The (self-) Maintenance Team - October 2023

Occupational therapists spend a lot of time talking with people about how they spend their time; after all, we can learn a lot about the occupations people need to do, want to do, that give them a sense of meaning,  purpose, and connection to community by asking about how they use their time or want to use their time. For that reason, I wanted to use The (self-) Maintenance Team post for October to talk about how you're using your time and how that is connected to your health and wellbeing.

There's a framework for understanding our time usage that's well explored in business circles, but I've found it very helpful to these conversations about health and meaningful occupation. The concept is a time-management matrix, conceived of by Dwight D. Eisenhauer and popularized by Stephen R. Covey in his book The 7-Habits of Highly Effective People. It sorts the ways we use our time based on two domains - is it important/not-important and is it urgent/not-urgent - giving us a 4-quadrant matrix.

If you're interested in strategies for successful business leadership, I do recommend the 7-Habits book, but it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Even so, I think all of us can benefit from understanding this framework for how we use our time because it's not about efficiency; it's about using our time in ways that are in accordance with our values, goals, and priorities.

Feelings of overwhelm and burnout aren't about how busy we are, how many responsibilities we have, or how many hours of paid and unpaid work we do each week. After all, when we're busy and have a lot going on that is in alignment with our goals, values, and priorities, we notice that we're busy, but we experience it as exciting, challenging, and we are motivated to keep going. The thing that leads to overwhelm and burnout is when we don't feel that we have control over how our time is being used and that we are spending a lot of time, energy, or personal resources in service of tasks and priorities that are not in line with our own values and goals. 

In response to these circumstances, there are a variety of reactions that make the situation more stressful. Procrastination comes to mind; particularly challenging is "revenge bedtime procrastination," which short-changes your sleep (here's a blog post about why that's a big concern, if you're curious). We find ourselves numbing the mental pain by losing ourselves in pleasant distractions, but they do not serve our own values and goals either; they simply numb the pain and cognitive dissonance for a while.

That's where having a tool like this can be a helpful, and fairly easy, way to evaluate what's going on in your life. It gives you data to work from, rather than depending only on subjective impressions or feelings. How do you use it? Like this:

• Identify a day in your calendar next week that is "typical" for you. If you have a lot of variety in your days, then you may need to look at a typical week instead.
• For that day (or week) track what you're doing in each hour of your day; I suggest breaking it down even further (say every 30 minutes) if your day isn't characterized by a chunking of tasks.
• Do the tracking for the full 24-hour period - get a snapshot of how much time you're sleeping, eating, scrolling on your phone, at work, taking care of hygiene, taking care of family, commuting, walking the dog, etc.
• The follow day, or when you next have a chance, you're going to code your day according to the matrix so that each time interval has a 1, 2, 3, or 4.
• Then count - how many 1's, how many 2's etc.

There honestly isn't an ideal balance, but it can be very telling. If you're constantly putting out fires because of the number of quadrant 1 (urgent & important) issues you're having to deal with in a day, that level of intensity is going to be hard to sustain over time. You may need to look at what kinds of crises are coming up repeatedly and develop a plan to address them proactively. Not much invested in quadrant 2 (important & not-urgent)? That tells you that you're reacting to things as they come up, rather than making intentional choices to invest in yourself, your relationships, and your goals. Quadrant 3 (urgent & not-important) filled with more time than you expected? That suggests that you may need better boundaries, to say no, to delegate. And lots in quadrant 4 (not-important & not-urgent) can indicate someone who simply has a lot of time on their hands (in which case, you're probably not feeling overwhelmed) or you are on the struggle bus and are numbing your pain.

It's important to remember that there is nothing wrong with spending time on activities that would fall into quadrants 1, 3, and 4 - we all have obligations, unexpected crises, and a desire to have some rest and relaxation. So, don't judge yourself for how you've used your time; as I noted earlier, this isn't about optimizing your time for efficiency. Instead, it's helpful to adopt an attitude of curiosity about your life and to use this tool as a way to collect some data. Ultimately, you get to decide whether how you're using your time is in keeping with your priorities, goals, and values; if you suspect that you're not, this matrix will tell you what activities in your day are syphoning off the limited resource of your time and give you some information about what approach might help you to reclaim it.

If you try this exercise, let me know in the comments what you learned!

If you're feeling overwhelmed or burned out, I encourage you to talk to a mental health support to explore what in your life is contributing to those feelings. And if you live in Alberta, Canada, you're welcome to make an appointment with me through my website - Calder Mental Health Services. We can look at how you're using your time and I can also support you in exploring your values, goals, and priorities to help you find a better path forward.

Personally, I've been trying to invest more time in quadrant 2 by joining a gym! I notice that my mental and physical health are so much better when I'm strength training, so I've made it a priority to take proactive steps that will support my long term health. I'll admit that I've not always been consistent with getting to the gym in the past, but when I recently did my own time-use matrix I realized that it was the best investment I could make right now for quality of life and longevity as I get older.

What are your current quadrant 2 activities? Where are you investing your time for long-term outcomes?

I hope you make some time for your own self-care this month!

Petrina