FROM THE ARCHIVES: Making Time for Yourself

We've published hundreds of stories from 100+ writers in the last three years, so we're highlighting some of these timeless posts in our new From the Archives series. Enjoy!

I am not an organized person.

I'm saying this matter-of-factly… not in attempt to put myself down, because I’m trying to work on that. But my roommate is the kind of person who can sit down at the beginning of the week and plan everything out. She budgets her finances, sets an intention for the week, and sorts out her planner. Naturally, her self-awareness fills me with envy.

But after months of observing and experimenting, I realized her secret is quite simple. Despite her hectic schedule, she makes time for herself. Every. Single. Day. She's up by 6:30 am, she makes her coffee, reads something interesting, makes herself breakfast, and does whatever the heck she wants for a few hours. Every day.

I'm currently working 10-hour days. Factor in travel and sleep time, and I have approximately five hours to myself during the week. All of which is spent getting ready for work, getting ready for bed… or watching Netflix (a girl has got to decompress, okay?). But the way I’ve been living leaves no room to focus on things in my own life.

I’ve allowed myself to fall into this routine that is toxic to my personal productivity. And I’m the type of person who cannot be fully satisfied from just work, I need to see advancements in my personal life to feel a real sense of accomplishment. But lately, I’ve spent every free moment thinking of all the things I need to do and dreaming up all the things I want to do that I don’t leave myself enough time to actually do them.

The other night, I got home from work at my usual, sad time of 8 pm and upon entering the apartment, my roommates were on their way to check out a beer garden downtown. At first I thought to myself, no way, it’s a Wednesday night, my cozy bed and shameless hours of drama at the Seattle Grace Hospital are waiting for me.

But that’s when it hit me. I constantly complain about not having a life outside of work yet here I am, so quick to turn it down for a "Grey’s Anatomy" marathon and a facemask. The only reason why all I do is work and sleep is because I’m choosing to only work and sleep. How has this gotten past me all this time?

There are things you hear all your life that you sort of just disregard; lessons that are just words until they’re more. But when you hear these things in a certain way or you go through something yourself, you finally realize how detrimental it is to your existence, and that’s enough to make a change.

I feel like so many of us are coasting through the workweek, dreaming about the weekend, constantly in a state of waiting or wishing our lives away. So why not do something crazy on a Wednesday night or wake up early to treat yourself to a nice breakfast? By putting energy into the little things, we can truly be present for everything.

[Photo by Julie Bloom.]

[This post was originally published February 19, 2017.]

sale

Windrose Magazine Issue 2

$5.00 $18.00

BUY 1, GET… AS MANY AS YOU WANT!

Windrose Magazine is your guide to navigating life in your twenties through a collection of essays, interviews, and advice that will inspire you to chart your own life course, free of comparison.

PLEASE NOTE: We can only ship within the United States. We still love our international friends, promise!

Magazine ships from our HQ within 7-10 business days of order. All sales final.

INVENTORY SALE: Buy 1 copy, get … as many as you want! Yes, really. We will contact you after purchase through the email you submit during the checkout process to confirm how many copies you would like.

Please note that orders of 10+ copies will incur additional shipping fees. Order limits are subject to remaining inventory count.

Quantity:

Add To Cart

Featured

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Making Time for Yourself

I’ve allowed myself to fall into this routine that is toxic to my personal productivity. And I’m the type of person who cannot be fully satisfied from just work, I need to see advancements in my personal life to feel a real sense of accomplishment. But lately, I’ve spent every free moment thinking of all the things I need to do and dreaming up all the things I want to do that I don’t leave myself enough time to actually do them.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Therapy for the Skeptic

“I’m going to therapy.” When that statement was first true for me, the sentence felt slippery, like I couldn’t quite wrap my hands around it, like trying to hold one of those weird liquid-filled sparkly gel blobs we played with as kids (really, what were those?). Or like trying to roll those Spanish “r”s or pronounce those deep-throated “e”s like the French do—it sounded unnatural when I tried to say it. So instead, I said “I’m going to see Sarah” or “I have an appointment” or, mostly, I just don’t say anything at all, keeping it tucked away in my I’d-rather-not-say collection.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: The End of 23

Twenty-three has been the hardest year of my life, straight up. And I say that with zero melodrama and with the common sense that there will be years ahead that are worse and years ahead that are better. I know many of you can relate. Maybe this is just our early twenties, or maybe this is just life—this pendulum swinging between the dark and light, wandering and arriving, wondering and knowing, grief and joy.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: How to Travel on a Post-Grad Budget, Part 2

As I said in my previous post—How to Travel on a Post-Grad Budget, Part 1—it is 180,000% possible to travel on a post-grad budget, and I will continue to defend this statement in a manner that is borderline aggressive.

