Time Managements and Herding Cats

This was the first full week of the new year, and therefore the first full week on my revamped gym routine. You'll remember that one of my resolutions was to add two intense cardio session per week. Last night's cardio session (number two) was rough, and today...well, today I am feeling old. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Yes, I'm physically fatigued and I have some generalized soreness, but I also lack the ambition of youth. In other words: I am wise enough to take my scheduled night off, and rest.

Speaking of schedules; time is a sticky subject whenever you start talking about working out and eating well. As adults we find ourselves with escalating responsibilities and demands, and less, and less, time for ourselves. I get it. I am the stay at home caregiver for my husband and his parents, none of which are completely dependent on my care to survive. Other than a couple of regular limitations, I have an open schedule, and even I find it hard to get all the time I want to dedicate to preparing great food, and going to the gym. If I'm going to achieve all the things I must, and want, to achieve in a day, I find I have to really stingy with my time. At times, it can feel a little bit more like a regimen than a life. And at times, it is more like "literally" herding cats. Did I mention we now have three?

I don't pretend to have any answers here. I do know that if it's a priority - and it should be - adults will somehow make the time. I manage my time in blocks, which requires a level of discipline that I can only manage part of the time. I try to be realistic in what I can achieve in a day, as well as with how long it will actually take to complete each task. For example: I commonly plan between two and three hours for dinner. This block of time is representative of how long it really takes to  prepare, eat, and clean-up after the evening meal. There are opportunities within that block to be flexible, and to overlap other tasks, but blocking time helps me shape my expectations. It also helps me to say no to all of those distractions and interruptions that are always there to take up all your time, and ask for more. Even as I write that, there is a voice in my head laughing hysterically. There are plenty of days that my schedule ends up being little more than a laughable delusion, but many more - I hope - that this planning, and time blocking, actually works.

Some navigate the time requirements of working out and eating well by adhering to a rigorous routine: getting up at the same time every day, eating a regular but small repertoire of meals, working out at the same time, following the same circuit etc. I think it's more important to the process that each individual have a system of time management than to dictate what that system should be. We must all be prepared to change our time management system if it fails to help us accomplish our goals.