It’s the new year. 2023. As with every year, so much swirling around us regarding Change!
New Habits!
Improvement!
Fix your Gut Health!
Ok, that last one is a little specific, but I’m getting all kinds of weird ads for that on social media. Maybe they know something I don’t? Eek. Anyway….
Just like everybody, I have unlimited areas I can improve in. Just this morning I made a to-do list, not all urgent things but tasks that would be very good to complete or even start. It got ridiculously long in just 1-2 minutes.
When I was younger, I would think, “I have this full day when I’m not working outside the home and the kids are at school. I should be able to do all this stuff today!”. Then, I’d work myself into a grouchy frenzy and get maybe 30% accomplished, and lots of shame about what I didn’t finish, maybe some fun resentment thrown in toward whatever stopped me from finishing the list. The “interruptions” are important, essential things like picking up my kids from school, taking a shower, eating food, or tending to a social relationship. You know, life basics.
Much of these endless to-do lists has to do with CLUTTER, accumulated stuff of some sort. The extra fun stuff that I added for years, like the grouchiness, shame and resentment are very clutter-y too. Emotional CLUTTER, not fun.
No thank you. This hasn’t worked for me in years.
So I’ve found a slightly better system for managing my days and tasks. Slightly. Everything is a work in progress.
My daily list if I make one now includes things like “Eat Lunch”, “Take Dog for a Walk”, “Empty Dishwasher.” Maybe 1 thing from my aspirational super long list makes it.
This is a rather boring intervention for myself but pretty effective. I still get to 6pm and wonder where the day went. But I can think of perhaps one CLUTTER task that I managed to do. I am also more free of the mental/emotional clutter of shame and resentment.
Today one of my tasks was to check on this long-neglected site. I’m glad I did! Writing is helping me to clear some of the mental clutter. Thank you!