Covet Monday - Time

I know I'm swooning over lovely handbags and various other luxurious bits and bobs. However, there are, of course, things money can't buy and one of them is time.

Time to spend with your children. Time to read a book. Time to finish that task during which you kept getting interrupted. Time to go on a holiday.  Time to smell the flowers. Or, maybe especially so if you do have small children, time to sleep.

For me, the biggest one on the list probably would be time to spend with your children. Little M is racing towards his third birthday and I feel like the years are just passing by. Working full time means he spends all weekdays at nursery, which he does love but that bit of time we have at the morning and in the evening is often filled with me trying to do 4 things at once, not really being able to focus much on him.

Of course nobody can just conjure up these extra few minutes or hours. The day only has 24 of them. For all of us.  However, I have a plan to ignore reason and pretend that I can. Not by magic but by making a few simple adjustments.  


1. Get up 10 minutes earlier every morning

These 10 minutes sleep won't really do much difference to me being tired or not and, lets face it, they are usually just lost by me pressing the snooze button. But if I can get ready and get him ready and then have those 10 minutes to just have a chat or read a book with him, I will have spent some quality time with my favourite person in the world. Right at the beginning of the day.


2. Get my Filofax sorted

I am slowly moving into some DIYFish inserts, that I have received a few days ago. My plan is to have them set up in a way that I will avoid duplicating and re-writing lists as well as panicking and fixing stuff I had forgotten to sort out.  


3. Go to bed earlier, aim to be tucked in by 23:00 

 
I work full time then come home with little M, sort out his tea/snack and whatever else needs doing when we get in. He then has a bath at 19:00, story around 19:40 and usually is in bed at 20:00. I'm very lucky in that my OH does all the cooking and kitchen stuff, so we tend to eat around 20:15, which means I start to look at my blog and various online things (such as my bag obsession) from about 20:45. I probably get in a good 1.5 or maybe 2 productive hours. And then I should just go to bed. Instead, I faff around and start getting lost on Facebook or some other page and go to bed way too late. And then suffer the next day not being as productive I could be, which means I waste even more time.


4. Use commuting time more efficiently

I spend a total of about 60 minutes on the train to a from work and usually end up reading daft things on Facebook, Buzzfeed etc. Instead I'll try and get my Filofax out, review what I didn't achieve yesterday, what's planned for the day and how my week is shaping up. If I have a few minutes left, I might allow myself a quick peek on Facebook or Instagram.   


5. Make proper plans for the weekend
 

Quite often the weekend flies by in a blink-and-you-miss it kind of fashion. Monday comes and you feel like you haven't really had a weekend as all you did was run errands and try to keep the kids happy. The last couple of weekends though, on at least one day I took little M and went out. We're lucky enough that we live right at the edge of the Peak District so there are lots of lovely places to visit right on our doorstep. Last weekend Saturday we went to a hidden valley in a village nearby and on Sunday drove to Castleton. He climbed up all the way to Pevril Castle, we had a picnic and hours' worth of running about. This weekend we spent Saturday looking at a "big mountain", sheep, caves and then went for icecream. On Sunday we chased the Gruffalo through Lyme Park.
Not only do I know that I spent some real quality time with M, I also feel like I had a tiny little holiday. And we still talk about what we did for weeks afterwards.

I know there are tons of time saving tips out there but these 5 are what I'm starting with. They should either give me more time or ensure that I feel like I've had more. I'd love to hear what you do? 

(PS: The irony of me posting this on a Monday evening at 22:49 is not lost on me...)