Do Less
We all have 24 hours in a day. What do you do with your 24 hours each day? Do these hours fill you with joy? Bring you stress? Feel like an endless to-do list? Is there time for self care? A few minutes of peace? Do you spend all day in the service of others? Or are you living your best life?
My favorite podcaster (Lisa Druxman) always says, “You can do anything but you can’t do everything.” Everytime you say yes to something, you are implicitly saying no to something else. Are you constantly and unconsciously saying no to you? Saying no to your own self care and dreams?
My solution: Do less.
At the start of the school year, I wrote a blog about all of the small changes I made to do less and free up more time for me. Read the full post here: https://www.crystalmarierigleyjanis.com/growth/from-surviving-to-thriving
My change for 2020: outsource my healthly eating and cooking.
At least for January (hopefully the whole year), I AM NOT MEAL PLANNING, GROCERY SHOPPING OR COOKING! I estimate that I spend 26 hours a month doing these items and I bet that is a low estimate. 26 hours!!!! Approximately half of those hours occur during family time (on the weekend or after I pick up Bailey) and half of the hours occur during my personal time.
What can I do with an additional 6.5 hours a week/26 hours a month?
So much! I am trying to empower my community through financial education. I am working on a business for the sharing of baby and kid items. I could get on more hikes, read more books, have more time in the garden. For the hours spent during family time, it will remove the stress and frustration that comes from trying to cook with a 25lbs child in one arm. It will allow me to be more present with my family in the evening and on the weekends instead of cooking or running to the grocery store. Trust me, I will optimize these hours to help make my dream life my reality.
How am I doing it? Through a company called Trifecta. (FYI they are not paying me to write this post.) I have spent numerous hours trying to shorten the amount of time I spend on meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking. I have ordered groceries, created a go-to monthly list for recipes, looked at meal kits and companies and even tried a few through Good Eggs. All of those efforts and my meal process still feels draining. Recently I found Trifecta. Their food is organic, dairy free and gluten free; all things I love and aim for in my meals. Their food is 100% cooked, geared for people working towards a healthy lifestyle (especially athletes), and takes me less than 5 minutes to get out of the packaging, heated and in my tummy. All a win! We are ordering the clean meals and vegetarian. We just got our first shipment last week but so far I am all about it!
Downside: It is expensive!!!! It has slightly more than doubled my food budget. Therefore I have had to do some major adjustments in other areas. However, time is the only thing we can never get more of. Right now I am taking food prep off my plate to get back 6.5 hours a week.
There is also a lot of packaging waste. Stryofoam and an endless supply of ice packs! This is hard for me to swallow and I will need to find a way to repurpose the ice packs. Honestly, this would be the thing that would keep me from staying with the food service longterm. On their website they say they are more environmentally friendly because they eliminate a few steps in the food chain but it is hard to see the waste on my doorstep.
The takeaway: You have to do less. You have to start saying “no” more so you can “yes” to yourself, your dreams and your goals. There are only 24 hours in a day and you are never promised the next day or year, so stop wasting it on the to-do-list. Take items off your plate so you can spend more time doing things that bring you joy, laughter, happiness and love.