Making Use of My “Fringe Hours”

As the summer goes on I’m finding it harder and harder to find time for my hobbies. It’s especially frustrating because I just finished reading “The Fringe Hours” by Jessica Turner. The premise of her book was that you will find the time to do the things you really want to. But what happens when you have competing things you want to do?

This summer I’ve been trying to spend time outside with my kids. We’re teaching them how to ride a two-wheeled bike, we play ball, go on walks, and we even went swimming one Sunday. It’s so much fun, but as an introvert, it’s hard to rewind. I don’t have so much time to myself and when I do, I’m so tired I can’t focus on the things i really want to do. My kids are also older, which means they’re going to sleep later. They used to all be sleeping by 8pm. Now I’m lucky if they’re all sleeping by 9:30!

I know some people wake up in the early hours of the morning, but I’m not sure I’d be able to pull that off. And even if I got up at 6am… would that be enough time for myself? By 7am I have to start getting the kids up and ready. Based on past experience it’s too hard to concentrate on what I want to do while I also need to focus on the kids and making sure they’re doing what they are supposed to.

So what I’ve been doing to combat this “issue” is to re-set expectations. I will not have a lot of alone time, I will not have as much time for hobbies and I will have to be OK with this. Maybe this will change when school starts and winter heads in, but maybe it won’t.

I will not regret spending too much time with my family.

I’m going day by day and as the book suggests, I’m making use of those fringe hours. The little pockets of time that get lost.

By the way, here is the book trailer:

note: there are Christian references throughout this book, but to me, the words of encouragement were worth reading.

Like I said, I changed my frame of mind- instead of not starting something because I only have 15 minutes, I quickly think of something I can accomplish in 15 minutes… like putting in a load of laundry, sweeping the floor or preparing camp/school snacks. Then, since I won’t have to do those things during my larger pockets of time, those long stretches are really longer, because I don’t also have something small to do.

Until next time,
Shaindy