How Effective Time Management Changed This Member’s Diabetes Journey
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Pranati Deshpande
When we think of diabetes, we often think about unhealthy diet, family history and lack of exercise as primary causes. But, did you know poor time management can also be one of the leading causes for deranged blood sugar levels? Let’s understand more about the importance of time management for diabetes by taking a small walkthrough in one of our member’s journey with us – Ms Naina* (name changed on member’s request)
The Curious Case of Ms Naina
Naina is a 46-year-old woman residing in Mumbai. She is married and has two children. Eight years ago, she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and has been taking regular medications for controlling her blood sugar levels ever since.
She works from home as an assistant manager for a tech company. During the pandemic, she witnessed a gradual increase in blood sugar levels and observed that her HbA1c levels moved from 6.5 to 9.3. Like millions of others worldwide, she was experiencing issues with work-life balance as she had to manage household chores, take care of her children and the elders in the family. A hectic work routine and erratic schedules, this further added to her health. She knew her blood sugar levels were in a bad state and that she was stressed too. But she just couldn’t figure out what she was doing wrong and why she was not able to manage it.
Her Fitterfly Journey!
Finally her deranged blood sugar levels rang alarm bells in her mind and around the same time she got to know about Fitterfly. So, she visited us at Fitterfly. After understanding her full history, we assured her condition could be managed by our team of in-house expert coaches. And thus began her journey at Fitterfly.
During the initial session, Naina revealed the hardships she faced when both her parents passed away due to diabetes related health complications. Knowing how the disease can affect families led her to take extra precaution. But it also started impacting her physical health and her social life and relationships too.
Our Analysis of her situation
After a detailed history and psychological analysis session with Naina, we were able to narrow down her main areas of concern, which were:
- Her inability to manage time
- Her inability to prioritise self against work
- Lack of motivation.
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Our Strategy for helping her
Based on the detailed analysis, we helped set objectives for her, which in the short and long-term, would help lower her blood sugar levels and enable her to maintain it within the normal range easily. Two primary objectives set forth for her were:
- Effective time management
- Relaxation
What We Did At Fitterfly for Naina
Naina’s intervention plan included the following:
1) Time management techniques
She was suggested a few ways of time management to free up space in her routine and mind. A few of these include:
2) Creating a daily task list
Writing down the daily tasks related to work, household chores and health. For example, she was asked to divide her daily tasks into headers and enlist the tasks she has to do each day.
For example:
- Work – Sending emails, making calls, writing a report
- Household – Meal planning, grocery shopping
- Health – Monitoring blood sugar levels thrice a day, workout time
3) Task prioritisation
After enlisting the tasks, she was asked to prioritise her tasks based on the time of the day and importance.
This technique is based on the famous Eisenhower Matrix for time management that helps one create task lists and prioritise them.
4) Task batching
Clubbing two or more tasks that can be done together or in one go (in an hour’s time) can help free up space.
For Example :
- Work- 30 minutes for sending the emails, making to-do list at the start of the day, blocking 30 minutes time for calling people
- Household- Vegetable and grocery shopping and making a weekly meal schedule immediately after
- Health- Monitoring sugar levels and noting them down, blocking 15 minutes for exercises in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening
Self care routine for relaxation
Naina was asked to set aside some time during the day for herself, including her self-care routine. Here’s what we recommended:
1) Creating a list of activities she wanted to do for herself. These could be as simple as hydrating well and regularly, skincare routine, walking, gardening, reading, listening to music, painting, taking up a class you’ve been wanting to, etc.
2) Block 30-45 minutes on any day of your preference, set reminders and engage in the self-care routine.
Along with these recommendations, here are a few other things Naina was advised to follow:
-
- Mindful Breathing: Inhale with your nose-hold your breath for 5 seconds-exhale with your mouth open. This must be done 3-5 times before sleeping.
- Avoid the urge to multitask. Focus on one task at a time.
- Build in buffers – take mindful breaks between 2 tasks. Drink some water, walk around, wash your face, listen to a song, play with your pet, look outside the window/balcony etc.
- Get organized – clean your room, work desk, organize your space so that you feel good when you are looking at it
- Eliminate Distractions
- Self Monitoring – Check if you are completing the tasks by the end of the day.
Results of Time Management for Ms. Naina
Naina followed Fitterfly’s recommendations to the T. This helped her block, divide and dedicate time for all three aspects of life – work, household chores and health. Today, she lives a stress-free, more relaxed and calm life while navigating the daily hassles of life.
In a Nutshell: Effective Time Management for Diabetes is indeed the Magic Mantra
Effective time management has several benefits, and more so for people with diabetes. Here’s how effective time management can improve your health and overall quality of life:
- Reduces stress levels as the number of uncertain events are lesser during the day with proper planning
- With better time management, there is increased productivity, which can translate to better reputation
- More free time automatically means more energy.
- Clarity in daily goals, which automatically improves focus.
- Better clarity in goals also means streamlined decision-making and reaching newer goals faster and improved quality of work.
- When you achieve your daily goals, it creates a virtuous cycle that acts as a positive reinforcement, boosts confidence and enables you to have better workplace relationships.
Effective time management benefits for diabetes helps
1) Manage their medications consistently
If you have diabetes, it is important to eat your meals and take your medications on time. This helps in effective blood sugar management and keeping them within normal limits. With effective time management, you can add your medication and meal times to your schedule.
2) Regular blood sugar monitoring
Regular monitoring of your blood sugar levels can help you stay abreast with your levels. This is made possible with proper time management.
3) Meal planning
The key to good nutrition for working individuals is weekly meal planning and shopping. Scheduling a a day for your grocery and supply shopping and doing so based on your meal plans will ensure you are eating a healthy, balanced diet. Keeping healthy snacks ready as per meal plans also ensures you are not loading up on extra calories and risking an increase in your blood sugar levels.
4) Time for workouts
With a scheduled day and effective time management, you have adequate time for your workouts which is crucial to maintain blood sugar levels if you have diabetes.
5) Reduces stress
Chronic stress is a known causative factor of diabetes and can complicate the condition. However, effective time management reduces the chances of stress, improves quality of life, promotes well-being and helps keep your blood sugar levels stable.
FitterTake
If you have diabetes and are struggling with hectic and haywire schedules, it’s time to pause and relook. Ineffective time management is a lesser known causative factor for abnormal and deranged blood sugar levels, especially among people with diabetes. But, it can be the root cause of the condition itself too!
If you too are struggling to manage your blood sugar levels, #WorryNot, we are here for you. Sign up for FitterFly’s Diabetes Care Program where we offer a comprehensive evaluation and take care of your diabetes in a smart way with technology-driven science. Our team of expert coaches which include nutritionists, physiotherapists and psychologists plan out everything for you after understanding your entire case history.
The Fitterfly Diabetes Care Program will be the only Program you will ever need.
Talk to us today to know more!
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