The thing we all need more of.
“I don’t know how you do it,” they say to me. “I don’t have time.” The “it” that they’re referring to could be reading, cooking, exercising or traveling. They don’t have time for it. They don’t have time for anything.
Here’s what’s funny: the lament comes from everyone. Men and women, workers and retirees, those with no kids as well as those with enough kids to field their own basketball team. Nobody has the time, yet we all need a little bit of time off the grid for our health and wellbeing.
I’ll admit that I often feel the same way. I read the profiles of real-world runners in Runner’s World, women with careers and two kids who are training for marathons, and I wonder how. Where do they find the time? I just had a three-day weekend where I quite literally only had 25 waking minutes to myself.
But here’s the trick that I’ve learned over the years: you always have more time than you think, and always less than you want.
On Tuesday nights, I’ve been skipping dinner to run with the Team. I don’t really want to cook on those nights, especially since I’d rather spend some extra playtime with the Tiny Kitchen Assistant before I go. So on Monday nights, I pan roast twice as much chicken as I need. The leftovers can become a salad, sandwich or burrito with only minimal preparation — easy for me and easy for my husband. It’s the perfect combination of homemade and lazy, without resorting to fast food.
But that’s part of the trick: planned laziness. Find the shortcuts that you can take today to make your day easier tomorrow. Sounds simplistic, doesn’t it? But in many cases, it works. Just try it once. See if it works for you.
Tags: balance, down time, Fitness, Health, planned laziness
Cooking
Fitness
Health