I think anyone who works, even if they’re self-employed or work from home, could tell you that it’s really hard to balance a job and basic living and still find time for hobbies. Every New Year I find myself making promises such as “I’ll read more this year!” or “I’ll go for more walks!” but as the days go by, it’s easy to find yourself not making the changes necessary to make this happen. And sometimes it’s not easy to figure out what needs to change in the first place – you wake up, you go to work, you come home, cook dinner, and it’s practically time for bed again. How are you supposed to squeeze more stuff into your already-packed day?

This was definitely a big issue for me this month, as I had to find a way to juggle working 40 hours a week at my full-time job, looking for an apartment, packing up all of my earthly possessions and moving them into storage, growing my tarot business, blogging, and trying to still do things like exercise, run errands, and occasionally have a social life. Suffice to say, it’s been a busy month!

There’s that basic trick I was taught in college – make a schedule of your average day, marking out all of the hours from midnight till 11 pm, and fill in your commitments, coloring in the blocks of time they’d take you to complete. Then color in all of the things that AREN’T commitments but you still usually do, like watching TV or surfing the web. Sometimes this IS a really great way to see where you have free time and what things are negotiable, but what if your schedule still looks pretty booked?

I feel like I’ve found some pretty solid ways to make time for some of the basic things I see people putting off. There’s no one answer that works across the board – different things take different amounts of time, energy, and resources to get done. So let’s start by breaking down what it is you’re trying to make time for:

1. Reading

This is one I hear so often – “oh, I wish I could read more, but I just don’t have the time!” And you know, I’m guilty of saying this, too! I was such an avid bookworm in my childhood that I didn’t even notice how infrequently I read as an adult at first. The trouble with reading, for me anyway, is that you can’t multi-task while doing it – it’s so hard for me to focus on a book when I know there are a million other things I should be doing. Here are some ways I’ve found have helped me get more reading done lately!

• Read on your lunch break: You have to eat lunch anyway, and while it’s not a great habit to eat and read at the same time, I find that this is a perfect time for me to read; there’s not much else I could be doing on my lunch break, anyway, and it’s a nice mid-day reset to take my mind off of work.
• Read in the bath: I think the perfect way for me to unwind is to curl up in a hot bath with a good book. Leave your cell phone in another room, light some candles, and just unwind for a while! For some reason I don’t feel guilty about reading if I’m also taking a bath, because I know that the bath is doing my tired bod some good so it’s kind of killing two birds with one stone. Plus, like I talked about in my post about anxiety, it’s super hard for me to just be alone with my thoughts when I’m stressed out, so reading a book actually helps me relax more since it takes my mind off my troubles for a while!
• Listen to audiobooks: For me, audiobooks don’t quite replace the experience of actually reading with my eyes, but they’re SO great if there’s a book I want to read in a hurry (like if the movie is about to come out or something like that!) I have so much downtime during my commute that I’d otherwise just be spending listening to the radio, so if there’s a book that’s on my list but I don’t SUPER want to read it, I’ll use something like Audible or Amazon Kindle Unlimited (you can get a 30-day free trial if you sign up through my link ;D) and just listen to it instead. It’s a great way to get the experience of the book without having to read it, and you can listen to it while you’re at the gym or doing dishes, too!

2. Exercise This is a tough one, because it’s not just a matter of making time for exercise – you have to also make time to change into workout clothes, drive to the gym (if that’s your thing), work out, then shower afterwards… It’s kind of a big time commitment and that can be overwhelming if you don’t already make a habit to include it in your schedule. Here are a few ways to make it a little easier!

