Can Project 333 improve your work-life balance?

Things have been a bit busy lately – that is certainly proven by the fact that I haven’t put up a blog post for almost a month. My mind may be brimming with things to say about my Project 333 activities but I never seem to have the time to get them all down on paper – or screen. Since we returned from a trip to Germany and Austria I’ve been hard at work editing and proofreading, the time just flies past.

There are lots of other things that I want to do – in addition to building my business, so I decided that I would have to start planning some personal time into the day’s schedule. They say it takes three weeks for something to form a habit and I’m hoping that this will prove to be true. It’s only been a week so far, so too early to say. I thought about three things that I wanted to do every day but that always seem to slip by: get fit, play the clarinet and learn a new language.

There is no doubt that I need to lose a bit of weight (who doesn’t?) and get fit. You’d think that living in the beautiful Limousin countryside would be a healthy lifestyle, but the truth is I can spend eight or nine hours a day in front of the computer and I always seem to have a day off when it’s raining. The answer, I decided, was to get some exercise equipment. Obviously, this is not really in line with the minimalism project and I’m sure the purists would be out jogging in the rain. However, I followed the advice on one of my favourite American blogs – Mr Money Moustache – and bought a secondhand exercise bike and treadmill; two great pieces of equipment for €100.

 

The next problem was trying to fit a bit of exercise into the daily routine- not just my routine, but that of the household: OH, Bumble and the Cat. After trying a few different slots, I finally decided that the spare half an hour between finishing work and starting to cook supper was ideal. I usually waste spend this time on Facebook. It has taken just over a week to build up to 30 minutes of exercise – either on the treadmill or a mixture of both.

Our trip last trip in the campervan inspired me to brush up my German, especially as we have another tour planned for the Netherlands and Denmark. So, whilst I am pedalling away furiously on the exercise bike or power walking on the treadmill I listen to an episode of Coffee Break German on my phone. Multi-tasking! My third target was to incorporate regular clarinet practice into the day. I haven’t managed to get a regular time slot for this yet, so I often have to fit it in between the national news and my favourite French soap Plus Belle La Vie. Where does Project 333 come in, you may ask? Well, my target is to do 33 minutes of each of the 3 different activities every day.