Weekly Substitute Challenge
Before I get into talking about my weekly substitute challenge I want to make something clear. However you want or need to spend this lockdown period is fine.
If you are spending this time resting, managing the many emotions you are experiencing and just trying to survive, that’s good! There’s no blueprint for how this time is to be spent. No right or wrong way to do this.
This is just about a way I am coping and surviving, and it’s in no way a comment on how you should spend this time. If it inspires you to do something similar then great, but if it feels daunting and unhelpful then just move on and do something that is helpful for you at this time.
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A friend and I have been talking about all the bad habits we have picked up during lockdown. We’re baking a lot, so we’re eating a lot of cake and junk. I’m fact we’ve been eating more full stop.
We’ve been spending more time on social media and watching TV. Just generally doing things that aren’t very helpful.
So together we’ve come up with our own plan on how to make a small change and spend this time a bit more wisely.
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What is the Weekly Substitute Challenge?
What we decided to do was substitute some of the unhelpful things we were doing with something that better serves us. Something that improves us in some way.
Instead of eating junk every day we have shelved the junk and left that for weekends only. Instead of watching TV we are spending time working on something good.
Here’s a few tips if you fancy doing something similar.
Set a realistic time limit
The first thing to think about is how long you want to substitute each day, and make it realistic. You can’t never watch TV again, or never go on social media again. Those things are still good things to have in your life and it’s not bad to enjoy them.
Have a think about what your day looks like and find a slot of time that you can dedicate to something else. For me I’ve chosen the time between finishing work and eating dinner.
I don’t have a lot of free time during the day. I work, eat, sleep, repeat. My weekdays are pretty full up and I don’t have a massive amount of time, or energy, to do a lot. But there’s some time in my day that I could use differently.
So I’ve dedicated 30 minutes every weekday to doing something productive, between work and dinner, and I’m doing it with a close friend of mine so we can support each other through it.
Remember, it needs to be an attainable goal, otherwise you won’t be able to achieve it and it will make you feel worse. Pick a reasonable amount of time that isn’t going to stretch you.
Choose something that is important to you
You can spend this time doing anything that you want, but it’s not going to serve you unless it’s something that you actually care about.
What is the point in pushing yourself to exercise if getting fit isn’t important to you? Why learn to paint if you don’t like art? Why learn a language if you never plan to use it?
You may feel like there are many things you SHOULD be using your time for, but it’s really not worth it if it’s not something that you want to do deep down. Forcing yourself to do something is going to make you miserable, and you’ll dread this time that is supposed to add something to your life (not take something away).
My activity of choice right now is reading my Bible. My faith is something that is really important to me, and something I always want to be working on. I love spending time with God, reading the word and getting to know Him more every day. That’s not going to appeal to everyone, but to me that is the best use of my time right now.
Find something that is as important to you, as reading the Bible is to me. Find something that will actively improve your life, not because it should but because you want it to.
Switch it up
You don’t have to do the same thing every week, or even every day. Switch it up a bit.
Maybe you spend Monday, Wednesday and Friday practicing your guitar, but give your fingers a break to recover on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These days could be spent learning a dance routine or reading.
You could alternate, spend one week working on one skill and the next on another, swapping between the two. Or keep going and see how many different new things you can try.
It’s really up to you, you make the rules. For me, I’m trying to also spend my time learning German bit by bit, and blogging. So some days I read my Bible for less time in order to spend some time doing something else.
Have fun with it!
Rest days
We’ve decided to make the weekends our rest days. Days when we aren’t expected to be productive for any amount of time, so we can truly relax and unwind.
I still manage to do my 30 minutes over the weekend, in fact I can quite easily exceed that time because I have so many more hours to use up when I don’t have to work. But the pressure is off, and I don’t want to feel guilty if I just need a day to do nothing after a whole week of work.
Make sure you plan in your guilt free rest days too!
First week reflection
After trying out our weekly substitute challenge for the first week both of us feel amazing. We are more motivated, more energetic (or as much as I can be anyway) and just generally happier. It has made the world of difference.