• Do a little at a time: If you don’t have time to squeeze in an hour-long exercise session all at once, do a little bit at a time! You could do a little when you wake up in the morning, a little on your lunch break, and a little before bed if you wanted to. As long as you’re gettin’ that heart rate up it’s better than nothing at all! If you’re someone who’s been put off from starting incorporating exercise into your lifestyle due to a lack of time, this might be a good way to finally get started.
• Exercise right before you were going to shower anyway: A lot of times for me the thing that puts me off from exercise is something like “ugh, I have time to work out, but I won’t have time to shower afterwards!” The idea of sitting around sweaty isn’t a good one, nor is the idea of running errands and going places directly post-workout. If you can, plan your exercise around times when you were already planning to shower – for most people this is probably the morning or night. That way you don’t have to worry about also squeezing in shower time and you don’t have to stay sweaty!
• Do other things while exercising to distract you: I have a confession to make: I HATE exercise. I hate it. Everyone always says “oh, you come to love it after a while, it’s like an addiction!” That never happened for me. I hate sweating, I hate exerting my muscles, I hate everything about it. The only thing that gets me through my workout routine is doing other things to distract me. I’ll be on social media on my phone, watching TV or YouTube videos, or playing cell phone games – literally anything to take my mind off the fact that my body is in motion. If you’re one of those people who loves working out, more power to you! But for my fellow lazy babes, this is seriously a game-changer. The time goes by so quickly when you’re focused on other things!
• Buy an exercise machine: This definitely isn’t for everybody, but the $300 I dropped on an elliptical for my apartment was the best money I ever spent. I hate just about every part of going to the gym, and after work all I wanted to do was go home and curl up in bed, not go somewhere else and sweat. With the elliptical in my place, though, I COULD take some time and decompress, eat dinner, whatever, then immediately work out as soon as I was ready. I’d make a deal with myself that I could only watch TV if I was also on the elliptical and I was working out every day in no time! It seems really inconvenient and expensive to buy your own machine, but you could get one relatively cheap (even cheaper if you go to a used sporting goods store!) and you’ll find room if you have to – mine was just in my bedroom and it totally was an eyesore, but it did the trick!

3. Hobbies

How many times have you thought you might want to learn how to do something, only to never get started due to a lack of time? Or you have a hobby already, like writing, but then one day you realize it’s been weeks since you’ve actually written anything? Maybe your hobby isn’t anything that constructive – I love playing video games, for instance, and they really help me unwind! It’s hard to justify finding time for hobbies when you have a busy schedule, but it doesn’t have to be a big time commitment. Try these fixes:

• Set weekly goals: This could be as simple as “look up art classes in my area” or as specific as “write 3000 words” (if you wanna learn more about setting and keeping goals, check out my post How to Keep Your Resolutions: 3 Steps to Success!) Even a little progress is better than none, and this is a concrete way to make sure you’re moving forward, however slowly. You can even make the goal of “play one hour of Pokemon this week” to make sure you find time to have fun!
• Schedule it: Take a look at your schedule, whether you have a planner, use your phone, or just write down to-do lists. No matter how full it seems, chances are you have a free spot. Maybe that spot is just before bed when you usually surf the Internet or maybe you’ve only got a few minutes while dinner is cooking, but write down your hobbies on your to-do list or in your planner to be done in that amount of time. Doing this not only helps you visualize when you can work on your hobbies, but also gives them as much importance as the other things you wrote down – because hobbies ARE important, and if you neglect them you’ll feel guilty and frustrated. Move plans around if you have to, but make some time in your week for your hobbies.
• Make it a priority: This one is easier said than done, but honestly, you have to make it a priority. I know that things like hobbies are usually the easiest to put off or cancel if you’re busy, but in the long run, as I mentioned, you’ll end up feeling unfulfilled if you don’t nurture the things you’re passionate about. Try canceling one of your other plans every once in a while, or making the next day’s dinner so that you’ll have that extra time to devote to you. Whatever you have to do, if it’s important to you, you have to treat it that way. Give your hobbies the respect they deserve.
• Get a buddy: Finding another person to learn the hobby or to do it with you holds you accountable, but also can make it a lot more fun! Sometimes things that require practice can feel like a chore, so the time will go by faster with a friend there with you. And if it’s something like watching rom-coms or playing MMOs, making a regular hangout night with a friend to do that thing is a fun way to make sure you’re cutting loose a little.