Well another week has zoomed on by and we’re all back in the swing of it all now I think aren’t we. I’m not sure about you, but just recently I’ve been feeling a little back to how I often felt pre lockdown, where I’m ever so slightly behind myself all day, chasing to catch up and feeling like time is slipping away from me. It’s not a feeling I enjoy (who would!)  so I’ve been really thinking about it and trying to work out how to make things a little easier.

I’m at the bakery most days of the week, and although I don’t do so much of the baking now, It’s still me icing away and getting all your biscuit gifts ready to go into the post, and some weeks I long for an extra few hours in the day to feel like I can get everything done without all the rushing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m forever happy to have the important task of making sure you get your biscuit delivery safely and on time. It takes as long as it takes and I’d never rush that job, but I often underestimate the hours needed to ice, pack and handwrite the gift notes that go with the biscuits, and I struggle to work out how to make it feel less like I’m taking in part in some kind of against the clock challenge and more like I’m moving through my day with purpose rather than panic.

 I’ve realised as I’ve thought more about it,  that the area I struggle with the most is transition time.  By that I mean that section of time needed to move from one thing to the next throughout the day. It’s only a small part of each 24 hours but as I move between tasks, appointments, meetings and scheduled bakery time, without leaving enough time to finish one thing and move gently on to the next I’m left hurrying from one thing to another, constantly feeling like I’m two steps behind myself. I’m leaping up after a savasana at the end of my yoga session to hotfoot it out to the car and get to the bakery (definitely not ideal!), wolfing down breakfast over the kitchen counter or racing around the water with the dogs first thing barely noticing the magic of the morning because I’ve got to be on a zoom call in ten minutes.

 The result of this rushing is that I’m struggling to feel present in the moment, always looking ahead to the next thing, checking my watch and trying to catch up with myself and make back some time and it’s no fun, I know it’s not good for me, and truthfully, it just doesn’t feel aligned with how I want to spend my days.

 So this week, I’m experimenting with something different. It’s long overdue but I’m building in some more structured scheduling and using an actual diary. Yes friends, I know it’s not revolutionary but it IS something i’ve never quite managed to do consistently, preferring for some inexplicable reason, to hold many, many things in my head rather than on paper. 

I’m not just using my diary to give me a visual of how my week is filling up, but I’m also blocking out sections with a full 15 minutes transition time between the days appointments and activities. It sounds super simple, I know, but simple feels like the right place to start and I think there’s value in making an effort not to over complicate things .  

I’ve got my highlighters ready for prioritising what’s really important and what can wait, and It will likely mean that some things get pushed to tomorrow, or further ahead, but that’s okay, It’s easy to forget that sometimes tomorrow is just as good as today.

The world feels so busy again doesn’t it, and there’s always more to do, but It pays to remember that we have agency over how we feel, what we do and how we live. I’m slowly beginning to learn this, and there’s a sense of quiet motivation in realising that we can make our days feel more meaningful, more gentle, more ‘us’ while still moving forward, growing and working to our goals, whatever they might be.

I’m happy to get going on this, and interested to see how it feels, I’ll keep you updated on my instagram account with how i’m getting on and do pop a comment below with any tips or ideas of how you manage your time – I’m always eager to hear how other people manage it!