In lockdown we really need all the little victories we can get. With just 30 minutes a day, I’ve already found more victories than I could have ever dreamed of.
Although I will hold my hands up here and confess that after 5 full days of no chocolate, I definitely made up for it over the weekend!
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What would you work on for your substitute? Feel free to share in the comments below, and let me know if you’ve ever tried something like this weekly substitute challenge (and how it made you feel.)
Stay safe!
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20 Comments
Simon D. Gary
I love this article.
As a practitioner of Continuous Improvement, I know the value of doing something small, every day. It soon adds up into something great.
I agree, you don’t need to pick anything that others consider “worthy.” Just something that is inherently you.
Authenticity is at the heart of mental welling.
Thank you for sharing your article.
Philippa Claire
Thank you, I’m glad you found something in this that resonated with you 🙂 It’s not about pressure it’s just about making time for you!
Kelly Diane
This is such a good idea. I definitely think I might give it a go myself. There are so many things that I want to do but never feel like I’ve got enough time. However, like you, if I set aside a bit of time every evening, I think I could achieve it. Thank you for sharing.
Philippa Claire
It can be overwhelming thinking about all the things you want to get done, so much so that it can be paralyzing. But just chosing one thing and setting aside a small amount of time each day for that one thing can make a huge amount of difference 🙂
J.C. Maine
Great post. I need to swap some of my procrastinating ways with doing something more productive during this lockdown.
Philippa Claire
This has really helped me get through it and do some more useful things for sure 🙂
Aimsy
This is a great idea! Lockdown is just something we haven’t experienced before isn’t it? There are no rules to how you should do it, but having a bit of balance really helps. I am trying to set at least 30 mins a day to do gentle exercise (stepping /dancing on the spot to music) just to get moving a bit.
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Philippa Claire
That’s a great idea! It doesn’t have to be anything massive or daunting, sometimes just changing something small can make all the difference 🙂
Unwanted Life
I’m not sure what I’d substitute, at the moment I’m just trying to find a way to manage my hypos which seems to no longer be working. Which just makes everything harder than it needs to be. I’ve been trying to do some resistance band based exercise, but again, it causes hypos, so it’s a lot of hard work
Philippa Claire
There’s no pressure here, you’re health is way more a priority than something like this and I think the most important thing is that you’re trying. You can only do what you can do 🙂
Ariana
These are great tips! I have a couple things I could work on, but it’s a process.
Philippa Claire
Absolutely! It’s more important right now to take care of ourselves, I just wanted to share something that was helping me through but it isn’t going to be for everyone. I hope you’re doing okay and finding the things that make you feel good and get you through these crazy days. Sending you all of the love!
Lu Reviews Books
Great post. I really like this idea. Here at home we are trying to eat healthy foods and to keep as active as possible.
Philippa Claire
That’s great! There’s no pressure to make any major changes, just doing what you can is enough 🙂
Adam
This is such a great idea. I’ve been up and down, some days have been productive, but like most people some days have just felt hard, and I’ve ended up sitting in front of the tv eating snacks.
Philippa Claire
There’s nothing wrong with looking after yourself on days that are hard, that’s more important especially right now. Make sure you’re looking after yourself.
Britt K
This is a great idea! I recently purchased a Pinterest course that I would like to work through, so I think I am going to try this moving forward this week and make my ‘substitute’ doing the course work/watching the videos. That would be a much better use of my time than the Netflix binges that I’ve been getting sucked into recently lol
Philippa Claire
That’s a great idea! Although there’s nothing wrong with spending time watching Netflix, some times you need a duvet and TV day and there’s nothing wrong with that! I hope you do manage to find some time to do your Pinterest course though 🙂
Lisa Marie Alioto
Love that you’ve put some thought into how you want to spend this time. It’s easy to let it go to “wasteful” things. Productivity will help us feel good during these times; and schedules really help with that
Philippa Claire
Definitely! Especially with our routines all being mixed up right now. It’s been good to add a bit more structure back into my day.