A non-ideal day

I wrote out my ideal day.

It had all the usual things in it that I wanted to get done on a daily basis. Sleeping, eating, working, family time, fun, downtime.

I put numbers on everything.

Half an hour for this. Two hours for that. 20 minutes here. 9 hours there (sleep, in case you’re wondering).

I totalled it up.

35 hours.

Oops.

Through writing out my list – and plainly seeing how bloody impossible it was – I gave up on it.

I gave up on my ideal day.

I gave up on ever being the me who’d be able to fit in work, meditation, reflection and reading, study, fitness, music, family time, socialising and all the basics of being human – sleep, food, water, shelter (i.e. housekeeping) – into 24 hours.

I gave up on the projects I’d been wanting to do, knowing that there was not enough time to do them.

And a certain amount of stress ebbed away. Not all of it, but enough for a discernable difference.

Enough to cross projects and tasks off my to-do list that would never get the time or resources they needed.

Enough to relax more easily knowing that I was mostly doing fine.

Enough to be me as I am now, not me as a super efficient and time-bending magnificence who could warp 35 hours into 24.

It was humbling. To admit that I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do. To give myself credit for what I do do. To be me, as I am.

What does your ideal day look like?