Rep. Maxine Waters of California, affectionately known these days as Auntie Maxine, has taught us many lessons about politics, history and how to brush off haters. But one of the most valuable lessons she has shared with us to date is the art of reclaiming your time. We can all use a bit of help in cutting out time-wasters from our lives. These tips will help you reclaim your time and your health in the process.
Reclaim Your Meals and Workouts: A major time killer is figuring out what to eat and when to workout. For meals, setting aside a couple of hours on the weekend can save you stress and time later in the week when unexpected things always pop up. Make large meals like stir-fries, large salads, and anything else you need to get through the week. Pack everything up to make your meals easy to grab in the morning before work. If you prefer to order out, you can plan those meals, too, by adding notes to your calendar so you don’t have to make hard food decisions while you’re starving.
For workouts, make a plan each week to have a few days of cardio and at least two days of strength workouts. You can find workouts on BlackDoctor.org or work with a trainer to come up with a specific plan. Either way, you’ll reclaim your time in the gym that you’d usually spend figuring out what to do next! Also, be sure to keep appointments on your calendar and schedule everything else around those times.
Reclaim Your Rest Day: Everyone’s schedules are different, but it’s important to reclaim some time to rest and reset. If you have a full day that’s great, but even a couple of hours where you do nothing at all can do wonders for your mental health. Always keep in mind that you are useless to those around you unless you take care of yourself first! Rest days are also essential to remaining at your peak fitness levels. Your muscles need time off to grow and rebuild so your rest day can do double duty.
Reclaim Your Sleep: Okay, you can’t actually make up for lost sleep, but you can absolutely start to get better, more restful sleep with just a few tweaks to your habits. If you wake up tired, take a look at what you’re doing during those hours leading up to bedtime. If you’re drinking caffeine too late, or doing something super stimulating, like cardio workouts, you might be telling your body to stay awake, rather than preparing it for rest.
Next, look at the time you go to sleep. Is it too early? If you’re not completely tired at bed time, you might need to push it to a later hour so that you’re completely worn out. This way, you’re more likely to reach REM sleep, which is what your body needs to rest after each day.
Reclaim What You Love: It is so easy to get bogged down by all your “have-to’s”. You have to go to work, you have to pay your bills, you have to do things for your friends and family. But if your list of to-dos doesn’t include some want to’s you might suffer in the long run. Start to reclaim time for what you love to do, no matter how big or small it is. If you love photography, take a couple of hours a week to snap some pictures. If you love travel, plan a weekend getaway or a longer escape. Forget the excuses and just go for it!
Reclaim Your “No”: Saying , “no,” more often can be one of your biggest self-care tools. There is no quicker way to reclaim your time than to say, “no” to avoid over-booking yourself, or running yourself into the ground. While it can be a challenge to find the right balance of “yes” and “no,” consider the benefits. You will have better time to regroup during the week, and you might avoid getting to exhausted to make healthy decisions from day to day. When your schedule is overflowing, you’ll be more likely to skimp on what matters, like being well-rested, staying active and eating well.
When you start to turn down just a few invitations, you’ll be more likely to stick to your goals, and have wiggle room in your schedule for the unexpected, without losing your mind.
Try out some of these tips today so that you can avoid wasting another second of your valuable time!
Sharita Jennings is a health policy attorney, ACE certified group fitness instructor and nutrition specialist. She leads fitness classes in Washington, DC and provides online coaching and tips on her site, GetFitLikeThat.com.
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