Is it a millennial/Gen Z thing? Is it just a ‘me’ thing? Or why is it that we all feel the need to be so busy all the time.
Am I the only one that thinks they must be constantly doing something, working towards something or creating a new project to get stuck into?
The art of creating time
I used to complain about the people that complained they had no time.
We all have the same 24 hours in our day. The same 24 hours as Beyonce, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. It’s how we choose to spend them that matters.
I was always an advocate of getting up early. The only way to create time for yourself is to give yourself more time. The easiest way to do this is by waking up earlier.
If you usually wake around 7am, try waking up at 6am. You’ve automatically given yourself an extra 60 minutes to your day to do whatever you please.
When more time still isn’t enough time
Lately I seem to have jumped back on the ‘I haven’t got enough time’ bandwagon. I mean, I could get up a little earlier, but I’m already waking at 6.30am to go to the gym – I would love to say often, but this is quite rare – and then most of my mornings are spent reading before starting my working day.
Then comes the 60 minutes at lunch time where I would like to relax, go out for a walk and get some fresh air but it usually means catching up on housework or just working through my lunch break.
Then of course when I clock off work after 6pm it’s time for dinner and maybe I need to go to the shops to get things for dinner, and then I’ll also want to get out of the house for a walk and to explore the area I’m currently living in.
And then I’ll feel guilty if I sit down and watch TV for an hour. Plus if I want to get up early, I’ll have to be in bed early.
And repeat.
This is all my fault
Before I get all woe is me, this is completely my own doing. I set myself a goal of reading 80 books this year. I decided to start a podcast. I decided to start a blog. I was the one that jumped at the different writing opportunities and side projects. I decided to move house every month to a different city in the UK. I opted to start a new job just as I was starting to move around.
This was all my own doing and probably not my brightest idea to be running almost two full-time jobs at the same time.
So maybe I don’t get to complain, but I’m starting to feel like I’m running on empty and constantly chasing my tail of deadlines, trying to have podcast episodes live weekly, blog posts live weekly, post on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok and read two books a week.
Oh, and explore the new city I’m in and blog about it while working my full-time job and getting some sleep. Throw the gym in there too, see what happens.
Throwing in the towel
So yes, maybe it would be wiser to stop with all of my projects, to stop putting pressure on myself to read so much, to not feel like I must have a blog post live every week, a podcast episode live every week or the pressure of posting on social media once every hour.
However, that’s just not the way I’m inclined and I don’t know who I’d be without my blog anymore and without the Orlagh Claire alias I’ve come to know.
So maybe I won’t have a blog post every single week and that’s ok. I won’t have a podcast episode live on the same day every week and that’s also ok. I also won’t be reading two books every single week and you know what? That’s ok too.
I’m busy. I’m very, very busy but I will get around to it.
The things I love to do will always be there when I have the time to do them, but I want less pressure on myself and I want more time to enjoy what I’m doing when I’m doing it, rather than constantly feeling the weight of self-inflicted deadlines on my shoulders.
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