t ignore. Is there a way to do them more effectively, thus using less time?
• Other people are dealing with the same things you are. Consider working together, and then everyone will be efficient with their time. Form carpools or parent teams whenever possible.

In closing, finding time to take better care of yourself is crucial.

It may seem awkward initially, but if you use your values list before putting something on your schedule and assess and triage tasks after they’re on your schedule, you’ll eventually start chipping away at your overfilled calendar and find more me-time in your busy schedule.

You got this, friend!

Don’t forget your FREE Self-care Starter Guide! Get it HERE.

Thanks for reading! Know someone who would benefit from reading this post? Share it on social media!

Ready for more? Here are my latest posts!

• 9 Must-Read Blog Posts to Manage High Blood Pressure Naturally
• Overcome Self-care Barriers with 4 Easy Tips
• 4 Easy Ways to Get Your Spouse to Eat Healthy Food
• 5 Easy Ways to Find Me-Time in Your Busy Schedule
• How to Try New Vegetables When You Hate to Eat Veggies

The post was originally published on August 30, 2019.