Today I received an email in my inbox from Teatime with Liane starting off with the following …
It is 599 since lockdown was announced in South Africa.
It is 318 days since the start of 2021.
And there are only 47 days left until 2022!
… and I realised – today is 599 days since lockdown started.
- What impact did lockdown have on your life during the last 5990 days?
- What are you planning to do for the next 47 days (46 since today is almost over) before the start of 2022?
- What are you planning for 2022?
I have decided to quit doing all the things that doesn’t bring me any joy or if it does not add value to my life.
I was sitting in the office starting my sentence with “I have resigned …” and before I could complete the sentence, my colleague said: WTF? She thought I resigned my job, but I only resigned something that took so much of my energy that each time my phone rang and it was somebody from that project, I sighed deeply and felt as if all my energy was drained from me! Now the phone can ring and I gladly sort things out, because I know they won’t be stealing my joy for much longer.
The next thing is to sit down with all the things that I do or, at least, want to do every day / week / month:
- Full-time job – not negotiable
- Part-time job for publishers – not negotiable
- Part-time bookkeeping and other admin clients – partly negotiable
- Hobbies – a lot of decision-making as to which hobbies stay and which goes
- Studies – not negotiable
- Needlework group – we already discussed less time
- Various NGO’s – definitely negotiable
- CWAA – Cape Women’s Agricultural Association – negotiable
- Reading & watching movies – not negotiable on the books, but maybe negotiable on movies
- Socialising with friends and family – I need to plan quality time as this should be non-negotiable
- Church & Bible Study – not negotiable
- Walking (prepping for part of the Camino de Santiago – 300km over 3 to 4 weeks) – not negotiable, but I need a proper strategy for preparation to 2023 / 2024.
- Bible School – not negotiable, but I need to plan my time better
- Writing school, blogging, etc. – need a better strategy and better time management, as this is also not negotiable
- Me-time! – not negotiable
The sad part is that I have 46 days to decide what stays and what goes. Certain stuff like job and church is non-negotiable, some are partly negotiable and others fully negotiable. And once I have decided what stays, I have to plan my diary properly to make sure that I allocate enough time to all that I feel is adding value to my life.
One thing I have already started … since September 2020 I have been taking ME-TIME on a regular basis by going away for weekends, either visiting friends in tranquil Aurora, West Coast or staying at gorgeous spots in the West Coast on my own … taking much needed recharging time!
So, watch this space – in 46 days I would have made up my mind as to what stays and what goes. 😊