How to make space for a Teabreak when life is already full

I would love to tell you the secret to taking more time for yourself is creating a beautiful little corner with a comfy chair, perfect lighting and shelves full of neatly arranged craft supplies.

It sounds lovely.

It is also another project.

And I suspect the last thing most of us need is a twelve-step plan for creating the perfect place in which to relax.

So this is not about finding more space in your life.

It is about making the space you already have easier to use.

Start ridiculously small

You do not need a craft room.

You need somewhere to put your cup.

The end.

The end of the dining table is enough. A corner of the sofa. The garden chair. Your bed with a tray across your lap.

Choose somewhere you already naturally sit.

The easier it is, the more likely you are to actually use it.

Keep the useful bits together

One of the quickest ways to lose a Teabreak is this:

You sit down.

Open the project.

Realise you need scissors.

Get up.

Find the scissors.

Notice the dishwasher.

Empty the dishwasher.

Put something away.

Remember the washing.

Forty minutes later you are doing household jobs and your untouched craft is still on the table.

So make it difficult to wander off.

A little bag, basket or tray with the basics is enough.

Scissors. A pencil. Glue if you commonly need it. Reading glasses. Whatever your usual useful bits are.

The Teabreak tote is ideal for this, but any basket will do.

The important thing is that when you decide to stop, stopping does not create another list of jobs first.

Don’t make setting up part of the hobby

I have been reminded of this myself recently.

Since Teabreak moved into its own premises, we have our dining room back at home. My sewing machine lives there, and for the first time in a couple of years I got it back out.

Simply being able to reach it made me want to use it again.

Nothing profound had happened.

There was just less friction between I fancy doing that and actually doing it.

That is what we are aiming for.

You do not need the perfect set-up.

You just want to remove a few of the tiny barriers that make starting feel like effort.

Let twenty minutes be enough

Another trap is deciding there is no point starting unless you have plenty of time.

If you only have twenty minutes, use twenty minutes.

If you only get as far as making your tea and choosing your colours, that counts.

If you make half the project and come back next week, also counts.

The Hummingbird police will not be visiting.

A Teabreak is not valuable because of how much you accomplish during it.

It is valuable because, for a little while, you chose to be there.

Give it a place in the diary

Some of my favourite messages from Hummingbirds are the ones that say:

I put my Teabreak in the calendar.

They told everyone else.

They made the drink.

Lit the candle.

Opened the cake.

Put the playlist on.

And took it seriously.

Not seriously in a solemn way.

Seriously in the same way we treat everybody else’s appointments: as something that has a right to exist.

Try it.

Put twenty or thirty minutes in your calendar.

You do not have to label it “IMPORTANT SELF-CARE APPOINTMENT”.

“Tea” will do.

But protect it.

Leave ordinary life where it is

You do not have to prepare the house for your Teabreak.

This may be the most important bit.

There can be mugs by the sink.

The washing can stay in the basket.

There may be people elsewhere in the house.

You are not creating a perfect bubble outside real life.

You are learning to make a little room for yourself inside it.

Pop the kettle on.

Move whatever is currently occupying one chair.

Sit down.

That is enough space.