TIME: A Not-Strictly-Medical Reflection

By Dr Katie Kent.

We generally know what we need to do to stay healthy, but one of the biggest barriers is finding the TIME to focus on our wellbeing.

Peri/menopause is a point in all our lives where we can actually massively manipulate how healthy we are likely to be going forward – we can help protect our bones from osteoporosis, our brains from dementia, our hearts from cardiovascular disease and reduce our chances of diabetes and other chronic diseases. 

One talk from the 2021 AMS Congress was given by psychologist Len Kling, called “Tick, tock, befriend your Clock!”, and included information about Steven Covey’s time management matrix (it’s worth a google). It was suggested to write down what we do with our hours in each day. Be honest, be truthful…

Steven Covey’s Time Management Matrix

I have now limited my time on social media (big time). I realised I was focussing on non-urgent, non-important tasks in my ‘free time’ and avoiding the looming big (and sometimes boring) important tasks putting them off until they became URGENT and then feeling under pressure to complete.

For me personally being realistic about what I actually did with the time I wasn’t at work allowed me now to realise I do have some extra time each day to forward plan (and avoid last minute stress), to go out for some exercise, to do some relaxation and actually taking the time to do this hasn’t made me more stressed at all.

Looking at what actually was IMPORTANT to achieve and allocating time for this (for me by reducing social media time and getting up ½ hr earlier) made me realise we do all have the same number of hours in each day. Using even 15 minutes to sit quietly, read a book, go for a walk actually makes you more productive not less.

We all have the same number of hours in the day, we all have different pressures and commitments but we are all worth trying to find that window of time (however tiny) we can focus on ourselves.

What is WellFemme About?

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WellFemme is Australia’s first dedicated Telehealth menopause clinic, servicing locations nationwide including: Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Darwin, Perth, Hobart, Brisbane, Dubbo, Bendigo, Broken Hill, Broome, Alice Springs, Launceston, Cairns, Mildura, Lightning Ridge, Kalgoorlie, Albany, Toowoomba, Charleville, Port Headland, Katherine, Ballarat, Coober Pedy, Bourke, Albury… and your place! 🙂