I’m sure that I’m much busier today than I ever was but that doesn’t seem logical.
When I was younger I had four children living at home with all the chores that go with keeping a family fed and clothed in the day-to-day. Plus I also worked outside the home part-time. But for some reason, looking back it seemed that I always had time to read and escape into a romance or adventure novel. I have many memories of sitting on the couch or on a chair on the porch engrossed in a book while the kids played and did their thing.
We were also very social. Especially my husband. So there were always friends around and that meant sitting down and chatting over a drink or two (or three). Socialising and catching up with friends meant that we got out of routine a lot because it felt rude to make guests feel that they were stopping us from doing something. This caused some issues in the family and quite a bit of chaos at times but we muddled through.
Looking back we had a lot of time for socialising and reading and relaxing it seems.
Today we have no children living at home. No pets no responsibilities except for ourselves. I am working full time on weekdays but have the option to work from home if and when I want. Our out of work time is our own. Logically, I should feel as if there is a lot more leisure time than ever before but I don’t. I feel busier than ever. I wonder why?
I think some of it is that I now fill my leisure time with things I want to do and sometimes these can feel like commitments to myself and not pure leisure. Things like a 5km daily walk. This takes about an hour on the hilly route I go. So that’s taking out a good chunk of the day. I love listening to podcasts while I’m walking too. For a list of the podcasts that I’m currently listening to subscribe to my newsletter. The first email newsletter you’ll receive is a list of my current favourites. They are pretty much all about how we can improve our lives and I love them. I was actually recently accused by one of my kids of being a bit preachy about how good podcasts are. I’ll own it, they’re great.
I’ve also bought quite a few online courses that I’m working through. Although lately, it feels like I’m even too busy to put much time into doing these. I’m excited about getting into learning more about the things I’m interested in. I love learning new things.
Writing and researching blog posts also takes up time that I would have previously used to read novels and relax. I’m actually doing way more researching than writing. But like doing the courses, I’m loving learning about happiness and how we can live our best lives so I think this is a good swap, way more constructive.
I must admit that I’m also spending a lot more time on my phone and computer playing sudoku or scrolling Facebook or Instagram. I realise that this is a terrible time waster. I’m actually thinking of doing a social media fast and not checking Facebook or Instagram for a month. Luckily I do use Hootsuite to schedule and publish my motivational quotes each day so don’t even need to log into social media to do that.
With working full time during the week my weekends are for doing chores and catching up with family. Hubby and I usually take ourselves to lunch at least once over the weekend too. Just the fact that we can do that shows we have the time to treat ourselves to that.
I still can’t work it out. I get up at 5:30 on weekdays just so I can have a good chunk of time to myself each day before work and get a few things done. This is when I do a quick workout and then take my walk. By rights, I should be swimming in free time.
So, is it all in the mind? Is it just my perspective from an older mind? Have I slowed down that much that I just feel busier these days?
What do you think? Do you feel busier now? What makes your life so busy?
Would you join me in a month-long social media fast?
Let me know in the comments below and don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter to get my list of favourite podcasts.
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