Those days are few.
Most days I wake up full of hope, possibility, and expectations for the day. Though it took him months to get his room that messy, I will teach Paul to clean his room in two hours. I will take the kids to the zoo. I will wash all the laundry. I will declutter the counters. I will squeeze every moment out of my summer "free time" and I will pay attention to the kids and be the best mom in the world.
I set my expectations way too high. At 5:30 a.m. they all seem realistic, but by 3:00 p.m. I am headed downhill and getting desperate to finish my to-do list. It's a mere two hours until I start dinner planning and cooking and I usually expect that I will finish my to do list by then.
This week I am catching up on my magazine reading in my "free time" and I read this article: http://www.lhj.com/health/stress/relaxation-techniques/stop-worrying-start-living/
Yesterday I decided I would stop multi-tasking so I could be less overwhelmed. My new mantra is "I can only do one thing at a time." I don't believe it yet; I'm still convinced I can do five things well. I woke up this morning without a schedule, repeating that to myself. My first "one thing" was catching up on my Bible reading. I read First and Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther in about an hour. Then I relaxed (took a nap) since the kids were still asleep (our summer schedules are wacky). When we got up I repeated my mantra and was able to hang eight loads of laundry with the kids help in 45 minutes. Later, we focused on finishing Paul's room and it was done in 30. I focused on the dishes and spent 10 minutes catching them up. It seems I can do a better job when I focus on only one thing at a time.
I am not multi-tasking. There's still tons to do and I will never, ever catch up it seems. But I seem to be less stressed when I do only one thing at a time. I am not so disappointed when I expect less of myself. In fact, when I expect less, I just might exceed expectations.
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