I’ve been a mom now for 12 years, and for the past 12 years, I feel that I was either in survival mode or coasting mode. Getting to bedtime was often the goal in the early days when they were babies. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months and then years.
Not only we were raising three kids, my husband and I both had full-time jobs. As a pharmacist, I’ve been working the 8 hours shifts, but with the commute time, I’m usually out of the house for 10 hours a day. 10 hours! By the time I got home from a long day at work, I had only around 3.5 hours to spend with my family. After the kids went to bed, I had 1.5-2 hours to decompress from the day.
After years of juggling family and work life, I think I finally got the hang of it through routines and schedules. I’m just coasting through life now. In a way, I’m just on autopilot.
My husband and I recently watched videos of the kids when they were babies. It made us sad to know that phase in our lives is over. We sat there reminiscing about the precious times.
One of my goals now is to be more intentional with my time. I want to enjoy my days doing things that matter and things that will move the needle (in terms of my goals). I don’t want to coast anymore. I want to enjoy and feel every pleasurable moment.
Being more intentional with my time, I hope will make me a more confident, strong, satisfied and compassionate person.
Here are the things that I am working on being more intentional:
Mono-tasking
Often I feel that I’m being pulled in a few different directions and I try to multitask to get things done. On the Ed Mylett show, Ed Mylett interviewed Thatcher Wine and they talked about “mono-tasking”. I think most of us heard that multi-tasking is not an efficient method to get things done. Listening to this podcast, made me really think about NOT multi-tasking. I’m trying to be more mindful and focus on one thing at a time and just give it my all. I am finding that I’m more efficient, my tasks become easier (because I’m focusing) and I get more done.
Social media is a time waster
I recently checked my social media apps to see how much time I spent on these platforms. I found out that I was spending 3.5-4 hours a week watching other peoples’ lives! What a waste of time! I would be on my phone when I was around my kids and thus I was not fully present to be with them.
I have now made an effort to stop looking at social media (putting the phone away during family time). My life is so busy and I am so grateful (maybe relieved?) that I have found an extra 3.5-4 hours a week to do other things that are more important. I now spend the time being with my kids (100% attention), working on my to-do list and goals.
Self-care
Exercise
As part of my exercise routine, I spend 20 minutes on the treadmill. I do the 20 minutes to get the 20 minutes done and over with. To say the least, it is not my favourite thing.
Now with intention, I strive to make the 20 minutes on the treadmill a good workout. After a couple of weeks of doing this, I find that I have a bit more energy, the weight is slowly coming off and I feel better.
Optimal Sleep
I believe that getting enough sleep is so important to set me up for a more manageable day. I know that when I don’t enough sleep the night before, I feel an edge of anxiety, I perform less optimally, my memory isn’t there 100% and getting things done during the day takes more energy. The tiredness even leads to more procrastination.
Now, I try to make an effort to wind down before bedtime. I’m unplugging from electronics, I read a book and reflect on how my day went. Then lights out at a specific time.
Related article: The Power of Sleep
I no longer want to coast through life and move away from being on autopilot. Time is so precious. I want to treasure the time with my kids as they are growing up so fast and I also want to enjoy the journey of accomplishing my goals.
Since I’ve started being more intentional with a few activities, it has made a major impact on how I am mentally. Being more intentional with my time, I feel more in control and motivated to tackle my problems and goals. I’m enjoying life more.
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