How to Fit More ‘Me Time’ Into Your Schedule
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your Money Briefing for Monday, June 12th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal.
Why is 'me time' often squeezed out of busy schedules?
For many people, once they subtract the time needed for their job, the kids, the household chores, that doesn't leave much, if any, left over for me time. But time to yourself doesn't have to be so elusive.
I think sometimes we have unreasonable expectations. We think this like perfect moment is going to come, you know, where it's total quiet and it's just going to feel like this relaxation descending upon us. And what I heard from folks, especially one career coach told me was like, it doesn't feel like that.
We'll talk to Wall Street Journal work and life columnist Rachel Feinsick about the value of me time after the break.
For a lot of people, the daily time commitments of work and family life leave little room for me time. But why do men win the me time battle more than women? Wall Street Journal Work and Life columnist Rachel Feinzig joins me to discuss the importance of me time in your schedule and tips for adding it in.
Why do women report less leisure time than men even with similar jobs?
So, Rachel, why is it more of a challenge for women to find me time than men?
What I heard from folks was that there's a little bit of a double standard. There's this societal expectation that men's main job is to be a breadwinner. So when they get home from work, everything else is just kind of extra. And when women get home from work, their actual job starts, which is taking care of the kids and the house. And again, I mean, this is a broad generalization. It's not like this for every couple, but these are kind of the cultural messages that many of us have absorbed and that kind of feed into feelings of guilt among women, for example, and leave people feeling really stretched.
Does this idea of men and women having different levels of ease of bringing in me time, does it have to do with what their career is?
How do cultural expectations and household roles affect me time?
Not necessarily, because what we see from this recent Pew data that I included in the story and that helped to kind of inspire it is that even when making similar amounts of income, men still get about three and a half hours more leisure time per week. And that's true when women are breadwinners. As well, men are getting even more extra leisure time per week. So I don't think it necessarily has to do with our careers. We've certainly seen more female breadwinners in the United States in recent years. I think it kind of goes deeper than that.
So what can women learn from men in terms of fitting me time into their schedule?
A lot of the men that I talked to talked about just going, just prioritizing this, recognizing that it's so important to get this kind of me time, this kind of leisure time so that they can be better fathers, better workers. Also this idea, I think that not everything has to be perfect. I talked to this one dad who goes mountain biking and he was like, you know, if I come home a little bit late... And I don't get a chance to start fixing dinner until a little bit on the late side. No one's going to die, you know? And I think that's good advice for everyone to keep in mind that it is worth prioritizing this, even if it makes some of the other stuff feel a little bit less perfect.
So having a bit of a flexible schedule at home, that can actually help here.
Yeah. And I think also having a flexible approach to leisure.
What practical habits do men use to prioritize leisure that others can copy?
Again, this guy that I talked to who's a devout mountain biker, he doesn't have set days per week which he goes, which when we think about habit forming is kind of a frequent piece of advice. And actually, when I started swimming with a girlfriend of mine this past year, I was like – Oh, we need to pick a day like a Monday. That way we will commit to it. That's just not possible for a lot of people that have really busy lives. I have found in this guy that I was talking to also found that actually being flexible, kind of fitting your leisure time in around other people. their obligations because you're not going to not go to your kid's dance recital or you probably shouldn't, you know, skip your kid's dance recital.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:10
2
Why is 'me time' often squeezed out of busy schedules?
0:10–1:18
3
Why do women report less leisure time than men even with similar jobs?
1:18–2:00
4
How do cultural expectations and household roles affect me time?
2:00–3:16
5
What practical habits do men use to prioritize leisure that others can copy?
3:16–4:51
6
How can flexible scheduling and realistic expectations help you fit in me time?
4:51–5:31
7
What accountability strategies (friends, classes, payments) increase follow-through?
5:31–6:06
8
How does skipping me time impact burnout, creativity, and relationships?
6:06–6:32
Speakers
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