Mission Impossible? Finding A Couple Extra Hours Each Day

In Search of Time!  (Sliced Grandfather Clock designed by Rob)

Soon after Greyson was born, I was like, wow, you really have to get organized when you become a mom.  When I'm not organized, I can't do anything but just get through the day doing the stuff that absolutely needs to be done.  And you feel like a robot when you just go through the day completing chores and tasks.  Who wants to live like that?  Currently, I find 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there to do things for myself, but it's so scattered.  It sucks not to have any long stretches of time just to get into whatever I'm working on these days...or even just to veg out.

Here's one way I could find more time.  I could give up taking Greyson to a class, storytime or play group every day.  I could not ever meet a friend for lunch.  I could also give up reading the newspaper.  I could also give up blogging, which is one of those things people love to say only bored people do.  I could never go on internet research adventures.  I could even give up playing with Greyson as much each day.  But all this stuff's important to me.  What I want to do is keep doing the stuff I'm doing each day, but find more time for other stuff, too.

I try not to ever say that I don't have enough time because I find that if I really want to do something, I find the time.  I guess I don't really want to organize and print 7.5 months of baby pictures then, but it's going to keep bugging me until I do it.  That's the kind of project I definitely can't do on my current schedule.

How I plan to find a couple more hours each day after the jump!

I want to find two hours each day to do stuff that's just for me.  I don't know how I'm going to do that, but here's what I'm thinking:


-In the morning when Rob has his hour or so of quality time with Greyson, I can get stuff done around the house instead of cuddling with them in bed.  During the week, that's our only family time together, so it's hard to not be there.  But at the same time, it's the only alone time that Rob gets with Greyson and I get him all day.  So, the other day, I tried it out.  I got so many chores done from  6 to 7 am, that it was crazy, freeing up some time for myself later in the day.  I was still able to do my usual morning stuff, including shower, make veggie smoothies, prepare Rob's breakfast and lunch and walk Georgia, before 8 am.

-I can reduce the time that I cook and do dishes.  I make 90% of our meals at home, so I'm often cooking or cleaning in the kitchen for up to 2 hours a day.  Reducing the time dedicated to cooking will involve finding more make-ahead, one-dish and slow cooker recipes.  I also want to find more things that I can cook and have leftovers.  Like, I love cooking two roasted chickens and doing lots of different things with the chicken for the next few days.  I might also start making a big batch of quinoa or brown rice once a week, so I am not starting full meals from scratch each night, which is what I often do now.

-I can give Greyson a little more alone time.  "They" say that you should encourage your babies to entertain themselves, so they will have time to develop their imagination and creativity and not be co-dependent and anxious when they're alone.  I love hanging with Greyson, but I think it'd be good to give him maybe 45-minutes a day where he is doing his own thing.  He probably gets only about 15 minutes each day when he's just playing with his toys without me paying attention to him (unless he's in his crib before and after his nap).

Will doing these three things add two more hours to my day, so I can do more me stuff?  Let's see!  I'll report back in a couple of weeks!