WEEKEND WEAR : The Power of 168 Hours + Learning To Live Guilt Free

I’m a little intimidated if I’m being honest.
And I’ll make good use of that iPhone calculator app. 

It’s week three, but I think I’ll do four…
Because there was a 4-day holiday in the midst of it all and I think it skews the data a bit. 

If you’ve been following along over on the Insta story,
or saw my Weekend Wear post two weeks back,
you know that I’ve been reading this life changing book:
168 Hours, You Have More Time Than You Think.

And the punchline? 
I’ve been implementing it.

I was hoping to have my numbers tallied
(for those who missed the memo, I’ve been tracking my time EVERY fifteen minutes),
for this blog post. 

But guys.
That’s why I’m intimidated. 
Cuz, I just spent 15 minutes calculating how much sleep I got in ONE week. That doesn’t include the other 11 categories to tally. Heh.

I’m sure I’ll get faster at it. And it will be worth it.
And I’ll be grateful. 

But for today, I’ll just give a few summarizing updates of where I am in the process & a few bits of what I’ve learned along the way…

• Oh crap. I DO have more time than I thought.
   
• ^ a few afternoons into this logging process, I literally found myself at 2:30p thinking the work day was over because of how productive & boss-lady I felt. So I put in another solid 3 hours before prepping dinner. Boom.
   
• I’ve been journaling & asking deeper questions than I ever have before. 

But perhaps the biggest breakthrough has been:

As an entrepreneur with a home-office,
shutting my brain off and separating work from personal life has been a real struggle. 

Mainly because up to this point, I wasn’t married and could do anything I wanted and it wouldn’t really affect much. Obvs, that’s changed now…

…but not in an entirely negative way. 
Actually, it’s opened my eyes even more to how imbalanced things had gotten. (Yes, hustle & longer hours are often required when starting something new, but it shouldn’t be unhealthy).

Because I’ve been dealing with GUILT. 
Self-inflicted, mind you. 
Yet it’s real all the same. 

Before reading this book and beginning to implement it, I’d find myself out to dinner with Bae and my mind would, 98% of the time, wander back to something work related. Then I’d feel guilty for not being present or enjoying my new husband! 

OR…
I’d be working after dinner some nights and feel the same immense guilt. This time, longing to NOT be working and be cuddled up on the couch with him instead. 

So either way, I couldn’t win. 

But then I started tracking time and here’s the biggest thing aha:
I DON’T HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN DATES WITH STEPHEN AND EXCELLENT WORK. 

I can have both!
…And so can you.

Since logging my time, I can look over what I did that day and KNOW that it was a solid day = relaxing is totally going to happen. Or if it wasn’t, I had a mental game plan of how to do better the next day. And then relaxing still happened.

End of story.
My mind didn’t NEED to worry. 
Because I either did a good job, or had a plan to do a good job. 

—-> Either way, I was in charge. And I was winning. <—–

• Literally: In the last two weeks, I have not experienced a shred of guilt. If anything, I’ve felt inspired to work smarter & harder. And there’s a difference. I have been happier.
   
• I’ve started to outsource things that don’t bring me joy.
  “…just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should…”

Next, I’m excited to tally my results from 3-4 weeks worth of data. And from there, figure out where I’m wasting time, where I can schedule more leisure / dates in, and overall just become more efficient in my work.

Because now that I know where my time is going, 
I can better plan for where I want it to go to (intentionality, folks).

Other things I’ve been thinking through from this book:

• Dreaming bigger & rearranging my work life if I’m constantly doing energy-zapping tasks (which, obviously, is different for each of us) 
• The importance of exercise – lord help me
• Discussing w/Stephen what work & home tasks should be outsourced
• Understanding what my core competencies are so that those 168 hours (total hours in 1 week) are most life-giving. 

Tell me a bit about how you manage work / life balance?
We’re all in this together! 

Happy Friday, friends!
Always,
–Tara M