How to Manage Recover While With a Jam-Packed Schedule

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How to Manage Recover While With a Jam-Packed Schedule

When you first go through addiction treatment, you will often put your recovery as your primary focus and devote a lot of your time to it. As time goes on and life gets busy again, you may get so focused on day-to-day responsibilities like work, school, or taking care of your children that your recovery maintenance is put on the back burner. This may start with things like skipping peer support group meetings or postponing meetings with your therapist. 

While these might not seem like significant things at first, in time, they can become a danger to your recovery. Taking steps to maintain your recovery, even with a jam-packed schedule, is crucial. Here are some tips to do just that. 

Understanding Why Recovery Maintenance Is Important 

Recovery maintenance is crucial no matter how many years you have been sober. It ensures that you are regularly putting effort and focus into your recovery. By doing this, you do not have to worry as much about a potential slip-up. By sticking to your recovery plan, you will be better equipped to handle temptations when they come your way. 

You also do not want to get to the point where you forget why you chose to get sober in the first place. When this happens, you may begin to enter the first stage of relapse, which is called emotional relapse. This is when you are not yet actively thinking about using drugs or alcohol, but you are making decisions that could be setting yourself up for a physical relapse down the road. 

Regularly attending peer support group meetings or therapy can also help when stressful situations occur in life. Since stress can potentially threaten sobriety when not handled appropriately or in a timely manner, it is crucial to make sure you are doing everything you can to alleviate it. 

Tips for Time Management in Recovery

If you feel like you barely have enough time to squeeze in recovery meetings or therapy, consider following these tips: 

#1. Get a planner, whether it be a physical book or kept on a digital device. 

Look at what you have going on at the start of the month and look for free time slots where you can fit in a recovery meeting. Maybe it is during your child’s sports practice or on a day when you have some time to mark it down and avoid scheduling anything else for that time slot. 

While sometimes things do come up that get in the way, consider this a high priority item and avoid rescheduling this meeting. If you do not think you can manage a physical meeting, you can check online for virtual meetings that may be held during a time when you will be available. Both Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) offer virtual meetings. 

#2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you feel overwhelmed. 

Close friends and family members are supposed to be supportive of your recovery and are likely going to want to do whatever they can to help ensure that you stick to your sobriety. Asking a friend to pick up your child from school or even asking a coworker to cover your shift for an hour so that you can attend a meeting is something that most people would not mind doing. 

#3. Write to-do lists at the start of each day. 

Consider what items are high priority and which are not. Put your recovery as one of your high-priority items. Look over the list and decide what absolutely must get done and what can wait for another day. For example, maybe you need to meet a deadline for work, but you do not necessarily have to make it to the cycling class you had scheduled. By omitting the class from your schedule, you may find that you have more time than you realized and really do have the time to fit in a meeting. 

#4. Remember to schedule daily stress-reducing activities. 

This is a form of self-care and is critical to your recovery in order to avoid a relapse. It can even be classified as a high-priority to-do item. Self-care is doing something that helps you care for your mental, physical, or emotional well-being. It could include spending some time out in nature, sharing a cup of coffee with a friend, or even watching an episode of your favorite show. 

#5. Be conscious of how much time you spend on your phone. 

Your phone, while useful, can be a huge timewaster if you are not careful how you use them. You may log in to social media with the intention of only scrolling for a few minutes, only to find that you scrolled for an hour or more. 

If you have a jam-packed schedule and often find yourself running from one thing to the next, it may be a little difficult to work in time to maintain your recovery. Do you find yourself skipping peer support group meetings or postponing therapy meetings? While it may not seem like this is a big deal, it can eventually lead to emotional relapse, which may lead to a physical relapse down the road. If you’re struggling to find the time for your recovery, consider investing in a planner and marking the times and dates for recovery meetings well in advance. This way, you’ll be more likely to keep the meeting. You also shouldn’t be afraid to ask those that support your recovery to help out periodically so you can make a meeting. If you’re struggling with substance use, our team at The Kimberly Center can help. Call (855) 452-3683 today. 

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