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Month: December 2018

Waiting 8.5 hours! Gift or Curse?

Waiting 8.5 hours! Gift or Curse?

Waiting 8.5 hours! Gift or Curse?

Since being on maternity leave. I have been gifted an extra 8. 5 hours a day plus travel time which Ive never had before. So everything that I used to squeeze into my day no longer has to be squeezed and it has become very apparent how important structure is, so my day doesn’t run me. And i guess as I am writing this it doesn’t matter if you are on maternity leave for the first time or you have just quit your job to start your own business. For me to stay balanced and focused Im using the RemindMyLife App.  “With the power to revamp your way of life”, I have found the RemindMyLife  Application to be a comprehensive solution, which allows me to micromanage a balanced & healthy lifestyle. All I have to do is open the app and structure my day by just putting in reminders with the date & time and setup the alarm.

So most people would think that being gifted this extra time would be a gift, as I wait for our little baby to arrive, but it can also be a curse. After the initial running around and getting everything ready for the baby, I quickly realise there is alot of empty space and time to fill. Finding things to fill this space and time initially was easy, I caught up with friends and family, treated myself with some shopping, organised christmas, had a massage. I sat in the sun and read the book that had been staring at me for the last week. It was great but once I had caught up on everything, without a structure this new found free time quickly became a burden. My day could quickly disappear without doing too much, boredom started to come into play and this started running me into a pit for self loathing, imploding, getting caught looking on social media, comparing, judging, in a vicious cycle of negative thoughts and behaviours. By the end it was easy to feel lonely and sorry for myself.

Jim Ronen says “either you run the day or the day runs you”. So to prevent further imploding, self loathing and wasting of this precious time. Im going to share how I use the RemindMyLife App  to structure my day, stay positive and focused. What I did was download the RemindMyLife App to set up my day using the six suggested areas….. Exercise, Work, Food, Meditation, Free Time and Sleep. This created a structure for me to follow and kepted things simple and flexible.

Here is a breakdown of what I do for each area…..

Exercising – I make sure I get out of the house for atleast one hour a day for a walk. This one is pretty easy as I usually do this as apart of my morning routine.

Work- Now that Im not going to work, I use this time however to work on my side business, check emails, blog, take photos and create motivational quotes, research technology and marketing tools. This is roughly for 2 hours at a time. I also use this time to maintain our home, cleaning, doing the washing, ironing, shopping, admin and doing a big cook up.

Food- I take regular breaks to eat delicious food usually 15- 45 mins. And I can spend up to 2 hours if I’m also cooking or food prepping. If however I am doing a big cook up more than 2 hours I might allocate this for during my Free Time or Work Time.

Meditation- I allow up to an hour and a half a day to practice mindfulness or having a rest with no distractions. To clear my mind and create awareness around my thoughts and practicing being present.

Free time- I allow atleast 2 hours of free time each day which creates enough freedom to plan to do what I want when I want and within that I use this time to organise a catch up with a friend or family member either in person or call them on the phone for 5 mins. Which is a key part to staying connected and another excuse to get out and about. Other things I do in this space is go shopping or make something delicious in the kitchen, listen to music, dance around, listen to a podcast or an audio book, watch a documentary or a movie to fill up my world. Its helpful to allocate a set amount of time to scroll and interact on social media with a finish time so you don’t get caught in the sea.

Sleep- Although I don’t have to set an alarm to wake up anymore. I do keep a routine around sleep as it keeps us both balanced. And supports the rest of the house hold as they go to work.

So thats how I structure the extra 8.5 hours I now have in my day. I make sure I set a reminder of allocated time to task orientate my day. Or I hit the honeycomb button on the remindmylife app stop clock to start the timer as I move through my day to show how much time I spend in each area. And with a quick glance at my stats I can get instance gratification and a new sense of awareness of what Ive done so far and what I should focus on next.

Alot of freedom has come from waiting and it is a gift! I definately achieve more each day that I plan. I feel more in control of my day as I eliminate distractions and create focus on activities that serve me. RemindMyLife has really made a difference to keeping life simple and balanced. Sometimes all I need to do is open the app and glance and I can clearly see what I need to take care of next.

Structure creates Action! Action creates Results! Results creates Success! And keeping track creates Morale! Even if it is just the house work or a one hour walk each day!

Hope that helps!

Much love

Sheridan x

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