Of all the things that you place onto your schedule, are you setting time for you? Most of us don’t, which is a big mistake. If you don’t stop to take a moment for you on a regular basis, it makes it hard to take care of the things and the people we’re responsible for. If you’ve ever been on a plane and listened to the flight attendant, you know that they tell you that if the oxygen masks should be needed, those traveling with small children to place the oxygen mask on themselves first, then take care of the child’s mask. The same is so when it comes to how you handle things daily.
Look at your calendar. What do you see? Where is your time going? Are you spending the majority of your time at work and on personal things, but absolutely no time whatsoever on you? If so, consider changing that. Look at your calendar again and see where you have opportunities to fit in some “me” time. If there’s not room, start making room on a regular basis for you. Think about what you’d like to do. It could be something as simple as a block of time to read. Ladies, maybe you’d like to treat yourself to a manicure or pedicure. Gents, that might not be up your alley, but think about the things that are. Whatever it is that you like to do, make sure you start blocking out time in your schedule to do them.
Take things a step farther and let that special time motivate you daily. Look at the things on your to-do list right now and decide what you want to do to celebrate accomplishing them. You can do this with the small things as well as the bigger things on your list. Let your reward be your daily motivation and increase your productivity at the same time.