I heard about this on the radio Tuesday morning – it’s time to celebrate National Take Back Your Time Week – and for five glorious days* the overworked and underslept can or rather should take back some of the time we give to our overscheduled lives and relax.
Much easier said than done. This article offers some examples of how to Take Back Your Time wisely. Unfortunately none of the suggestions include permanently dropping out of the rat race and moving to a deserted island [my first choice, btw.]
I’m all for the concept of slowing down our lives. I think we all work too much, worry too much and spend too much time on the Internet. The whole idea of life less rushed appeals to me, though I think it will be a while before it really catches on because society as a whole is about moving fast all the time and keeping up. We’re constantly bombarded with information designed to make us want to work more, earn more, have more, do more – which sounds great in theory except that most of it is impossible to achieve. We can’t be all things all the time and that creates more stress which makes relaxing impossible.
I find it interesting that we have to set aside a day or a week to ‘officially’ relax because the majority of people won’t do it unless they’re told to. If it’s a movement, an organization, a new regiment, then it’s okay, but if it’s just a way of life there’s not really time for it.
Do you have to schedule your relaxation? Would you if you could? I mean – do you have time to relax at all? Sometimes I feel like I don’t. If I relax I fall behind and I hate both the feeling of falling behind and of feeling guilty for wishing I didn’t hate the feeling of falling behind. I do think we all need to relax a little more, but I’m not sure we need to have an organization to tell us we need to relax.
For more about the Take Back Your Time movement, you can visit the website at http://www.timeday.org/ where Take Back Your Time Day falls on October 24th – oddly enough. There you will find a detailed list of things to do on Take Back Your Time Day/Week – which all seem a bit counterintuitive to me. If I’m going to take back my time, I’m not going to spend my time hawking for the Take Back Your Time Initiative or planning a Take Back Your Time event.
*Note: National Take Back Your Time Week apparently does not include the weekend, when you are supposed to go back to being too busy to breathe.
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Oooh, apparently I rock at this time thing because I already do most of those things on the list.
ReplyDelete(Keep in mind the kids are grown and gone, so it's a lot easier.)
I do think that a lot of the reason people don't have more time is there is a lack of boundaries. People are always on the internet, they talk on the phone at all hours, they watch those four hours of tv, and they don't just say no.
I say no (to everything) A LOT. It helps.
I was good at it for a while, but I've slipped - too many things on my plate right now. Saying no is a lost art.
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