{time} What sparks joy with your time?

It’s important to me to regularly take stock so that I remain intentional about the choices I make around how to spend my time.

In Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (you can read about the physical aspects of tidying by clicking the button on the sidebar —–>>), she says that once your physical space is tidied, you start thinking through bigger issues in your life.

I found this true for me too as in 2014 I completed my tidying journey and after it was done, I started a new job and in 2015 I had a really transformative personal year, the year of enough.

Once you complete your physical spaces, you’ve trained your mind so you start thinking about each part of your life and whether it still sparks joy.

Today I’d like to talk more about sparking joy with your time.

At Work

Think about the various parts of your workday/ week/ month/ quarter/ year. Which parts spark joy and which don’t?

I remember when I first did this exercise and noted down that there was a part of my job that I hated. When I drilled down and asked why, it was because of the type of client and the type of work I was doing for that client. Now the client wasn’t going anywhere and neither was I, so I had a conversation with this client where we brainstormed how we could change things for the better. Another meeting or two and while things weren’t sparking joy, there was no longer the extreme dread and boredom.

Now let’s talk about sparking joy.

Which parts of your work spark joy? Sometimes we don’t get to do these parts as often as we’d like but if we have the awareness, we can start to create time to do more of what brings us joy.

I identified that for me, I need to feel like I’m contributing by being creative with products, solutions, etc. but not by myself, in collaboration with my clients. A good day will have at least one such interaction so I try and arrange my week so I have multiple days of collaborating with clients because those sessions energise me most.

Over to you.

What sparks joy for you at work? What drains you at work? How can you add more of the first and reduce the second?

In your personal life

What sparks joy with your personal time?

I’ve heard from so many people during the pandemic that they will not be automatically signing up their kids to so many activities once life returns to normal. It turns out that rushing from one activity to the next on the weekend does not spark joy.

Does it spark joy for you to spend time with family? Or connecting with friends? Does it spark joy for you to be in service to others, like serving at a soup kitchen or volunteering at an orphanage?

And what about time by yourself? Does it spark joy for you to do hobbies when you’re by yourself, to journal, to spend time in nature, to clean or organise, or to exercise?

I’ve shared many times that the perfect ratio of personal time for me is out and about (by myself doing Zumba, spending time with friends or family, or running a few errands), getting stuff done (cooking, organising, cleaning or pottering) and relaxing (reading, playing with my photos and very rarely, watching a show for an hour). When my time is too full of one section, I feel frustrated but the perfect weekend is a blend of all three.

What sparks joy for you with your personal time? I’d love to hear in the comments!

 

Let’s talk about this adult colouring craze

I’m not the most patient person in the world. In fact, impatient is probably one of the top 10 words some would use to describe me.

I was also never a child who liked using a colouring book. I liked dot-to-dot, and activity pads like word search and crossword puzzles, but colouring always seemed rather pointless.

So I really don’t get this colouring-in business for adults. All those fiddly lines…. How would you colour properly with standard pencil crayons (colouring pencils)?!

I posted a pic on Instagram – the one below – and a few of you weighed in and told me it’s quite soothing and such.

I do agree because I actually finished colouring this picture on the day I was meant to be studying for exams so yes, it is a great procrastination tool 🙂

One of my twins, Connor, likes colouring so I printed out some of the pages from Leonie Dawson’s colouring book and he and I will do those pages together.

There’s a difference though – Leonie’s pages are not fiddly, and so I can colour with pastels, crayons and colouring pencils.

So then I realised two things… I don’t like to strain my eyes on a so-called enjoyable activity so the designs have to be easy on my eyes, and I really like to use stationery that will bring me joy, not frustrate me.

Now I can enjoy a bit of colouring with Connor (and it helps – he’s a quality time child!) while sneaking kisses, and I can play with lovely stationery!

Do you colour? Have you always enjoyed colouring or is this a new craze for you?



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com