How to Repurpose Time in Your Morning
This week we’re going to build upon last week’s post “The Secret to Gaining More Time in Your Day.” Give it a listen or read if you haven’t already, because it’s great background for what we’ll cover today. For a quick refresher, we dug into the topic of repurposing time. Repurposing time is not be confused with multi-tasking, when we’re running around trying to do 5 things at once. Instead it’s repurposing the time and commitments we have, to infuse them with more joy and fulfillment.
To ensure you are confident that the guidance and resources I provide you are not only based in research, but most importantly in real life, I'm going to let you behind the scenes of my life and share how I repurpose time in my real life. It may not be glamorous, but I promise it'll be real, honest and always with the optimistic outlook that if I can do this - you can too!
Over the next 3 weeks I'll be sharing my breakdown of how to repurpose your time throughout your daily routine. These are tried and true for me, and I hope they provide inspiration for you. Give them a try with a sense of curious experimentation, and simply be open to seeing whether they’re a good fit for you. Today’s focus will be the top 3 areas to repurposing time in your morning…let’s dig in.
Commute
Time commuting to the office, or shuttling kids to various activities, is a great opportunity to repurpose time. I’m a committed life-long learner, meaning I’m constantly looking to fill my mind with new information and ideas. Time in the car is an amazing opportunity to listen to your favorite podcast, or try a new series you have been meaning to tune into. If you really want to get the most bang for your buck, try a meditation podcast. My absolute favorite is “Meditative Story” which is really made to listen on the go. The pauses for meditation acknowledge you may be out & about while listening. I love incorporating mindfulness into my drive time in general. For me it’s a quiet space where my mind can freely wonder.
While true meditation isn’t an option while driving, let me make that clear, EFT tapping is very doable while driving. I love tapping while I’m driving, so I can clear out the small stuff that’s weighing on me. Again, let me state the obvious, this is not a time to dig deep into past traumas or heavy topics, but clearing out daily frustrations or working thru an annoyance, tapping in the car is an amazing option. So no judgement please, if you’re beside me at a red light and I’m tapping and talking to myself - nothing to worry about!
Swapping a Coffee Break for Mindfulness
Mindfulness practices, whether it’s time to meditate, practice breathwork or simply sit in quiet, is challenging to fit into our busy days. It’s not for lack of desire that it isn’t prioritized, but it’s tough to fit into the daily grind. A great way to repurpose time is to use time you’d take for a mental break, whether that’s grabbing a coffee or picking up a quick snack, and swapping that time for a bit of mindfulness. It doesn’t have to be long, 5-10 minutes can make a huge difference over time. The key is to let go of the expectations of what a mindfulness practice “should” look like, and embrace that it can be absolutely anything you want it to be. Did I not just confess to tapping my face in a car a moment ago?! Consider times when you take natural pauses in the day, and think about repurposing that time with a mindfulness practice you’ve been wanting to try. You don’t need a zen den, or a perfect quiet space, just find a way to make yourself comfortable and settle into the messy imperfectness.
Have To Do’s
This is absolutely my mom-speak coming out, because we use “want to do’s” and “have to do's” a lot in our house! Let’s be honest, even as adults we have things we have to do that we simply don’t love doing. But I’ll ask you to consider looking at those undesirable tasks and consider how can you infuse joy. There are plenty of tasks in my work day that aren’t glamorous and simply take time and energy to complete. During these times, when I need to focus on getting the task done, I plug into my headphones and listen to a podcast so I can learn, while also getting things taken care of. Depending upon how much brainpower is needed, I may choose a heavier or lighter podcast series to listen to, but there are so many options I’m never short on one to choose. I’m inspired and lifted up by hearing podcasts, so this is a simple way to infuse joy into my “have to do’s” while still getting the job done.
Remember, for the next few blog posts I’m going to take you behind the scenes of my life to share first hand how I put the concept of repurposing time into play. Next up is the afternoon, where we’ll dig into ways to infuse more joy into the witching hour. Over the next few weeks I’ll break down the secrets to each part of the day, until in the end you have a full picture of recommendations from morning to night.