Peter J. Strauss’s life as an attorney, speaker and single father of four children ages 1 to 10 leaves him little time for himself.

He catches a break in a place most people try to avoid: “I love going to the dentist,” says Mr. Strauss, of Hilton Head Island, S.C. “It’s 45 minutes when I know nobody is going to interrupt me. You can’t reach me and you can’t ask for anything,” says Mr. Strauss, author of a book on self-insurance for businesses. Although he has perfect teeth, he gets them cleaned three times a year instead of the usual two. The visits are so dull that he sometimes falls asleep in the chair.

Busy working parents find respite in odd places. Cleaning the garage, washing dishes, mowing the lawn or commuting on gridlocked freeways all can serve as an undercover bid for a little adult time, parents say. Transforming drudgery to delight in this way requires abilities that any busy adult could use. Some people are born with these capacities, and others hone them through practice, researchers say.

Illustration: GREG CLARKE

The sensation of hot, sudsy water against her cleaning gloves calms Lisa Tan when she washes dishes after a long day. Alone in the kitchen after her two daughters, ages 1 and 4, go to bed, “I usually just zone out and let my mind wander while sudsing up sippy cups,” says Ms. Tan, chief marketing officer for Reverie, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich., maker of customized adjustable beds. Seeing the dishes shine lends a sense of accomplishment. “I may have a to-do list that’s four pages long, but I know I can get the dishes done,” Ms. Tan says.

Trish McCall of Simi Valley, Calif., has learned to enjoy her 3-hour daily round-trip commute on “the freeway of the damned,”​as she and her friends call Interstate 405 in the Los Angeles area. Sitting in traffic used to frustrate her, but now that she has a 4-year-old daughter, “this is really the only ‘me time’ I get,” says Ms. McCall, a managing associate for a Los Angeles communications firm. She immerses herself as she drives in podcasts about family issues and crime mysteries.

Quieting the mind, even briefly, can calm the body and improve health and well-being, says Kathryn C. Adair, a Duke University research associate who studies workplace burnout. “As parents’ lives become more stressful, these tasks that ground us in the present moment stand out with greater clarity,” she says.

Some people are by nature inclined to mindfulness—a state of nonjudgmental awareness that enables them to notice and appreciate experiences with less focus on what they mean for oneself, rather than becoming distracted by worries about the past or the future, Dr. Adair says. Others may become more or less mindful over time.

Becoming a parent can foster mindfulness because it requires paying attention to children’s changing emotions and needs, and regulating your own feelings and behavior when responding, says Shauna Shapiro, a clinical psychologist and author of “Mindful Discipline.”

Taking a timeout helps parents tune into physical tensions that otherwise go unnoticed. Zaida Khaze of Fort Lee, N.J., is sometimes so overwhelmed by working 18-hour days that she forgets to breathe deeply, causing headaches, says Ms. Khaze, mother of two girls, 6 and 8, and founder of a baby products company called Wiggletot. The tension often goes unnoticed until she takes her dogs, a Chihuahua named Foxy and a Yorkshire terrier, Minnie, for a 30-minute morning walk.

She used to see walking Foxy and Minnie as a chore, but she has learned to see it as a comforting ritual when she can listen to a motivational speech on her phone and imagine the day ahead unfolding smoothly. “I’ve lowered the bar on what makes me happy,” Ms. Khaze says.

Savoring small pleasures by dwelling on them and wringing out as much enjoyment as possible can lend meaning amid adversity, research shows. This might mean “stopping and taking a mental photograph, or thinking, ‘Let me dive into the experience more, and immerse myself’” in the moment, says Laura G. Kiken, a research scientist at Kent State University in Ohio.

Illustration: GREG CLARKE

Nannina Angioni finds lasting enjoyment in purging clutter. Freed during the evening from the ringing phone and other demands, she likes restoring order and creating open space in closets and other areas, says Ms. Angioni, founding partner of a Los Angeles law firm, Kaedian LLP, and mother of a 2-year-old son. Driving into her garage has been a calming experience ever since she decluttered it a few weeks ago, she says. “It’s like the exercise that keeps on giving.”

Routine chores can be a good cover for eking out a little guilt-free time alone. Although Ramy Serageldin hated yard work as a child, he began welcoming it while his wife was recovering from hip surgery for several months last year. Mr. Serageldin, co-founder of Honeyfi, a Charlotte, N.C., financial-planning app for couples, took over caring for their three children, ages 6, 3 and 1.

Time to himself was so scarce that he began looking forward to mowing and reseeding the lawn. When his children were sleeping or playing quietly enough that his wife could oversee them, “I would head out to the yard for 30 or 40 minutes of solitude,” he says. Listening to podcasts, he felt free to “let my mind float off to somewhere else without feeling guilty,” he says.

Other parents enjoy being taken care of by somebody else for a change—even when the circumstances aren’t exactly ideal. Joanne Jordan of Philadelphia had hip-replacement surgery 1-1/2 years ago while her mother took care of her two children, 6 and 9, and her partner ran the public-relations agency they co-own. “The drugs were great, the hospital stay was great,” and the surgery relieved chronic pain in her hip, Ms. Jordan says.

She didn’t even mind having a nurse awaken her every two hours. “In my 30s, I would have been pissed at that,” says Ms. Jordan, who is in her 40s. But as a parent, “I’m used to having a 6-year-old tapping me on the shoulder in the middle of the night, saying, ‘I had a nightmare,’ or, ‘I need a cup of water.’ I was grateful that I had so many people looking after me.”

What are the creative ways you “escape” from your family, even if just for a few moments? Tell us how you carve out alone time.

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com