Being Intentional With Our Free Time

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve had a very tough time finding time to just relax the past few years.

Part of the problem is that, when I’m not busy with mothering, driving my daughter to various activities, and managing the household, I’m writing, working on my website, figuring out marketing techniques…basically filling any available time up completely.

Part of the problem is that now I have a hard time relaxing in general.  I’m very restless during quieter times and I have that overwhelming feeling that I should be working on something.  Frequently I’ll jump up after five minutes or so and unload the dishwasher.  That kind of thing.

I even wrote a character with this trait:  Beatrice in the Southern Quilting mysteries.  She can’t relax and can’t seem to make her retirement restful.

I read an article by Emily Tjaden called “4 Reasons to Be Intentional With Your Free Time.”  When I curate links on Twitter, sometimes there’s an article that I’ll put to the side–I’ll drag the tab off to the side–and read it again later.  This was one of those articles.  Because, although I think I subconsciously realized most of the things that she was saying in her post, it resonated with me because I now realized this was something I could be mindful about and possibly help mitigate.

Tjaden says in her post that we can burn through our free time by randomly checking our emails and social media and news stories.  I’m certainly guilty as charged.

But I’ll take that even a step further. Frequently I want something to read or watch that will keep me completely engrossed and tame my restlessness.  But then I blow through my free time trying to remember that book title or that old movie that should be available on Netflix. Sometimes I blow it catching up on emails or aimlessly scrolling through social media.

I’ve made a couple of adjustments in my approach in the last week and it’s worked really well for me.  I feel as if I’m maximizing my free time.

Now I’m maintaining a TBR list of what I most want to read.  My library allows me to add a book to a “read later” list, which is a nice feature.  And, yes, sometimes I’ll go ahead and purchase a book as I hear about it and have it ready and loaded on my Kindle.
I’m also maintaining a list of online movies and documentaries that I’d like to view.  I research sites that review and recommend movies and add the films to my “watchlist.” Even PBS allows me to do this now…a new feature on their site.

This way, when I’m ready to take a break and genuinely recharge,  I can quickly pull up a book I’m eager to read or a video I’m excited to watch.   After doing this the last week, the results have been really amazing.  I don’t have that stressed out feeling after my “downtime,” and I really feel more rested and ready to move back into my work.  I actually feel recharged, which hasn’t happened for a while.

How do you manage your free time?  Do you ever find yourself too keyed up to relax?

Being intentional with free time can help us be more relaxed:
Click To Tweet

Image: MorgueFile: PippaLou

The post Being Intentional With Our Free Time appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.