Room Service: The Joys of Delayed Gratification

After discussing taking advantage of unexpected free moments by planning ahead, I wanted to talk about planning for the expected moments in your day.  In order to accomplish this, it is up to yourself individually to figure out what constitutes a Daily Vacation to you.

For some, being on vacation means having breakfast on a pretty tray while you read the morning news.  If this is the case, then put together your pretty tray the night before with everything but the food.  In the morning, you can whip up a quick omelet or pour some cereal, sit back with your newspaper, and really feel relaxed before launching into your day.

Being on vacation may also mean getting into a nicely made, fresh smelling bed at night.  To achieve this, take the pillowcase that you lay your head on, wet it, and hang it out to dry - voila! that fresh laundry scent you remember from childhood.  Then just be sure to make your bed ahead of bedtime.

Perhaps being outside on a nice day is your idea of a vacation.  When planning your schedule, put a time for this right into the day.  Let the whole family know that at specific time that day you are going outside - to splash in the kiddie pool in the backyard, ride bikes at the park, do a puzzle on the front porch, or even just be by yourself if your kids are old enough or you don't have any.

There are so many ways that you can incorporate a Daily Vacation into your schedule.  However, almost all of them have a common factor: scheduling and delayed gratification.  We do this all the time for regular vacations, so why not for our daily routines?  Put a little extra effort in the morning, or the afternoon, or the night before, and so that you can check off some of the "want tos" on your list.  This will especially come into play once we start exploring all the Local Destinations around our own homes that we could be enjoying if we just got out there and did things that don't belong on the "have to" list.

So set up a tray the night before, so you can make yourself breakfast in bed the next morning.  Clean the house on Monday, so you can read a book on Tuesday.  Help your child with their science project on Thursday evening, so you can watch a movie on Friday evening.  Daily Vacations are not about skipping over things you should be doing so you can have fun, rather they are about prioritizing to make sure you are getting time for yourself in the middle of everything.