Me Time or Chore Time

Today I have the whole day to myself. All of it. My husband left this morning to travel for work. So the only question to ask myself was ‘what am I going to do with my day?’

Easy right? Or so I thought. I wrote a list of what I wanted to do, write this blog, read, feed the birds in the garden and spend some time watching them, go for a walk, do some yoga, create a vision board and cook something nice for dinner. Great, I thought, where do I start!

I fed our cat and made myself some breakfast. Once I had finished I thought the kitchen needed a bit of tidy, but I said to myself I will do it later, this is ‘me time’ now. I put a wash on as knew I needed a few loads done today. I remembered since Scott was away, I have to empty the bins and put the bin out for collection. ‘Not now’ I said to myself but ‘later’.

I sat down and began to think of something to write for my blog. I wrote a few paragraphs but it wasn’t flowing well. So I went and fed the birds. This got me out in the fresh cold air and the lovely birds fed. It meant I could watch the birds whilst I wrote my blog.

I sat back down but still couldn’t think of anything to write. Sometimes it happens so easily but other times I have to leave it for a while.

I ended up writing a list of the chores I was going to do: washing, change bed, clean and tidy kitchen, empty the bins, batch make some lunches for the week, vacuum the house. The list felt long. But I said no to myself again as this isn’t meant to be a chore day, it’s meant to be a ‘me day’.

I’ve talked in previous blogs about making a day just for you to do all the things you want to do, guilt free. So why was I feeling guilty for wanting to do the fun things first instead of the chores?

I always tend to get the boring chores/tasks out of the way first so I can do the fun things and enjoy them. The main issue is I rarely get to spend as much time as I like doing the fun things, as the chores get in the way and take up all the time! Not today, I wasn’t going to let this happen.

I was sitting in my kitchen getting nowhere fast, being in a place which needed tidying was getting into my head and my inner voice was telling me to ‘just do it and it will be done and then you can relax’.

I took myself upstairs into our spare room and decided to start on creating a vision board, however, I was distracted by the birds and spent some time watching them instead. It was relaxing and what I had wanted to do. After a while I sat down with all my magazines and started cutting out the words and phrases and pictures that resonated with me. The change of scene had helped. Clearly, with the kitchen out of sight, it was out of my mind.

I realised then, what an obvious topic for my blog this week. Why is it so ingrained in us to do the chores first? Chores are never going away, they will always need to be done, whereas, when the moment takes us and we have some fun things we love to do, then we should just do them instead.

I know I don’t have children or caring responsibilities, so it is much easier for me to do my own thing when I want. If perhaps you are short on time or have kids and can only grab 30 minutes when they’ve gone to bed to do something, choose something you want to do. Leave the kitchen or the washing to another moment in time. Make those 30 minutes enjoyable rather than being annoyed doing the housework.

Today or whenever you get some time for you, forget the chores. Whether they are done in one hour or one day it’s not going to make a difference (apart from when the bins need to go out). I know how hard it is, as I’m typing this, I know all those chores will be waiting for me to do at some point today, but I am going to leave it until I do all the activities I want first.

Give it a go, be a rebel today and just say no to chores!

Have a great week, take care and look after you.

Love Emma xx