10-minute Quality Time Ideas for Couples
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If you are wondering how to spend quality time with your spouse when you barely have time for anything else, then I’m here to help you!
It’s too easy to become too busy these days. I only have two kids who aren’t even old enough for school, and I still struggle to figure out when to spend time with my husband and what to do together.
It becomes extra hard when you add in household chores, outdoor keep-up, work, making meals, homework, drop-offs and pick-ups, and the exhaustion that comes to busy parents at the end of the day.
Thankfully, I’ve discovered a way to remain connected with my husband when it seems like we have no time for each other. Even just 10 minutes of a quality time activity leaves me feeling happier and more fulfilled at the end of the day.
I hope you benefit from these 10-minute quality time ideas for couples.
How much time should you spend with your spouse?
Obviously, 10 minutes of quality time isn’t enough if you want to keep your marriage alive. It’s important to also go on dates and have couple councils. John Gottman recommends 6 hours spent together each week doing 6 important things. (You can learn more about the magic 6 hours from this blogpost: 6 Busy-Proof Ways to Reconnect with Your Spouse.)
However, 10 minutes together can make a huge difference when you barely see each other during the day. Some time together is better than none!
10-minute Quality Time Ideas for Couples
1. Play a short card game
This may seem pointless if you like a good long and competitive game, but you can still have a lot of fun with a card game in 10 minutes!
My husband and I have enjoyed playing these card games together. They are really easy to turn into a 10-minute game if needed:
Exploding Kittens
Exploding Kittens can be played quickly and viciously. If you want the game to go faster, just add more than one exploding kitten to the draw pile.
Exploding Kittens: Recipes for Disaster is a box full of fun short games that vary from the original Exploding Kittens. Some take 2 minutes, some are 15. Just be sure to pick a game that can work with 2 people.
5 Crowns
5 Crowns can be a long game, but you don’t have to play all 13 rounds! Do as many rounds as you can or want to in 10 minutes, then add up your points to see who wins.
Uno
Who doesn’t love a good game of Uno? Feel free to add extra rules to make it more interesting! If you get to 10 minutes and aren’t finished, then you can see who has the least amount of cards and declare them the winner.
2. Put your phones away and talk about each other’s day
Putting your phones away will help this experience go much better! Turning talking into a true quality time activity will only work if there is nothing else you are focused on other than your spouse.
If you have to turn off the TV or sit in a dark room to make distractions go away, then do it!
3. Share a treat and talk while you eat
You could have the treat delivered beforehand, go to a nearby drive-thru, or share a treat you guys already have at home.
Somehow having a treat to share makes the quality time more special and official. If one of you finishes eating before the other, stay put until the other person is done or until the 10 minutes are up.
4. Study the scriptures together
Studying scriptures together is one of the best quality time ideas for couples! When you read and talk about the word of God together, it helps you to put God first in your marriage. Which in turn, strengths your relationship with each other.
Don’t feel like you have to read a whole chapter out of the Bible or Book of Mormon in 10 minutes. Even just reading one verse and discussing the meaning it has in your lives will bring you closer to each other and to God.
5. Read or listen to a book together
Get cozy and get read a book together! Even if you aren’t talking with each other, being involved in the same thing can help you to feel closer and more connected with your spouse. It also gives you something new to talk about!
6. Cuddle
Did you know that touching your spouse and being touched by them can trigger oxytocin (aka the love hormone) to be released in your body? Because of this, cuddling is a great quality time activity because it can help you feel more physically and emotionally connected to your spouse.
7. Work on a project in the house together
Working together is an awesome quality time idea for couples because it’s an opportunity to practice teamwork.
Even if it isn’t a fun project or you don’t finish it, working on a project together can enhance your problem-solving skills, patience, and determination to accomplish something as a couple.
8. Plan your next date as a couple
Figure out how you will spend more quality time as a couple by planning your next date!
Dates can be hard to plan, but if you sit down together and plan your next date, your date will go much better than if you frantically plan it as you are going out the door. It will also give you something to look forward to.
Need date night ideas? Check out this blogpost: 10 Unique and Inexpensive Date Night Ideas for Married Couples
9. Make a list of activities you want to do together
Get creative and come up with a seasonal or yearly activity bucket list! You’d be surprised what fun things there are to do in the area where you live! Look up ideas on google or trip advisor, and put them on your list!
