Do you have the downtime you want?

Let’s talk about downtime.  Do you take all the downtime you want?

I know feels impossible.  

You might be thinking, “My schedule is already packed full!  I have so many commitments I can’t have the downtime I want. I would have to say no to something!”

And you would be right.

It IS often necessary to say no to something in order to say yes to the downtime you want. 

Would it be worth it to you? Can you start with 15 minutes?

Start today. I want you to block just 15 minutes of time that you normally wouldn’t choose for yourself. Do absolutely nothing. Don’t try to be productive. Don’t read your email. Just be.

• Step away from your computer.
• Definitely don’t read email.
• Stay off of social media.
• Don’t read anything.
• Maybe you can enjoy lunch one savored bite at a time.
• You could step outside for 15 minutes to get fresh air between meetings.
• Sit on a bench and watch birds for a short time.
• Just breathe and let yourself daydream for no reason.
• Say yes to enjoying your coffee without doing work or looking at your phone.

This simple little thing can positively impact the rest of your day. It is more worth it than anything else on your to-do list. 

Does it feel hard?

If you are out of practice, it will. You might tell yourself, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” and “It doesn’t matter.” My own personal favorite excuse is, “I don’t want to right now, I have other things to do”.

When you give in to your excuses, you are practicing always working and never having downtime, and it will continue to be hard.

It’s like when you stop working out. It’s easy to decide to skip the workout, but then doing the easy thing, skipping the workout, makes life harder and less comfortable overtime because you lose strength. Taking the step of working out is hard at the moment, but it definitely makes life easier in the long run.

The same is true with downtime. Today, begin to claim your downtime. It’s only hard because you are so used to prioritizing other people’s desires or the urgent at the moment. It might even feel like the world will fall apart if you say no to someone else so you can watch birds for 15 minutes.

Yes, the easy thing is to keep doing what you’ve been doing. But how’s that working for you?

Today, do this one tiny little hard thing. Block off downtime. Get stronger by saying yes to yourself and no to the urgent.