Stepping off lifes treadmill for a few days!

Having not been able to work for a few years now, my average week has taken on very different connotations. With regular hospital visits and my weekly volunteering, and football on Saturdays, a new pattern has emerged. It is still a routine, but a different routine.

I have also noticed an email routine! I am very busy Mon-Thursday. sporadic on Friday, nothing much over the w/end.Even Twitter and Facebook go quiet then. The only emails that are busy in this period are marketing ones! It was interesting to see even this routine change, as those people that work, started finishing early on Thursday, ready for their long Easter w/end.

Is it that our social networking is now done in work time? I can see with the activity on my blog. that most of the viewings take place during working hours. Accept of course in the NHS, where social networking sites are blocked as a rule!!!

Even I have become a slave to my smart phone, and I can almost tell you what day of the week we are on by the amount of email /social network traffic. I read into this situation, that personal time is very important.Whenever I am travelling about, I see people beavering away on their phones. Does this mean that even social networking slows down when people are away from work?

I am old enough to remember, Sunday being a day of rest. People would generally  spend their day with family, going to church, and enjoying their free time together.This was a day that became dedicated to families.

Once our society decided that we needed shops to be open seven days a week, slowly our family time became eroded, and one day blended into the next. Is that what we really want? Sure it is convenient, to buy a pint of milk at anytime of the day or night, but isn't our social time more important than that? I wonder if the opportunity to turn sunday back into a free day ever came, if people would decide to change it back

I mention the above because this Easter, really felt like a holiday. Maybe because it had Fri/Mon, but I could sense that my friends who work, were beginning to unwind and enjoy themselves. Everyone I talked to seemed more relaxed. Over the four day break we managed a mixture of things. We did our normal chores, went to football, (which is a chore these days!!) spent a family day, with sons and grandaughter, and finally went to a 60th birthday party with some good friends.

It was wonderful to catch up with people and talk in a relaxed way. I am aware that we have a few Bank Holidays coming up, so that working people will again have an opportunity to unwind, but it made me think about the importance of recreation in our lives. I am not really convinced that we appreciate it's true value to our wellbeing.

We have all got used to chasing about in life, and that pattern has tended to follow us in our social lives too! How often does it now take a gap of months before you can make an arrangement with people? They're busy, you're busy, family coming round, holidays etc. It seems that we barely have time to breath.

Sometimes, you need to be disciplined, and take time, for you and the people who matter most to you. We all seem to like to tell people how busy we are, but we do need to take a step back at times and evaluate our lives. We are not machines, and we do need to be stimulated by things other than work. Yes, work is important, but so is play! We need to spend quality family time too, and not just squeeze them in.

Everyone would say that they want more time, and I for one know that it isn't going to happen. Maybe the trick to a happier life is better personal time management?? Possibly a bit more personal discipline to make more time for the things that are important. A good use of down time is important for our personal health and well being too. Lets not forget that!!

Do you agree with me?? I would love to hear from you about your views.