10 Ways to Make Time for Yourself When it Feels Impossible

Time is the same for everyone – we all have 24 hours in our day, however, how we choose to use these hours is different for so many of us. My goal in this post is to help you figure out how to make time for yourself in your busy life so you can do more of what you truly want and love.

This is the foundation for living an intentional life every day and more importantly, it helps you avoid burnout. Taking your time back gives you the power to feel in control of what you do – and this is everything.

Why Make Time for Yourself?

Well, if you’re thinking about this question, I’m so glad you’re here so I can address this.

Quite simply you deserve to have quality time for you… doing things you love, looking after your mind, body, and soul, experiencing new things, and cultivating a stronger relationship with yourself.

Just because you’re an adult with a busy schedule, responsibilities and never-ending to-do lists (or ‘should-do’ lists) doesn’t mean that your life should be about everyone else.

We are here to thrive, so each and every day we can make the choice to do something good for ourselves.

10 Ways To Start Making Time for Yourself

First, let’s look at the foundational steps to make time for yourself…

1. Make a Commitment

The very first step to take is commitment. You won’t make time if you aren’t willing to make a commitment to yourself and the time you deserve.

This is important to make a change in your daily routine so you can carve out valuable time.

2. Determine Exactly What You Want To Make Time For

When you have a concrete reason to create more time for you and understand why this is important, it will become much easier to commit.

For example, you might want to make time for:

• New healthy habits – this could look like doing a yoga class, meal-prepping healthy food, or going for a long morning walk.
• Spending time with friends – this might be a regular video call with a good friend overseas, a monthly ladies’ brunch or going to book club.
• Spirituality – reading, meditation, attending church service.
• Self-care – having a dedicated wind-down bedtime routine, going to therapy, or learning new self-love practices.
• Starting a new hobby – pottery, gardening, etc.
• Simply having quiet time – think of a nice cup of tea or coffee, simply enjoying every sip mindfully.

These are just a few reasons why, so take this time to think about what it is you want to create time for. Then ask yourself…

Why is it important for me to dedicate time to ___________ in my life? (fill in the blank)

3 Identify Your ‘Time Sucks’

The other day I realized I’ve gotten into the bad habit of doom-scrolling on my phone in the morning and sometimes it takes up 30 minutes or even an hour. Then I wonder why my motivation is low to do anything else.

So, I decided to spend the next morning away from my phone and writing instead. And wow, was I ever intentional. I ended up completing something worth value to me – this blog post (30 Nighttime Journal Prompts To Reflect & Unwind).

The moral of the story here is that 30 minutes to an hour could be used towards something good for me.  In this case, I chose writing but it could have easily been going for a walk, calling a good friend, or writing in my journal.

So I asked you, what are your time sucks?

Make a list of anything you can think of that takes time away from you.  It could be things like:

• Binge watching Netflix
• Getting involved in other people’s drama
• Scrolling endless social media videos
• Hitting the snooze button three times

Next, allocate time to each time suck activity that is on your list. This way you can add up the time you could be giving back to yourself.

Related: 71 Things That Waste Time & How To Stop Doing Them

4. Start Small

Let’s be realistic here. If you’re not great at creating time for yourself you’re not all of a sudden going to be able to dedicate an entire afternoon every Saturday to you (although if you can – amazing)! So, the key is to start small.

Think about small moments in your day you can allocate to the thing you want to do more of.

See if you can carve out 30 minutes to start. If your schedule is completely not your own and this seems difficult, start with 15 minutes.

Remember, small things matter and can add up to big things over time.

5. Schedule ‘You Time’ in Your Calendar

I always say that if it’s not on the calendar, it’s not going to happen. This is especially the case with things I want to do for myself. So, get in the habit of blocking time in your calendar.

