Finding Time

There is a difference between "finding time" and "making time". It may be subtle, but I think there is a difference. Why? Because I’m having a tough time finding time so I can make time for me.

I posted this on Facebook today:

I need 3 of me today — work me, workout me, and take care of personal stuff me. Hmmm…add a 4th — sit around and read a book me.

It’s really true, especially lately. Work has been really busy (thankfully!). On April 1, we opened a second office and hired new employees. It’s out of state, so there is a ton of paperwork associated with this new location. We’re in the middle of planning the Open House in two weeks; executing the deliverables on one of our client contracts for a separate out of town event/conference; and dealing with the internal challenges associated with company growth. You know – the typical activities related to owning and running a growing business. This means a lot of long, stressful days.

Normally I work 10 hours days (8 hours if I’m really lucky, 12 hours if it’s really busy) and have a 2-3 hour daily commute. When I work out that’s another 2-2.5 hours including travel time if I go to the gym near my office or 3-4 hours for longer travel distances including time to shower/change, etc.. It takes me 1.5 hours to get ready, eat, & check/respond to email in the morning; then when I get home in the evening add another 1-2 hours to eat, check email and try to wind down. Add more hours for sleep (aiming for 8 hours but sometimes it’s just not possible), and the total hours used in one day adds up to or exceeds 24 hours. This doesn’t even address the time needed for personal things — grocery shopping, doing laundry, doing stuff with my family, reading a book, etc. No wonder triathletes either date or marry other triathletes/athletes. Otherwise you don’t see each other. When I get home in the evening, I have my driver’s license out in case my husband asks for identification.

People say that you make time for the things that you really want to do. And there’s the famous quote "someone busier than you is working out." I completely agree! I really want to keep up with my training, but I also need to have balance. The last two nights I have fallen asleep while sitting up. Thanks Dad — another one of your habits! 🙂 So I’m addressing my nutrition and trying to leave work "on time" (e.g., after 8 hours), and letting work projects that don’t have an immediate or imminent deadline wait until the next day.

The great news is I have a coach that totally understands and gets what I’m up against. He has figured out when and how to push, and when to tell me to back off. He can adjust my weekly training schedule on the fly to accommodate the craziness in my life. I don’t want to disappoint him because he’s invested a lot of time into my training and I don’t want him to think I’m wasting his time. I hope he knows his hard work and encouragement is appreciated (well he should know — I’m emailing him the link to this blog post!!).

What I really need him to do is to figure out how to add more hours in a day. I know how I’d use them — swimming, biking and running!