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You don’t have to optimise EVERY minute of your life

you dont have to optimise every minute

 

First trimester exhaustion is no joke.

Probably not helping was what I’m pretty sure was a light spell of flu or a terrible cold around the second month thrown in there.

However much was due to my growing a human vs legit illness, I spent literally weeks out of action beyond making it to work and home again (and not even that, some days). Evenings and weekends, the only place you’d find me was flat on my back in bed. And even now, my (never great) energy levels aren’t what they used to be, so I need even more rest and sleep than normal. On top of that, the occasional dizzy spell likes to come out of  nowhere, relegating me to the nearest seat (or better, bed) to recover.

I had to get over my guilt about doing nothing pretty quick smart, and embrace marathoning Jane the Virgin.

A happiness hack

Separately, I’d already been working for a while on reframing how I think about the nonproductive hours in my week.

I guess you could even spin it as optimising my time, though maybe not in the traditional way.

The things is, I hate waiting. Seriously hate it.

But instead of resenting the commute, I’m starting to enjoy it (maybe even look forward to it sometimes) as it’s often the only time I can carve out to decompress and meditate.

And now that the days are getting shorter and it’s dark earlier, I’m switching it up. Normally I bus to the train station in the morning, and walk home from the train in the evening; these days I’m walking in the morning (bonus: it warms me up for the day, gets the blood flowing on wintry mornings!) and bus back from the station home.

The same with walking the dogs. It’s gotta be done. Sometimes it can be doubled up as a run for me, but not every walk can be a run – and these days I’m just not up for running at all, to be honest. Some walks need to be training walks, and some need to be relaxing sniffy walks where they can just be dogs – walks when I can let my mind roam free and work on visualisations and mantras.

Rather than impatiently waiting for these ‘unproductive’ times to end, I’m trying to use them in better ways. Repurposing them from hours to be endured with the help of Spotify and podcasts, to precious flow and meditation time.

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “You don’t have to optimise EVERY minute of your life

  • Reply Mindy May 16, 2018 at 12:47

    I love this; sometimes we just need to let our minds take a break from consuming content and needing to feel productive. I switched up my routine this year so my afternoon commute incorporates a 30 minutes of walking and just letting my mind wander free. Beautiful writing by the way!

  • Reply Amanda of My Life, I Guess May 22, 2018 at 08:44

    I find myself with a lot of free time on my hands. Sure there are things I should be doing, but sometimes doing “nothing” is exactly what I need to do.

    Like marathoning Jane the Virgin!

  • Reply Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life June 1, 2018 at 07:12

    I started doing this after my incubation period had ended because the incubation itself was terrible – it’s such a good habit to build.

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