The ALMIGHTY Wednesday has arrived: AKA the weekly hump! First of all, I’d like to congratulate you for making it this far. I know you’re probably lagging; physically and mentally fatigued, but you’ve still managed to tap into those last few drops of fuel before the Weekend re-up so a big ‘well-done!’ to you. Admittedly this isn’t always the easiest thing to do: but I urge you to hang in there and take a peek at some of my favourite techniques to help you through the final work-week stretch.
1. Prepare
When it comes to meals and outfits, trust me when I say: Get them ready! If you’re not in the habit of pre-planning but would like to be, Wednesday evenings are a great time to plan your meals for the remainder of the week and are a sure way to help ease you over the HUMP. Although we plan, we are also at liberty to change our minds. Having a rough daily meal guide has been known to be an effective strategy in saving you valuable time, energy and money, plus you could always swap Thursday’s Lunch for Fridays dinner if you wanted to. You may also find that you’re more careful to consume less calories and non-nutritional foods than you would during a spontaneous hunger binge: and if like me you’re trying to avoid these, this could be a great helper for you! Why not try downloading or creating a meal schedule? You may also find yourself saving time on your food shop as you’ll know exactly what’s needed and what to look for at the market.
The same daunting anxieties are known to arise when trying to decide what to wear. It seems to either be not having anything to wear, yet having no space for new clothes, or having way too much choice! Putting together a rough idea of what you and your dependants are going to wear over the coming few days is a brilliant time saver; an opportunity to get some laundry done and to declutter your wardrobe all at the same time. Now if that isn’t enough to put a smile on a recovering hoarder’s face, then I don’t what is.
2. Try Not to Make Plans that You Know You’re Unlikely to Commit to
‘Yes, I’m definitely there!’ I can bet that I’m not the only one out here who’s sung this lie at some point. We all do it: to ourselves, friends, family and acquaintances and at this point I feel it desperately needs to stop. I spent some time working as a car controller on a busy Friday and Saturday night. A ‘No-show’ in the cabbing industry is a customer who books a journey however, when it comes to pick-up time they cancel at short notice or aren’t reachable and fail to make contact to cancel their journey. When we apply the same principles to daily life, similar circumstances can be understandably irritating to those who aren’t so understanding to the scale of preference.
It’s probably easier to save yourself the emotional abuse by simply making plans closer to actual dates. This way you’re likely to stick to them: as the excitement behind arranging them will still be fresh. At some point or another we’ve looked forward to plans of meeting up with someone; plans that may have been made a week and a half prior to the actual day, then had them cancelled on or around the day. My experiences have found this to be quite disappointing at times and often something that isn’t considered by others. This sort of thing can be detrimental to one’s character as it can make them appear to be unreliable.
3. RnR
Try planning an activity with your significant other, children, friends or by yourself. It can be something grand and over the top like afternoon tea and cocktails, down to catching up on your favourite blogs/magazines, reading or binge watching your favourite TV series. I’m an advocate for making time to get physical (now you can allow your imagination to take that wherever you please). Physical activity is a great form of self-love and brings like-minded people together.
It’s definitely ridiculous let alone impossible attempting to pour from an empty cup and anyone that you’re responsible for or to is unlikely to be ok if you aren’t ensuring that you are too! I love spontaneity as much as the next person but we should also be both honest and realistic. It’s unlikely that one is always able to fit everything in AND give it full attention at the same time. Be sure to make some time to catch up on some much-needed, missed sleep or you can simply be still and focus on really BREATHING: something so simple that we to tend take for granted on a daily basis. I remember an instance where my nose was severely blocked and even stressed me out to the point of tears. Since then I value my nostrils more than ever and have incorporated breathing techniques into my daily routine in order to bring forth a sense of calm. Now you give it a try…Deeply inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Feels great right?
4. Set at least One Main Goal that You’d Like to Achieve by Friday: Close of Business
It could be something as simple as ensuring that instead of driving you take a leisurely stroll for 30 minutes a day, at least 3 times out of your week or to ensuring that you read and reply to all your emails. This is a great means of giving you something to look forward to and offers a great sense of pride and achievement. Setting, working towards and achieving a goal or task set has been a brilliant way to make the whole week seem that much more worthwhile for me and now has me looking forward to Mondays for a change.
5. Essentially, I recommend Taking Care of the Minutes and Allowing the Hours to Take Care of Themselves!
My final and one of my favourite techniques involves breaking the day down into smaller and more manageable chunks. This includes setting tasks for roughly 15-45 mins at a time and getting them done at a comfortable pace. I mean we are only human at the end of the day and while this does involve some super powers, it also allows one to conserve and use energy towards the things that matter most.
Thanks for reading xx
