Man, do I feel behind.
Just yesterday, I glanced quickly at my last few months of posts. Or should I say…lack thereof. It’s really quite sad how rarely I blog these days. I need to do it more. It’s good for me to get stuff out of my head. And I miss the online connections that I used to have. So why don’t I blog more (or do better with chores and kids activities and just staying on top of stuff)?
Well, of course, I’m busy. Yes, of course, I have 3 kids under 3. Yes, we’re dealing with colds and lack of sleep and a couple of deadlines and Megan’s first birthday this week and just general life.
But really, that’s no excuse. None of it is. Because, frankly, I have lots of time in my day. I have LOTS of time in my day to get done the little things I need to do. If I’m honest, I have to admit I’m just wasting the time that I have been given.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, really. And I’ve batted around a few ideas that just help me get more together. Here’s some of what I’ve been thinking…
– Create a 10-Minute Task list. The more I think about it, the more I realize that most tasks can be done in (or broken down into blocks of) 10 minutes (give or take). So instead of writing an impossible-to-complete To-Do list every day, I wonder if I might get more done by choosing a handful of 10 minute tasks to focus on. Not “Clean off the counters” but “unload the dishwasher” + “load the dishwasher” + “wipe off the counters.” That way I could cross of each small task as I go and before the end of the day, the counters would actually get clean.
– One Load a Day. I know lots of people who do one load of laundry, all the way through, every day. And it works for them. I tend to be a LAUNDRY DAY kind of person. And it works for me, most of the time. (Okay, except for the folding…man, do I wish I could get the dried stuff folded and put away!) Still, I wonder if doing a load every day would help. As someone who doesn’t do it, it seems like it would be depressing because it would make an mountainous task go on forever…on purpose. But maybe that’s just me. Still, it’s something I’m considering.
– Keeping Track. I haven’t done this one yet because I really, really am afraid of what I’ll find out about myself. But I’m seriously considering doing an honest inventory of how I spend my day. You know, break it down by hour or even 15-minute blocks. And force myself to record what I do all day. How many times a day do I really sit down to “just check my email” which turns in to 30 minutes of doofing. In that 30 minutes I could have done 3 10-minutes tasks, right? Yeah, this one’s definitely scary, but it might be just what I need.
– Just do it. Today, we drove to Springfield to meet my parents at a restaurant for lunch. We all left our respective places and connected for about 90 minutes over lunch. It wasn’t something I planned out (I set it up yesterday & this morning) because sometimes just doing it when I think of it keeps me from talking myself out of doing stuff that I know I need to do. Like calling a friend or sending a thank-you or taking time to pray and read my Bible.
I’m sure there are lots more great ideas out there. And I am totally open to suggestions of anything you’ve tried that has worked for you. But the fact that “life is crazy” right now just no longer seems a valid excuse. When is life NOT going to be crazy? And without going all OCD on myself and my family, I know it’s really possible for me to get things more together than they are right now.
I guess I just need to buckle down and start somewhere. Which is why I’m going to go make my bed…right now, before I check Facebook!
October 5, 2011
those are my thoughts on your blog. how’d that happen? how does that happen time & time again!
I getcha! and i don’t have anything to share really…i keep toying with the idea of a household notebook with EVERYTHING in it. (like at simplemom.com)…but i haven’t quite sat down & actually started it yet. I think i mentioned eons ago that i LOVE the book Confessions of an Organized Homemaker. I found it at B&N for a couple bucks by accident and bought it & it really helped me out. (not to say i’m on top of things b/c i’m not!) It’s super cheap on amazon.
I’ve tried one load a day and it doesn’t work for me b/c my laundry is right off the kitchen therefore I always end up with the doors hanging open & laundry all scattered with is cluttery & distracts me. So, I TRY to do adult laundry one day a week and kid laundry another day, with random loads of sheets/towels. I separate the kids into lights, darks, jammies/socks/undies (cause these tend to get more bodily fluid on them & need to be washed in HOT even when they are dark colors) and whites. THe kids don’t have enough whites for a full load, so their whites go in with our whites. I also bought three round laundry baskets from the dollar tree and it has REVOLUTIONIZED the putting away of laundry. Each kid has a basket. Their clothes go in and instead of heading down the hallway with a HUGE basket with tons of kids’ clothes, I take a basket at a time which is a piece of cake to put away. (and E1 is big enough to put her own away. So is E2 for that matter, but I don’t always make him do it yet.)
If I try to do everyone’s laundry in one day…it’s too much.
And lots of times i’m unmotiveted, lazy, too overwhelmed, bored with the same-old, etc to do anything but check facebook. but i really do try.
You’re a good mama for being aware & trying to make changes–so keep up the good work!
October 5, 2011
A couple of comments…
Laundry – I’m in the one load a day camp. When I had the laundry day, I realized I felt discouraged when we took our close off and it already looked like half a load or more and the last load from dryer wasn’t even cool yet!
@faithchick – I hear Jess’s complaint about the laundry off the kitchen, but here’s how I handle it. We only have 3 loads. Darks (cold water), colors (warm water, OxyClean as needed), white (warm water, bleach as needed). I have a hamper/sorter with 3 bins. I find that as I do one load a day, it usually gets in an easy cycle where only one bin is full enough to constitute a load on any given day. Which means the others are not overflowing in any sort of unsightly fashion. Some days I don’t have ANY loads big enough. That’s when I do something horrifying. (Mom, you’re not reading this are you?) I just wash the whites and colors together in one load.
Instead of it feeling like laundry stretches on depressingly, I actually find I feel good about it. One load can really be in 10 minutes of total work time. Throw it in. Switch it over. Fold it up. And I only plan on doing one load, so I don’t feel bad about stopping after one. I find it LESS depressing because it now feels like a small maintenance task, not a big overwhelming monster on a my to-do list.
October 5, 2011
That comment was so long, I decided to start a new one for the next topic: Just Do It.
I have recently learned this one from a friend. I’m not super at it yet, but I am trying. When I get that little task (an assignment at a meeting, a note to write, an e-mail to answer), I’m trying to just do it. My friend calls it “Do it now,” but I think the sentiment is the same. Her point is that if you just sit down and take care of it, you might throw off the rest of your day’s “schedule” by 5 or 10 minutes, but usually you make it up quickly by not wasting time somewhere else. Doing it now means you don’t forget to do it or make excuses not to do it. Doing it now means it’s done and you spend zero time planning when to do it, working it in, worrying about it. It’s just done.
I love it. I’m getting there. I still forget sometimes that I should do it now, falling back instead into my old habits of putting it off. But there is wisdom in that “just do it” philosophy.