You could do this in a few ways:

• Block out a lunch break in your calendar every day at work and then do something you love – read, walk, work, meditate, etc
• Book a ‘recurring meeting’ every Thursday night with the name of the activity you are committed to doing for yourself. This could be great if you want to go to a class.
• Look at your monthly schedule and book time for things you want to do – getting your nails done, going for a walk with a friend, having a massage, etc.

6. Declutter Your Schedule

The goal here is to look at things you spend your time doing and decide whether you can remove these from your schedule.

To do this you could:

• As your spouse to take care of something moving forward
• Hire a cleaner
• Review your weekly commitments and decide if you can let something go that’s no longer serving you

7. Tell Your Family & Set Boundaries

By this point, you may be thinking – ‘this all sounds nice, but it’s impossible to ever have a moment to myself’.

This is where setting some boundaries with your family is really important. Let your spouse and/or kids know that you are unavailable during the time you have booked. 

Inform them that you will not pick up your phone and will not be available to them. Of course, if there is an emergency you can work out a plan, however, if you have started small and only have a small block of time booked this should not happen.

If your family doesn’t honour this time you’ve allocated for yourself a larger conversation needs to happen, but give them the benefit of the doubt to start.

And remember – if all of this feels too overwhelming, starting small really helps.

8. Create Mini Breaks

If you’re still finding it tough to allocate time to yourself, plan mini-breaks. You can do a couple a day and these can still be truly rejuvenating for you.

Here are some things you could try:

• Walk to a local coffee shop and treat yourself to a cozy drink
• Get up from your desk during the day and spend 5 minutes stretching
• Call a friend for a quick chat
• Have a fast shower
• Play your favourite song
• Do a 5 minute body scan meditation
• Read a few pages from a good book

9. Be Mindful

Whatever you plan on doing, make the most of the time you have by being present in the moment. 

The last thinking you want is to create the time in your calendar but then spend the time worrying about something or getting sucked into a time waster without doing what you had planned.

So, practice being mindful and present in the activity you have chosen. 

Put away distractions (phone, computer) and allow yourself to be fully immersed. 

This can take practice so don’t be hard on yourself if you notice your mind racing. Just do your best and you’ll get better at it over time.

If you’d like to practice some mindfulness activities to help you be in the moment, check out this post: 14 Mindfulness Techniques for Everyday Life

10. Habit Stack

Habit stacking, a term and practice coined by James Clear in his book ‘Atomic Habits’, is when you add a new habit to an existing habit – making it easier to make the new habit an actual habit.

As James Clear states in this article, 

The habit stacking formula is:

After/Before [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].

So, you can add on time for yourself similar to the habit stacking method. Let me share some examples…

• After I go to the dentist, I will drive past the park – then get out and go for a 15-minute walk.
• Before I have my morning shower, I will use positive journal prompts to set my intentions for the day.
• Before I drink my coffee I will do 5 minutes of stretching.
• After my Doctor’s appointment, I will visit my friend for an hour.

The goal here is to look at your current schedule and routine and think about ways you can add some time to what you’re doing. Let’s face it – if you’re out running errands in the east end of your town, why not visit the friend who lives close by?

Final Thoughts

I hope the above ideas gave you some valuable steps you can take starting today. As mentioned above, you are worthy of downtime. You deserve to rest, to enjoy, and to have free time in life to just be.

We are all living in a culture of go go go and it is just not sustainable long time. People are burning out. People are unhappy and so many of us are running on a hamster wheel of work, action items, and hustling. 

But this is not living to the fullest, so taking time for yourself is crucial to looking after your needs and simply enjoying life every day.

What Would You Like To Create More Personal Time for?

Learning a new skill, focusing on your self care practice, or doing some fun activities?

Share in the comments below!

Related Self Love & Self Care Resources:

• 10 Ways To Focus on Yourself & Not Others
• Try This Self Love Planner & 30-Day Challenge
• 17 Life Tips to Start Living for Yourself
• How To Start Loving Yourself Again: 20 Self-Love Ideas