Welcome to Me Time: Pause, Decide & Do!
Me Time is all about how to be happier by combining science, action and friendship.
This is where we turn ourselves from dreamers into Do-ers!
But not alone, in a community of friends committed to building a life bigger than a 9 to 5!
This is the place where you refuse to be ātoo busyā to be happy or to pursue your dreams! I will show you how!
Contents of this About Page
(The first 3 items are the science based philosophy of Me Time, while 4-7 are the HOWs & WHATs of Me Time, I encourage you read 1-3!)
3. More Meaning (Why do you do what you do in life?)
4. Me Timeās 3 Happiness Macronutrients
5. Me Time Practical Offerings (i.e. How to get happier)
Pause
Decide
Do
6. PUBLISHING āSCHEDULEā & Reviews
āThe business of your life is your life itself. ā
from Arthur C. Brooks
You are the startup entrepreneur of your life, but the currency of this enterprise called LIFE is not measured in money, nor power, or fameā¦ Itās love and happiness.
Yes, REALLY!
So what is happiness? What follows here is a summary of the 6 months course on happiness taught by Arthur C. Brooks at the renowned School of Management at Yale University. People fight to get into this class. So really take time to read with an open mind.
Firstly, to get this out of the way.
Happiness is not the warm and fluffy feeling you get when you hug a friend!
The feeling of happiness is just evidence of happinessā¦ like the smell of dinner is proof that dinner is somewhere around.
Happiness is deeper than the feeling of happiness. And more stable too! Happiness is a state that you cultivate and is there despite the storms or good weather in your life.
Happiness is a combination of 3 macro ingredients that need to exist in equal amounts and in abundance!
ENJOYMENT
SATISFACTION
MEANING
Stay with me, we get to success and building a career we love!
Happiness cannot be a goal for your entire life!ā¦ No one would approve of such a thing! Also, life is inevitably peppered with challenges, adversity, hardship that you cannot control. So no, the goal in life is not absolute happiness, the goal is seeking what Arthur and his co-author Oprah (yepps that Oprah!) call:
āHAPPIERNESSā
You get happier by getting more enjoyment, more satisfaction and more meaning as we advance though life!
Iāll break it down:
1. More Enjoyment:
Pleasure alone wonāt give you enjoymentā¦ thatās just dopamine overload and will not help with happiness. Pleasure is incomplete. For happiness you need to combine pleasure with 2 extra things: people and memory!
That glass of whine in the bathroom while you scroll - Thatās pleasureā¦. Add a girlfriend and a context and you have yourself enjoyment! You have yourself the macronutrient for happiness. Girl/guys night ā enjoyment! Girl/guy drinking alone ā temporary pleasure with a hangover attached to it.
The rule for enjoyment:
If anything can be addictive and brings you pleasure ā¦. donāt do it ALONE!
Thatās when it gets dangerous and when enjoyment is no longer possible.
Pleasure + People + Memory = Enjoyment
2. More Satisfaction
Satisfaction is the feeling you get after struggle! If you avoid your suffering you will not get your satisfaction when you overcome it and you will not become happier! Embrace the struggle! Like the grind or reaching your subscriber number goalā¦ or revenue goal on Substack! If you cheat to get it buy buying an email listā¦ You will not get satisfaction!
The issue with satisfaction is that it is designed to be temporary. It is so to keep us striving for more. After you get the satisfaction you think it will last and thatās it! But it does not last, friends!
We all have thought things like:
When I get that promotionā¦
When I get that much in my savingsā¦
When I get 1k followersā¦
Then I will be happier!
But that is a lie!
We will always think what we have is not enough. Thatās how we get on the hedonic treadmill.
The secret to satiscation, turns outā¦ is not having more!
More followers,
more likes ā¦
more subscribers
The Dalai Lama defines satisfaction like this.
The secret to life satisfaction is not to have what you want!
The secret it is to want what you have!
The secret formula for satisfaction is this:
The solution for feeling satisfaction more often is to want less.
Pay attention to your wants.
Chip away at your wants.
Try having a reverse bucket list.
How? List down your wants all of them so you realise themā¦ and then cross out the ones you donāt really want or need to be happy. The ones you can live without. You can even put down your political beliefs and cross them out. Not denying them, but saying you are not defined by them so you can have more friends.
Now the big topic:
3. Meaning (Why do you do what you do in life?)
Meaning is split in 3 subcomponents:
Coherence: Why things happen the way they do?
Purpose: What are your goals and direction? What are you trying to do?
Significance: Does it matter if you are dead or alive?
If you have a meaning crisis you can find out by taking this quick 2 question test:
If you donāt have answers to these 2 questions, you have a meaning crysis, seek those answers for yourself. Have them ring true in your soul.
Question 1. Why am I alive? (No biological answer but the metaphysical)
Question 2. For what would you die today? (It has to be your real answer not a hallmark card answer)
4. Me Timeās (3 happiness macronutrients):
Enjoyment: Organising Do Sessions where I meet, learn, help (or try to help) fellow people on their path to happiness via building a life bigger that their job.
