This morning’s finding time tip offers ideas for building time for self care into your daily life.  Following these simple suggestions for regaining your balance will help you find energy that you didn’t know you had!

Tip:  Balance prevents burnout.

Action Step:  Claim your right to recharge your batteries and regain your balance, even when you feel like you’re “too busy.”

• Start your day with a nurturing treat. Take a quick walk or dip into a book.

• Alternate 45 minutes of work with a 5-minute change of scene.

• Before you go to bed, plan your balancing activities for the next day, giving you something to look forward to!

You may notice that, as with the Pomodoro Technique, I am a proponent of alternating periods of focused work with brief breaks.  However, my recommendation is to use somewhat longer time spans for your work periods, so that you are able to more fully enter and engage with whatever you are working on before it’s time to step away.  The bottom line?  Experiment and find the time span that works best for you.

As for your balancing activities, you might try brainstorming a list of brief activities that you find nurturing and/or energizing.  Have fun and be creative with your list.  Include things that you genuinely enjoy … and if your work keeps you at a desk, try to make sure that some form of movement is involved in a good number of your balancing activities.

One final note:  Time Boundaries are a key component in making this work for yourself.  It’s very important to start and stop your work activity and your self-nurturing activity when you told yourself that you would.  This keeps you on track, gives you wonderful practice with setting and maintaining time boundaries, and, perhaps most importantly, builds self-trust.  Each time you follow through on this plan you are keeping a promise, taking good care of yourself,  and reminding yourself that you are fully in charge of your time!

Do you already do this?  Have you tried using a timer to help keep to your plan?  How about creating a balancing plan for yourself, for the coming week? Try it – and I’d love to hear how it goes!

Related Posts

• Find Time for Yourself Every Month
• Finding Soul Purpose as a Solopreneur
• Finding Time Boundaries in Times of Stress and Times of Calm
• Finding Time for Balance
• Find Time for Boundaries and Self Care During the Holidays!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Solo Entrepreneur Mindset, Vision/Goals/Plans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Coach Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert, has 35 years of success helping individuals, small businesses, and solopreneurs align their time choices with their life goals and core values. Heart-based time management is her passion. Paula enjoys nothing more than working with people to recognize and help facilitate the small time choices that lead to large, life changes … because the way you use your time is the way you live your life!

If you're ready to stop feeling overwhelmed, sign up for Paula's FREE Finding Time Boundary Template at http://www.findingtime.net/ezine.html/. And for more time tips and techniques, visit Paula's Blog at http://thetimefinder.com.