How to spend more time with yourself

Your life is a constant rush, thoughts about work and endless meetings with other people. You may be dissatisfied with what is happening around you. This is understandable — you want to spend more time with yourself, do hobbies, do household chores, or relax by communicating with others. You need privacy no matter how much you love your job, colleagues, or loved ones.

Even in the tightest schedule, you can find at least a few hours a day to spend alone. The main thing is to put your affairs in order and learn how to manage your time competently. We have collected several ways that will help you with this.

9 ways to spend more time with yourself

1. Leave work on time

Don’t stay in the office too long: as soon as your working day has ended, get dressed, pack your things, and leave. All the tasks that you didn’t manage to finish on time, and all the cases that your colleagues asked you to help with, should stay for tomorrow. If you are not paid extra for overtime, be kind enough to respect yourself and your professionalism and work exactly as prescribed in the employment contract or agreed at the interview. This rule should work in most cases, except when you are preparing for some important verification or protection of the project.

2. Don’t take work tasks home

Work should stay at work; you shouldn’t take it home. Disconnect from working hours, do not take calls from colleagues when you are resting, do not check your email, and even more so, do not try to finish those tasks that you did not have time to do in the office. Direct all your attention to yourself and what makes you distracted and relaxed.

The time you have after work is completely yours, and no one can tell you what to do with it. Do whatever you want, and leave all work matters for tomorrow. You’ll deal with them quickly when you get back to the office refreshed.

3. Make a schedule

Making a schedule will help you understand what you spend 24 hours a day on. Having painted all your affairs for the day, you will be able to make unexpected discoveries: to see what activities take up a huge amount of time from you, to understand which items on the list you can get rid of without harming yourself and others, to reconsider your priorities.

The first thing you should do is divide all the cases you have scheduled into several graphs: urgent, non—urgent, and those that can be delegated to someone. It would help if you were especially careful with the first ones — the amount of your free time will depend on how quickly you finish them. Non—urgent matters are those tasks that you can postpone for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or even for the next week, and not worry that this will bring any negative consequences.

Another important note is that classes you can assign to someone else also free up a lot of time. So learn to delegate both at work and home. Ask your colleagues or loved ones to help you with tasks; this is normal — you also come to their aid when they ask.

4. Don’t try to be always in touch

Your big mistake is to think that it’s okay to be in touch all the time and that it doesn’t violate your personal space. It’s not like that — you get distracted by calls and messages, even if you don’t want to and are busy with something interesting. Try to get rid of always being available to your loved ones.

Determine when you will not answer calls, and turn off the Internet if you decide to relax or do your hobby. This will allow you to really establish harmony with yourself and at least briefly distance yourself from others.

5. Use every opportunity to save time

If you learn to save time, even in some small things, you can save up to several hours a day for yourself, your hobbies, and entertainment. For example, use food deliveries when you are tired and do not want to cook, if you have a gym at work or nearby, go to it to avoid wasting time on the road, call specialists at home, order a taxi, and so on.

There are many savings options that you rarely think about because of distrust or unwillingness to spend money. But it may turn out that it is better to spend a couple of hundred and save your time and effort than to force yourself to do something that you absolutely do not want.

6. Don’t take responsibility for the emotions of others

Often you agree to see someone not because you miss the person but because of guilt. It seems to you that your refusal hurts him; you put his emotions above your desires and needs and are going to a meeting, although you absolutely do not want it.

When you realize that your priority is to lie at home and watch a couple of episodes of your favorite TV series, do it, despite the suggestions of relatives and friends. If you don’t have the resources to communicate today, don’t force yourself to leave the apartment. Learn to tell others the truth, refuse more often, and take care of your comfort. Don’t feel guilty — seriously; every person chooses how to react to any events; you have nothing to do with it.

7. Get rid of everything you spend time and effort on out of habit

If you habitually meet with colleagues or friends on Friday evening, sit down for work on the weekend or come to visit to help your relatives, reconsider your plans for the week. It may turn out that you can refuse to perform many tasks, shift your responsibilities to other people, and only one conversation will save you from unwanted or annoying meetings. Everything you do just because you are used to it takes a lot of time and effort and brings you only irritation in return.

8. Find a balance between what you need and what you want

You may suffer because of your inability to balance the tasks you need to perform and those you are interested in. Because of a sense of duty, unwillingness to let others down, inability to refuse, or fear of becoming replaceable, you agree to spend your time on something that does not improve your life. Always try to keep moderation in everything: you should not constantly force yourself to do anything.

9. Do your favorite pastime alone

It is unnecessary to invite someone for a walk, a trip, a master class, or any other place. You can do your favorite hobbies alone and at the same time feel even better than in the company of anyone.

There’s nothing strange about reducing the amount of time you spend with other people. When you realize that you are too tired of communication, direct your focus to yourself. Life is too short and carries too much discomfort without you forcing yourself to spend time with someone else. Close people will not get away from you, do not worry about it. Do what brings you moral satisfaction.