URGENT: HOW TO HAVE TIME FOR YOURSELF!

Schedule It!

Picture this: You are sitting in your favorite easy chair with nothing to do for the third day in a row. You glance at your calendar and find the same thing as last month and the month before—empty blocks, bare dates, and nothing but open space.

Wha? Huh? Nice try. 

Show me a writer who has nothing to do. Better yet, show me one who knows what boredom feels like. In a life built around deadlines, obligations, and responsibilities, “free time” isn’t a reality—it’s a myth.

Enter Gabriela Pereira, founder and self-described “instigator” of the wildly popular website for writers, diymfa.com. When I called this dear, wise friend to ask how she keeps her life organized, she didn’t miss a beat. Her answer was simple. She schedules everything.

This immediately clicked for me. Why? Because of the way my brain works. If I look at my calendar and see something written down at a particular time, I do it. Could this be  the secret to guilt-free reading, quiet afternoons in nature, and aimless internet browsing? Once something made it onto my calendar, it carried the same weight as a doctor’s appointment— which also meant I wouldn’t cancel “me-time” unless something was truly on fire.

So what kinds of things will you write on your calendar and defend with your life? A hobby, a writing session, a long-overdue call with an old friend? Whatever fills  your cup, give it a start time  and an  end time. Make room for the things  that bring you joy and keep you sane—meditation, a gratitude practice, or maybe an afternoon nippy nap. Your mental health needs breathing room,  and there’s no  better way to carve it out  than by keeping an appointment with yourself.

Writers write.

(And just as importantly, they schedule.)