Take some time: Renewal for nurses

Step 3: Take Back Your Time

This is where the fun begins. Let go of time-consuming activities that don’t fit in with your priorities and replace with what you feel is missing from your life. (Remember The New List in step 1? Here’s how it becomes The Now List.)

Declutter your schedule

First, go back to The Old List. Is there anything you could eliminate or delegate to someone else? This may not be easy, but give it a try. At work, can you resolve to leave your shift on time no matter what? “Put it in your calendar that you are going to leave at 7 p.m.,” suggests Roffe. At home, could your partner help with the food shopping, take over the laundry, make dinner a few times a week or clean part of the house? By delegating things you don’t really care about, you’ll make time for those you do value.

Cut out the trivial

Start keeping track of how much time you spend doing little activities here and there, such as answering email, watching TV or politely enduring chatty colleagues. You might be amazed by the number of minutes you fritter away. Decide which you could live without and then immediately begin to reduce or eliminate the time you spend on them. “Office gossip is a huge time suck,” says DeWindt. “I try to avoid it and find I stay much more focused on the job.”

Say no

“When I’m coaching a new client, I ask them to list how often they say yes to requests and how often they say no. Nurses are always astounded by the number of yeses,” says Roffe. To make more time for yourself and your family, try saying no more often: No, I can’t help at the school bake sale. No, I’m sorry, I can’t take a holiday shift. I wish I could, but no, I can’t organize the high school reunion. “Once you begin to set boundaries on your time, you may be surprised by how much control you actually have over it,” says Roffe.

Reexamine your job

If your job still feels unmanageable, maybe you need a new one. Take another look at your mission statement. If you want more flexibility, look for a job where you can schedule your own shifts. If you prefer less chaos, consider working in an OR or ICU. “In general, the more intense the care, the more structured the environment,” says Lorraine Afflitto, 56,a nurse practitioner and an adjunct faculty member at NYU College of Nursing.

When a job takes a lot of your time and doesn’t support your goals, it’s time to make a switch. “If you’re not happy at work, you will feel frazzled and eventually will burn out,” says Mindi Nahoum, an RN and a nurse manager for endovascular surgery at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City. “You need to find your niche.”

Schedule downtime and fun time

Now that you’ve freed up some room in your life, you can schedule a few of those things you’ve been longing to do: belly dancing class on Thursday evening, dinner out on Saturday night, an hour with a novel on Sunday afternoon. “Nursing can be an intense, emotional job. You need healthy outlets,” says Afflitto. Then—and this is the really important part—actually mark them in your calendar. Send a quick email or text message to a friend to make plans to go to the theater or grab a coffee. Scheduling your fun will ensure that it actually happens. And isn’t that the point?