Thursday reflections on Rule #7: Take one night for you

This week the Tranquility by Tuesday Challenge has been focusing on Rule #7: Take one night for you. Taking a few hours each week to do something that is not work, and is not caring for family members, makes life feel more sustainable and joyful. Committing to something that happens at around the same time each week boosts the benefit by reducing the mental load and increasing the anticipation factor.

If you’ve been following along with the challenge, here are a few questions to help you reflect on this rule:

  • Did you take a few hours off from work and home responsibilities this week? What did you do with this time?
  • If you didn’t take this “night for you” this week, do you have an idea for what you might do during an upcoming week?
  • What effects did you see from taking a few hours for your interests?
  • What challenges did you face in trying to take a night for you? How did you address these challenges?
  • Did you modify this strategy? How?
  • How likely are you to continue using this rule in your life?

We are nearing the end of the Tranquility by Tuesday challenge! I hope you’ve been continuing to follow the other rules from previous weeks:

  • Did you observe a bedtime this week?
  • Did you plan your week on Fridays? (And will you be planning tomorrow?)
  • Did you move by 3 p.m. most days?
  • Did you do a chosen activity three times this week?
  • Did you build in a back-up slot, or open space more generally?
  • Did you have one big adventure and one little adventure?

I’ll be at choir practice tonight, though I actually wound up having several other personally fun hours this week. I flew down to Ft. Lauderdale on Monday and met up with Sarah to discuss Best of Both Words business. We spent lots of time planning out the next few months, but also went out for dinner twice (once with Josh!), ran along the water, and I did a solo barefoot run on the beach Wednesday morning (see picture; it was a Sarah work day). It was a fun and productive (if short) getaway — one I definitely needed. It was a tough re-entry yesterday with the toddler being incredibly indecisive about which pajamas he wanted to wear. He changed his mind back and forth multiple times, after which I declared he was sleeping in one of them, which was of course the worst possible one (he decided) and he needed to scream about that for a long time…

2 thoughts on “Thursday reflections on Rule #7: Take one night for you

  1. This is one I need to re-visit. I had this locked and loaded pre-pandemic as i swam with a triathlon swim group twice a week but have not picked up something regular since then. Although i still make lots of time for exercise, it’s mostly solo and i am missing social time so if i was to add something I think i would like that to be social in nature. Thanks for helping me think this one out. It’s a work in progress.

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