Here are 4 more tips to help you save while traveling.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: How to Travel on a Post-Grad Budget, Part 1

It is 180,000% possible to travel on a post-grad budget, and I will defend this statement in a manner that is borderline aggressive.

The world wasn’t meant to be admired from a stock desktop wallpaper; it was meant to be experienced. This is another statement that I will defend in a manner that is borderline aggressive.

But traveling isn’t always easy on entry-level wages. Here’s how to see the world without breaking the bank.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Road Paved with Disappointment

You should just drive across the country,” she said lightheartedly, and laughter ensued. Drive across the country, what an absurd idea. But then the joke got taken one step too far and all of a sudden we were plotting about who would pay my rent for a month and where I could stop to stay the night in Oklahoma and Arizona and California. Suddenly, I was calling my parents and asking if I would still be allowed to come home for Christmas if I made a rather (arguably) reckless decision and drove my tired, thirteen-year-old car across the country. (It took some negotiation but I am, indeed, still allowed to come home.) We sat in a coffee shop for an hour and hammered out the plan and concluded that there really wouldn’t be one, that sometimes you have to take a leap, whether or not it looks like a promising landing, and whether or not people are going to speculate about where your mind might have run off to.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: 4 Tips to Overcome Post-Grad Regret

Just as you can imagine, college graduation season is packed with all the emotions. You feel relief, excitement, stress and pride. The emotion most people don’t associate with graduation and what I didn’t expect to feel, though, is regret.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: When You Want to Do Everything

In all seriousness, though, I felt like I had transported right back to where I was my senior year, caught in the in-between of trying to hold on so tightly to those last few months of my life as a student, and looking so forward to venturing out of it. But it brought back that old familiar, restless feeling—the same feeling I had when I got back from London, and when I first moved here—of wanting so many things and trying to figure out a way to make them all coexist.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Finding the Happiest Hour

Between stressing for Walter White’s father-of-the-year-campaign and my ambiguous job future, the happy hours continued. I have the utmost appreciation for these friends that took me out of my own darkness and enjoyed a beer or two. We treasured our three dollar drinks, our pita and chips, our half off cocktails, our half off wines, our chances to escape the pressures of “do you have a job yet?” and the looming student loan emails. The bitter hops of a summer ale washed away our problems, reminding us that if Emily Blunt and John Krasinksi found each other, we too can find jobs and futures that welcome us wholeheartedly.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: It's Okay That People Leave

It’s okay that people leave—I think that’s something we rarely hear anymore. Our emphasis so often heads toward the dramatic. Big fights, long-distance forgetfulness, regrets and bitterness over something that used to fill you with so much sweetness. But then there are the people who just left, or maybe you left them. Your lives took you in two different directions and you drifted.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Mountaintop Moments

Removed from the college bubble and re-planted in a new life, the field is wiped clean again. I have to again make a real, conscious decision about where I fit in and how I stack up. There seem to be metrics in place for who’s “winning” post-grad—high-power job? committed relationship? best apartment? coolest city?—but there’s no prize. New York is enormous, and social media is a daily tidal wave, and there have been days when I feel so small.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Today I Am On A Plane: The Move to New York City

One day ago I was in Long Lake, MN. My home for the past 22 years, the only home I've ever lived in, my safe haven.

Today I am on a plane.

I have realized there is a difference between dreaming your dreams and living them.

I have also realized how hard it is.

Health, Life, RelationshipsHannah ReedSeptember 19, 2018Featured, From the ArchivesComment

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Making Time for Yourself

We've published hundreds of stories from 100+ writers in the last three years, so we're highlighting some of these timeless posts in our new From the Archives series. Enjoy!

BUY 1, GET… AS MANY AS YOU WANT!

magazine Blog

Contact SUBMIT