Reclaim your time

Pressing Pause ep 131 Reclaim your time

Music

Welcome to Pressing Pause, I’m your host, Gabrielle Treanor, a coach, writer, introvert and sensitive soul with an inclination to ponder over the stuff of life. Join me as I explore how we can create, find and feel more calm, ease and joy in our daily lives.

Music

Before we get into the episode, if you’ve been listening for a little while you’ll have heard me say this before but it’s a huge deal for me so yes, I am talking about it a lot! And that’s my book. It’s just over a month until publication day of The 1% Wellness Experiment – Micro-gains to change your life in 10 minutes a day. So that means the two bonuses you can get as a thank you for pre-ordering the book are only available for just over a month too.

The 1% Wellness Experiment will empower you to establish boundaries and say no when you want, to overcome comparison and handle anxiety, to deal with perfectionism, people-pleasing and by the end you will have your own bespoke toolkit packed with techniques to lower your stress, strengthen your self-confidence, nurture your connections, instil calm and increase joy. And all through taking the small step of just ten minutes a day.

So, if you’d like to find links to lots of different stores around the world where you can pre-order it, or of course you can go to your local bookshop, and find out about the pre-order bonuses, go to thewellnessexperiment.co.uk. The pre-order bonuses will vanish as soon as we hit publication day which is 21 December.

Okay, on with the episode.

Music

Welcome to episode 131. Our time is really important to us. And something that comes up time and again in conversation is spending your precious time in ways or on tasks that you really dislike. That make you feel irritated, trapped and can put you in a bad mood that’s hard to shake, even after the time has passed.

Things like commuting and housework, they’re necessary, even essential but it doesn’t change how resentful you feel about them. I’m not even talking about the tasks you do because you think you ought to but actually belong to someone else (hi people-pleaser!), this is about the tasks that are yours to do.

When you spend time doing something you don’t want to do it feels like such a waste of that time, even though something productive comes out of it like a cleaner home. It can feel stressful to use your precious time in this way when you know that there are other things you want to be doing or need to be doing or even should be doing. And spending your time on what you actively dislike can make you unhappy, resentful and downright hacked off.

Let’s take commuting for example. Spending time in a car or a train or bus, perhaps a couple of hours a day, can feel like dead time, even if you really like the job you’re commuting to. Especially when you get stuck in traffic or trains are cancelled or strikes are taking place because you don’t have control over this activity that you really dislike.

Perhaps if you were confined to working from home during the pandemic you realised how much time you felt was wasted in your old commute, and resent it even more if you’re now back to travelling to and from your workplace.

What about jobs around the house? Housework that never seems done. You vacuum the floor, you clean the bathrooms, you fold laundry, you wash the dishes… and in no time it needs doing again.

These tedious tasks, this expenditure of your valuable time – and remember, we can’t get time back once it’s passed – are not avoidable, they don’t go away and they frustrate the heck out of you because you don’t have enough time as it is without spending it doing stuff you don’t like or want to do!

I’ve never liked housework. I’d love to be like Monica from Friends and get excited about cleaning but that’s never going to happen. Even telling myself that the reward for my time and effort is a clean home doesn’t work because give it a little more time and it’ll need doing all over again!

So, what do you do when there are things you have to spend your time on that you really resent spending your time on?

You find ways to making spending that same time more enjoyable.

Pair the hated task with something you like, love even. For me, that looks like listening to podcasts that make me laugh while doing any household chores like cleaning or doing laundry. I only listen to The Archers, which is a radio drama in the UK in case you’re not familiar, I only listen to it when washing the dishes and it has transformed a chore I used to hate into a ritual I relish.

For you, it might be watching your favourite Netflix show while folding or ironing laundry. Or listening to a new album while vacuuming. Or singing along to the radio while cooking.

While you’re driving to and from work or kids’ activities or appointments you could learn a new language or listen to an audiobook. A friend of mine uses her work car journeys to make phone calls, handsfree of course, to catch up with her family and friends.

If you’re commuting by public transport and therefore free to use your hands and look wherever you like, you could do any of the above, or read a book or perhaps write a book! You could sketch or crochet or knit.

A long time ago, when I used to commute an hour each way on the train to my old life in publishing, I knitted squares which eventually made a blanket for my new nephew (he’s now 15).

When there are ways that we have to spend our time, it’s simply not possible to avoid them, it IS possible to find ways to make them more enjoyable. So that you don’t feel like you’re wasting time but instead reclaiming that time for yourself.

A grown-up, real life version of Mary Poppins’ magic clicking fingers and spoonful of sugar, if you will!

A caveat I’ll add is that you could pair up a disliked task with work, if that would feel good to you. But, if it only increases how much you’re resenting spending that time then please don’t! Instead, take this opportunity to create more enjoyment, lightness and fun in your day, while still getting through the tedium.

So, what do you find a tedious chore and what can you pair it with to make it feel like a more enjoyable use of your time?

Music

Thank you for listening to Pressing Pause, you can find the show notes at gabrielletreanor.com/podcast.

There are lots more resources such as free guides, blog posts, online courses and one to one coaching, to help you to create, find and feel more calm, ease and joy in your life, at gabrielletreanor.com. You’ll also find information on my book, The 1% Wellness Experiment, and the pre-order bonuses you can get there too.

I write on Substack and send my weeklyish emails from there so if you want to connect with me and say hi I would love that! You can search for my name on substack.com or click the link in the show notes.

And, lastly, if you enjoyed this podcast it would be incredibly helpful and lovely of you to leave a rating or review on iTunes. Reviews make a big difference to how podcasts are found and it would be wonderful if more people could find and listen to this podcast.

Any time you want to message me I’m always happy to hear from you. Email me at [email protected].

Thanks again for listening, until next time.