HOW TO MAKE ‘ΜΕ’ TIME

When you're committed to work, family and countless other demands, there's often little to no time left for 'you'. Robyn MacLarty has a few tips to help you to take back control.

Ever since it caught on in the noughties, the expression 'me time' always made me E cringe a little. It smacked of self-indulgence, a manic preoccupation with regular pedicures, as well as a new generation that seemed to favour well-being over getting what needs doing, done.

Convinced this sort of sentiment did not align with multitasking, never-say-no types such as myself, it's perhaps not surprising that I hit a wall, circa 2020. After simmering in a spicy stew of stress and a back-breaking workload for several years, I experienced total burnout, and was forced to face the mortifying realisation that I was subject to the same human frailties as everyone else.

The thing is if we don't prioritise our 'self-care' (me-time's cousin), chances are good that life will do it for us, via a rift in a relationship, illness, a professional disaster, or some other form of 'nervy-B', as one of my delightfully sarcastic friends likes to refer to a nervous breakdown. That's if we're lucky. If not, the best we can hope for is to stagger through life a frazzled, sweaty, resentful hot mess, wondering where the time, and our happiness, went.

'Many people, especially women, battle to put themselves first because they have been taught not to,' says Johannesburg-based life and career coach Penny Holburn.