Unschedule Your Life!
Many peoples lives today are busy and over-scheduled. From the time we wake up, to the time we go to bed, our days are full with work, meetings, kids activities, chores, etc. Even our weekends have become over-planned. What many people don’t realize however, is that too much planning and scheduling has become routine and can have a negative effect.
According to the article, “Unplan Your Life,” found in the July/August 2008 issue of Body + Soul magazine, “Routines essentially allow the body to allocate resources elsewhere and conserve energy. But while patterned thought and behavior keep things running smoothly, routine also has a dark side: rigidity. Some research has found that people who don’t make room for enjoyable “noninstrumental” activity (reading for pleasure, chatting with a friend) may experience more stress—and that, in turn, can contribute to problems like depression, anxiety, weakened immunity, and heart disease,” states Christine Caldwell, PhD of Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.
While schedules and to-do lists help us to be organized, and are necessary for many of us, we all need to stray from them a bit and be open to some unscheduled time, where we can enjoy ourselves.
Following are a few ways to help unschedule your life from the article:
- Pencil It In—See your schedule as a sketch of what you might like to do instead of a rigid to-do list with things that have to get done. Be open to situations, circumstances, or things that come up. If you just allow yourself to partake in a situation, you might just end up having a good time. (i.e. Spending a day with family, friends, meeting an old acquaintance, or visiting a location that you’ve never seen before, etc.)
- Tweak a Habit–Instead of making some sort of drastic change in your life, just try and change a regular habit, or routine a bit. Subtle changes can make a big difference, and add a bit of variety, or opportunity to your life. (i.e. Try a different coffee shop, change your regular walking, or biking route, etc.)
- Rejigger Your To-Do List—”We get stuck in what should happen, whether it’s this moment, or our whole lives, that we stop hearing what we authentically want to do.” It is common to confuse pre-made plans with priorities. While you may want to get some chores around the house done, there is nothing wrong with setting your to-do list aside to just enjoy a beautiful, sun-shining day. Why not go fishing, water skiing, boating, biking, etc.? The household chores, etc. can wait—maybe for the next rainy weekend.
- Say Yes—It is easy to say “No” when our schedules are full, but “we often say no out of habit and fear because it keeps us from having to take a risk,” according to Patricia Ryan Madson author of Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up. It can be fun however, to say “Yes!” Try and Say Yes to the next halfway descent invitation you get. Why not see a movie, go to someone’s lake cabin. etc. You might just end up having a good time!
- Wing It—Sometimes it is just nice to have a day that is totally unplanned. You could do this, or that, but why not just wing it and go with the flow? Vacations can also be an opportunity to just wing it. Sometimes vacations end up being too scheduled, where you have to be here, or there at a certain time and you end up feeling stressed. They don’t have to be though. Why not plan a vacation where you don’t have to be here, or there and have the opportunity to just make decisions, just as they come up?
Thanks for reading!
Barb
Posted in Uncategorized, Business on July 8th, 2008 by Barb | |
on July 8th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Thank you, Barb, for mentioning Improv Wisdom in your blog. The power of YES is really amazing. Even when we are overstressed sometimes we need to say YES to a deeper breath, Yes to slowing down, Yes to “smelling the roses”.
on July 8th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Patricia:
I appreciate your comments. Everyone needs to say Yes to slowing down more.
Thanks!
Barb