Satisfaction: Building a portfolio career, with multiple income streams that can support you to be time-rich, relationship rich, happiness rich at the same time have money coming in (but trust me, donāt focus on money directly!)
Meaning: Helping others live the life they were supposed to be living with enjoyment, health, and surrounded by the people they loveā¦ Defining success on our terms and pursuing it no matter what!
5. Me Time Practical Offerings:
Me Timeās website is split in three big parts.
5.1. Pause
Pause is about remembering to pause to recharge, to assess, to pivot, to enjoy lifeā¦ and because we are not freaking machines! We all need rest. We all need empty space and time where our minds run free and where all creativity and aha moments stem from. This is not hopeful thinking it is science. (DM me to ask from where)
In my Me Time, I realised I could live with less money, less things, fewer exotic trips! They were not making me happy. Crawling through the workweek to reach the weekend or to reach vacation is no way to live! So I flipped the switch. Really asked myself what really will make me happy. Crossed out my wants that were just vanity or Instagram brainwashing and what came out is the life I have today.
5.2 Decide
Decide is about making informed decisions about your life. Decide is also about finally showing up for yourself by making a planā¦ or charting a way forward even when you only see two steps ahead. This is where we gather information, and make our own mind. For this I offer lives with experts, share information that can help you decide how you will build your portfolio carree, side hustle, business, newsletter.
5.3 Do
Do is pretty self-explanatoryā¦ After we have decided on something we need to execute, otherwise our dreams, our goals, our decisions will be just wishes!
I invite everyone who subscribes to join my Live Me Time Do Sessions:
We build our newsletter step by step to support your goals
We design the visual identity of your brand
We discuss monetisation strategies
Not just theory we actually do work and give feedback.
Goal of the Do Sessions:
Youāll learn how to make money from what you already know, what you shine at, from your superpowers without burning out. You will learn new skills to make that happen. We will connect and learn together to get enjoyment out of the process.
We will learn from the guru advice floating here, but we also will adapt it to make ourselves happier not more stressed!
so yes!
Me Time is about reclaiming some of your time and directing it to the pursuit of the macro ingredients of happiness.
SO WHERE AM I NOW?
I am 3 years after burnout. I year + of full time Me Time after quitting my corporate leadership role. I have never been more free, more happy and or more healthyā¦ and I want as many people as possible to have more the same and trust meā¦ that eventually brings enough money in the bank too!
By the wayā¦Me Time doesnāt mean you need to ditch your day job and become a happiness-hippie monk! It means having a great filter you sift your life though. Asking yourself:
āWill this make me happier?ā
Me Time is about building a life that is not dominated by your careerā¦ but building a life you love with career that you also love. And I am sorryā¦ I do not have your specific roadmap for you! You have the answer. But what you need to do is give yourseƦf some Me Time to discover your path.
You are the CEO of your life!
You set out the direction you move towards!
And that is what Me Time is all about.
If you wonder, does this Me Time Substack thing really pay her bills? This pays my bills. So the honest answer is No, Me Time does not pay my bills, but it has payed for some my me time travels! And that is enough for me!
Me Time feeds my soul! This is where I get enjoyment, some of occasional satisfaction, and lots of meaning!
ALL Me Time Subscribers Get
Super Simple Guides where I teach you something about Substack, Canva, Business, Podcasting over a recorded video or article.
Me Time LIVEs where I invite subscribers, authors, experts, inspiring people, to teach us new things that can help us build the career we love in the life we adore.
The Me Time Chat where you can promote your work and offerings.
6. PUBLISHING āSCHEDULEā & Reviews
I wish I had a scheduleā¦ but I do not. I write when the inspiration strikes sometimes more, other times less. April 2026 a little new baby is scheduled to Arrive in the Me Time fam, so a slowdown will happen!
But life is not a race! It is a journey and some chapters are fast and others are slow. I will take you through it to show that slowing down is actually a good thing!
Reviews:
On Me Time Do Sessions
On Me Time Premium
On Do Templates
Noemiās Coaching Feedback
T&C Template Feedback
FYI These templates are now moved under paid subscriptions for Legally Speaking.
My subscribers are so sweet!
Me Time Team
Meet my Chief Fluff Officer, Cici.
He has his own insta, that I neglect mostlyā¦ but you can look for Cici the grumpy corgi.
and this is me - Noemi Apetri, āretiredā lawyer- turned business coach! By the way I am dyslexic so please pardon the typos, I do my best to catch them all, but they are almost invisible to me.
Me Timeās Terms of Service
By accessing Me TIme posts, subscribing to its newsletters, watching videos and podcasts published by Me Time, joining any events organised by Noemi or Me Time downloading or accessing any content, guides or templates, kits either on Substack, email, YouTube, Gumroad, Luma or any other platform, you acknowledge and agree that you have read and agreed to Me Timeās Terms of Use.
