Blog Archives
Weeding Time
Don’t water your weeds. –Proverbs
As I was weeding this past week, it got me thinking about what things in my life need to be weeded out. These weeds can be a little more difficult to recognize and can vary from clutter to obligations to bad habits. But once we spot them and remove them from our garden, it really can help our lives flourish.
Too many of us have burdened ourselves down with over-excessive dreams and wants. We can gain much by letting go. It is time for some simplification and new-found FREEDOM!
Evaluate your life over the next few days. Where do you spend your time, and is your time spent where you really want it? What items around your house haven’t been touched or used for years, and do your really plan to utilize them in the future? Do you feel that your life is benefitting from holding onto to these things?
Find at least two things that you really think are holding you back from where you want to go in life. Maybe it’s the back room of your house that you have been avoiding to clean and have been feeling guilty about all the while, or perhaps an obligation that you used to profit from, that now is a liability.
Once you find two things that you are ready to rid yourself from, make a plan and liberate yourself (and perhaps your family too)! Give yourself adequate time to conquer these weeds. Once you have your simple plan, put some safety nets into place to ensure you follow through. I always like to make myself accountable for my goal, either by putting it on my calendar or asking a friend to check up on my progress. Once these weeds have been removed, enjoy the freedom you have gained!
In simplicity there is freedom, freedom to do less and enjoy more. –Katrina Kenison
Following the Laws of Inertia
An object will stay at rest or stay in motion unless acted on by a net external force –Sir Isaac Newton
I clearly remember learning about the laws of motion in middle school, doing some experiments to see exactly what it was all about. At that point, I thought it only pertained to balls, but I have now found it can go way beyond that.
Have you ever noticed yourself following the laws of inertia? You get going, and ain’t nothing going to stop you! Then just a few days later you find yourself having a hard time pulling your butt out of bed. Why is this?
MY HYPOTHESIS:
When we have places to go and things to do, we go into SUPER PRODUCTIVE MODE and follow the objects in motion portion of the law. We might not do everything that comes to mind, but the results are pretty impressive. On the other hand, when we don’t have much to look forward to or work towards, we find ourselves dragging ourselves out of bed late in the day and almost accomplishing nothing.
This all goes back to the idea, if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. If you find that you follow this pattern in your life, use it to your advantage. Pick a “day of rest” and enjoy a good book, spend time cuddling with your loved ones, or spend time meditating. Then makes some goals to work towards on the other days of the week and get going!
And don’t forget if someone asks why you did nothing but read a book one day, you can always use the excuse, “I’m just following the laws of inertia.” It’s one of my favorites!
Planning Day
If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. –Lucille Ball
Why do you think this saying is true?
As a working mother of three, I have found that my weeks are generally packed pretty tight. Trying to juggle all my obligations can be a real challenge. That is why I started a planning day.
Every Sunday, I try to sit down, look over my calendar and make a list of everything that I need to accomplish for the week. After I get my list together, I divide them up by which day I need/want to accomplish the tasks. If I didn’t complete anything from the prior week, I add it to my new list.
I like to use a Weekly Planner notepad that I purchased from Michael’s, similar to the one seen below, but it doesn’t have to be fancy (if you consider a $1 notepad fancy). I love to see it all down, and just love when I cross off all my tasks for a day. And I’ll admit, sometimes, when I don’t get to the things on my list, I add some tasks that I did do that day just so I can cross them off:)
I have found that writing down what I need to do helps me to think clear, accomplish more and helps me from over scheduling myself. It generally only takes 10-15 minutes a week, but saves me a lot of time and headache. I encourage you to try it, you’ll be amazed how much it can give you such peace of mind!
Organization Basics
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.”–A.A. Milne
Most people cringe at the thought of getting organized. It can be a daunting task, but the reward is priceless and let’s face it, it just makes life so much easier in the long run. If we could just get over the prejudice we have against organizing, we could come to realize that it is something that can greatly improve our lives.
Sometimes the biggest obstacle we have when we are trying to get organized is knowing where to start. And with our over-committed schedule, we leave ourselves little time to think, much less, get ourselves pulled together enough to get organized. To overcome this downward spiral, let’s take a look at the basics and take this bit by bit.
There are three basic parts of organizing;
- Simplify
- Plan
- Prioritize
SIMPLIFY:
“Less is more!” –Unknown
There is simple truth to this simple saying. Let’s learn the lesson from our forbearer’s and apply this wisdom into our lives. We all want more out of life, and if doing less is what gets us there, then by golly, let’s do less!!
So many of us have such high expectations of ourselves and even our family members, especially all you parents out there. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is very important to have hopes and goals for both ourselves individually and for our loved ones. We just need to take a step back sometimes and realize what cost we pay for our excessive dreams. If we are always stressed and unhappy, then something just isn’t right and we need to address it ASAP.
To simplify our lives means we need to take a moment and re-evaluate what we are doing and find ways to make it less complicated. This can go in so many different directions, from clutter to time management. When we simplify, and find ways to cut corners and perhaps lower our expectations by just a small degree, then we will find more time to enjoy life. Isn’t that what we all want?
PLAN:
“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”–Eleanor Roosevelt
It’s time to stop wasting our time wishing and start planning. Plans come in so many different shapes and sizes, but they generally have one result, peace of mind. When you take the extra time to pre-think what you are about to do, your chances for success increase dramatically. There have been studies that indicate the fact that simply writing your goals down significantly increase your chances of accomplishing your goals. (http://www.dominican.edu/dominicannews/study-backs-up-strategies-for-achieving-goals.html).
Since a good chunk of society has a never-ending “to do” list and ever-increasing expectations of ourselves, perhaps if we could take this simple advice of writing it down and creating a simple plan, we might decrease our stress level and increase our chances for success in achieving our goals.
PRIORITIZE:
“Organize your life around your dreams – and watch them come true.” –Unknown
It is amazing how many of us spend a good chunk of our precious time doing things that really don’t matter. When you get a chance, take a minute and evaluate how much of your day is spent wasted to TV, the internet or other time-wasting devices. I know that these things can be useful and help us relax at times, but are we really using them to the best of our advantage. I’m sure if you were to sit down and write out your life goals, watching a lot of television would not be on your list. So then my question is this; why do we spend so much time doing things that really don’t matter to us?
Take a moment and write down what is important to you. After you get a list, put them in order from most important to least important. Does your list coincide with the amount of time you spend involved supporting these priorities? If not, what can you do you spend more time
enjoying those things that are important to you?
Prioritizing our lives will help us find more happiness, because we will be spending most of our time doing the things that are important to us. And who doesn’t want to be happy?
When we take the time to put a little effort into our lives, it is amazing how much smoother things seems to go. I challenge you to try it.
“It is my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.” –Henry Ford
Enough is Enough
We live in a fast paced world. Everything we do or plan to do seems so important and usually has high expectations of us. Not too long ago, the majority of an average person’s day was spent taking care of the bare necessities of life. It is rather ironic that now in a day and age where we have an abundance of time-saving devices, we seem to have less time than we have ever had before.
Here’s a little experiment . . .
For the next week count how many times someone uses the excuse, “I just didn’t have enough time.” Or even just try it for a day. You can almost not go through a day without hearing someone complaining about their lack of time. It is something we all say, because it is so true. We have burdened ourselves with so much that we just can’t possibly get everything done.
It’s time to say, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!”
The sole purpose of this blog is to help us over-committed, well-intentioned creatures find a way to manage this mayhem we call life without feeling guilty, worthless or get this . . . overwhelmed.
Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. –Anon.
Mayhem Managed 