If you have extra time, you could even pick the next activity you are going to do together or as a family and put it on the calendar.
10. Take a short walk together up and down the block
During the summer, I felt like I wasn’t getting enough alone time with Chase. We came up with a quality couple time idea to go on a short walk after the girls were in bed.
After we knew the girls were for sleeping, we walked up and down the block, peeking inside the house when we passed by to make sure there wasn’t any crying. If it was quiet, we could continue walking.
You can also bring a monitor if your’s reaches far enough, or walk around your house if you don’t feel comfortable going all the way down the block.
Going on our nightly walk for a month or so made a huge difference for me! I felt more connected to Chase, and my soul was more full after spending that short quality time with my husband.
11. Have a tickle fight
You can have a pretty intense tickle fight in 10 minutes! This may seem like a childish thing to do, but the laughter and endorphins that come with a tickle fight will work wonders! It can ease any tension between you and your spouse, and it can help you remember how to have fun and keep a sense of humor.
Just remember to have a mutual agreement about when to stop. My husband and I will say the classic “uncle” when we can’t take anymore tickling.
You might also like: How Humor Can Make Your Marriage Better
When to Have Your 10-minute Quality Time
You might be thinking, “Great! Now I have some awesome quality time ideas for couples! But when the heck are we going to do them?”
It can be tricky figuring out when to squeeze in your 10-minute couple time. The key is to be flexible and be willing to have your quality time activity during the short pauses of your day.
Here are a few ideas of when you can spend 10 minutes of quality time together as a couple:
- Driving to an appointment
- After the kids are asleep
- While the kids are occupied and don’t need constant supervision
- As part of your bedtime routine
- As part of your morning routine
- During lunch break
- When there’s a family member, friend, or older child who can briefly watch the kids
- While taking a shower
When you find one or a few of these that work for you, communicate to your spouse and make sure you are both on the same page. If you both aren’t aware that you will be reading a book together before going to bed then it probably isn’t going to happen.
My husband and I like to set a reminder on Alexa and our phones to help us remember when we will be having some couple time.
What to Talk About When You Only Have 10 Minutes
Since talking is involved in most quality time ideas for couples, I wanted to share a few ideas for what you could talk about together.
1. Share highlights of each other’s day
You can ask each other what the funniest, most boring, most exciting, most exhausting, and most disappointing parts of the day was. You can even do this on days when you were together all day since each of your perspectives will be different.
2. Spiritual questions you’ve been having
Discuss questions about God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a verse in the scriptures, or what God wants from you personally. Having these deep conversations can bring you closer to each other and to God!
You might also like: 5 Ways to Put God First in Your Marriage
3. Special or crazy parenting moments
Talking about the cute and crazy things your kids do can make parenting feel more like a team effort instead of something you do separately. It can also help you both to appreciate your kids and each other’s efforts and parents more.
4. Goals you each have and how they are going
Talking about goals you have is a great quality couple time idea because it can keep you accountable, keep you involved in your spouse’s life, and give you the opportunity to encourage each other.
You can talk about weekly, monthly, or yearly goals. They can be work goals, fitness goals, parenting goals, educational goals, or your marriage goals.
Remember to encourage each other and be good listeners as you discuss your goals.
You might also like: How to Make Goals with Your Spouse
5. Ask each other get-to-know-you questions
You’d be surprised what you don’t know about each other! If you need ideas, you can check out some questions for married couples here. You will not get through this list in 10 minutes. Just pick a couple of questions to ask and answer and have fun!
6. Dreams for the future
Talk about what you want your future as a couple to be like. What do you want it to be like in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? 50 years?
You have permission to dream as big as you want!
You might also like: What to Talk About With Your Husband (when all your conversations seem boring)
Now Go Spend Time Together!
I know it isn’t always easy to find time to have quality time activities. That is because it is such a good and worthy thing to do and Satan will do all he can to keep you and your spouse apart.
So choose to make your relationship last by spending quality time together as a couple. Participate in quality time activities together, even if they are only 10 minutes.
Pray to God to bless your marriage and help you make time for each other. I promise the more effort you put in, the stronger your marriage will be.