How many hours have you left in a day after all your commitments?

Occupations include productivity, self-care and leisure. I do my best for occupational balance.

My semester break begins. I have time to reflect and write again.

Over the past couple of months, I basically studied all the time when I wasn’t involved in teaching yoga. I declined family and friends gatherings and also lost a bit of sleep. I wouldn’t be able to push myself so hard to learn without studying a master degree. In return, I learned prognosis of the most common diseases in Australia and how different health conditions impacted individual’s daily living, as well as framework of occupational therapy.

A lot of knowledge and learning experiences worth sharing but one comes to my mind - occupational imbalance. In occupational therapy, occupation doesn’t only mean jobs. It includes productivity (e.g. jobs), leisure and self-care. Occupational imbalance refers to an individual’s lifestyle without meeting satisfactory level of his/her physical, psychological and social needs.

We had an interesting activity in class. List all activities you do and the time required in your typical day. Everyone is different, but this is a general idea of how much time adults spend on productivity and self-care in a day.

• Sleep (8 hours)
• Work (8 hours)
• 3 meals (2 hours)
• Personal hygiene, toileting, showering and dressing (2 hours)

Then, you have 4 hours left in a day to drive between home and workplace, care of kids, pets and others in the family, preparing meals, etc. All these tasks are about your roles and responsibilities. That’s not leisure.

During the weekend, you have 16 hours to do home maintenance and financial management (buy groceries, clean the toilet, mop the floor, do washing and pay the bills). These are the routines and I haven’t yet mentioned any ad hoc life events, seeing GP, specialists, etc.  

These tasks are part of our life in a modern lifestyle. I don’t think I can change much about it unless I pay for someone to do it. I now study full time and need to save money for my yoga dream. Probably it is not a good option for me. I just think how lucky I was as a teenager/young adult that my family took up a lot of responsibilities so I could be able to enjoy my leisure time.

It’s important to keep track of the time and be fair to our body and mind. How much time do you spend for your leisure? Do you have one hour for yourself each day (1 out of 24) and simply do something you enjoy rather than something you have to get it done? This may not happen to you right now. Sometimes life is out of control. However, it’s important to be aware of it and plan for leisure. Things can get better. At the end of the day, we all want happy and healthy life. It's all about balance. 

Find occupational balance in our own way. Yoga is a self-healing process, improving physical and mental wellbeing. Body movement and mindfulness connect body and mind. Gardening offers you social support networks and daily routines. In the meantime, you have an opportunity to enjoy the sun and fresh air. Simply having a cuppa and a good chat with friends improve quality of life.  Little smiles add up. These are all important elements to balance your life, taking up responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed and depressed.
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Of course, personal growth and/or career development is important too. In fact, this is part of the mental wellbeing. Human beings can’t live without hopes and dreams. Little achievement is an achievement. After all commitments, let’s squeeze some time for consistent work. Let’s squeeze some time for leisure.

How do you find time for leisure? Would love to get some more ideas!

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