I’m overwhelmed right now.
I returned home Sunday night from the Savvy Blogging Summit with my head still spinning from everything I learned. Everything I could do, should do, and would love to do.
And I look at my home and see many MANY things that I could do, should do, and would love to do.
Monday morning, as I still felt the travel-exhaustion in my bones, I packed up the kids and headed off to direct a musical-in-a-week day camp at our church. Which is fun . . . but it’s ALL day.
For five days.
I didn’t post yesterday because I had nothing in me to post. I guess I could have said, “My house is a wreck!” and then hit publish . . . but I didn’t have the energy.
As the ideas in my head are outpacing the energy in my body, I keep thinking about something my business-consultant father told me last week. He said he was in a brainstorming meeting where the attendees helped each other figure out problems by asking questions. One woman had a lightbulb-moment and said, “I had no idea I was only ten minutes from success.”
I’m trying to implement this concept into my slob/procrastinor brain. Yes, setting a timer and seeing what I can get done in ten minutes is great. But it helps to see it from another angle. What if . . . I could solve this problem in ten minutes? What if . . . my quick-to-assume-it-will-take-forever brain is wrong? What if . . . this someday-when-I-have-the-time-project could actually be DONE ten minutes from NOW?
There will be things that can’t be done in ten minutes.
But with my self-diagnosed Time Passage Awareness Disorder, I should probably take the challenge and see.
I’m pretty sure that assuming the opposite to be true is what got me into this mess.
Eddie says
I’m in the same boat. I’m just trying not to look – at the moment I think I prefer the ostrich approach to the 10-minutes approach! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it’s 47 Celsius with the humidity here today. And the a/c isn’t working properly.
I did find that the one really useful thing I took away from my attempts at the Flylady approach was setting the timer for 15 minutes and seeing how much I could get done. I’m always a little amazed at how much actually gets finished in that time.
Amanda says
So true about the 10 min – most of the time it is just mustering the strength after a long workday to do anything, though! I love your “self-diagnosed Time Passage Awareness Disorder”, ha, ha!
Glad to see the Newer/Older post is up now! Although, I was so enthralled reading through, that I was able to make it through without it…
Nony says
Yes, I was so excited to get that fixed!
Deb says
Sounds like you’re in a funk right now. I like the “set your timer” approach. I would try that for 10 minutes. Once you see how much you can get done it will motivate you to do more. You can stand back and see what you accomplished and it will really feel good. Kind of like the endorphin boost you get after you exercise.
Normal Friend says
I think it’s the heat. I’m having trouble getting things done around here, too. Add to that the off-schedule days of summer and anyone is headed for trouble. It has been too long since I cleaned the floors. And I skipped the bathrooms this week, too. It happens to everyone. I think you’ve had way, way too much going on to worry about your weekly tasks. So just get that laundry done, get to the grocery store, and give yourself some slack on the rest. You’ll have great posts for the fall when you dig out!
Dawn says
I like to have a cup of tea at night – it takes about 10 minutes to boil the water and steep my tea bag. I few months ago I decided to challenge myself to see what I can get done in the time it takes to make my nightly cup of tea. To my shock! I found out I can do quite a bit: wash a sink of dishes, put away the dishes, wash my floor, clean a bathroom, straighten my desk, pick up the living room, clean off the steps, start a load of laundry…I may not get every job done completely but the end result is that it always looks better than when I started – and I can live with that! Keep up the good work!!
Kevin Dugan says
One of my first bosses told me “you can do anything. But you can’t do EVERYTHING.” Maybe you spend the 10 minutes by creating a list of things you could/should/want to do fo your blog. Wait, spend five minutes doing that. Then spend five minutes prioritizing the list.
Then spend five on the house and five more prioritizing that list.
If you’re OCD? Take 10 more minutes combining and reprioritizing the new mega list.
But my point is….I get overwhelmed with everything I could do. My current boss has gotten me in the habit of identifying three things I’ll do today.
.
A combo of the above might help. But it’s also a good problem to have.
It was good meeting you at #sbsummit!