Is it just me or do you constantly feel like managing your time is a balancing act? Not only that, but I realize this predicament that I’m in is my fault. I could clear my plate a little, take on less projects, or even just stay put in one place for more than minute, but instead I just keep going and going and going. Right now I run on 5 hours of sleep/night, which is enough, right? Most weekends I’m traveling, so any tasks/errands that need to get done have to happen after 6:30pm when I get home from work.

So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we bite off more than we can chew and then repeat over and over again? I obviously don’t have the answers here, but I realize that I need to make some changes. What changes? Well…that’s a good question.

There’s not much flexibility in my schedule to begin with so making changes isn’t going to be easy. Currently I come home from work and quickly grab a snack before heading to my Pure Barre class. (Side note: I LOVE Pure Barre. It’s actually more of a love/hate relationship because of how powerful the exercises are during class…that’s code for, you don’t exactly enjoy it when you’re in the moment, but after the class I find that I’m kind of on a workout high.) After Pure Barre (7:45pm) I head home and have dinner, prep my lunch for the next day, write my upcoming blog post, take a shower, and maybe watch a TV show if I’m lucky. Oh, I also plan out my work outfit the night before (because nothing good comes from putting an outfit together at 5:00am).

So. here’s the thing…obviously there is little I can change about my daily M-Th routine, leaving the obvious room for change to be my weekends. If I stopped traveling that would solve a lot of my problems, but I like being on the move, going places, doing new things. I don’t have a desire to head into NYC on the weekends because I’m there all week, but traveling to different cities/places is something I can get excited about.

It looks like I’ve typed myself into a circle here. I think the most important thing right now, at least for me, is to not take on more projects, but instead, to focus on being the best that I can with what I currently have going on. And that’s a good start, right? I think so. Being aware of the problem solves at least half of the problem. The other half is taking action, which right now I will hold off on, but maybe in the future I’ll be able to adjust my schedule bit to allow for more of a balance. Ultimately I realize free time is a luxury, one that I don’t grant myself. It’s not that I can’t have it, it’s that I choose not to have it. And I’m okay with that, at least for now.