10 Things That I Am Going To Do Differently This Week
by PlanningQueen on April 20, 2010 in 10 ThingsPhoto by aussiegall
Let me preface this by saying that I love my gig as a mother, but sometimes the repetition of the daily chores that go along with mothering and taking care of a house with 5 kids wears me down a little. I felt quite flat last week with kids starting term two at school and just couldn’t quite seem to get my act together. At the gym on Sunday morning I started thinking about the new week ahead and the household tasks that needed to be completed and how I didn’t want to have another week like the one before it.
As I thought it about it, I realised that I need to change things up a little, freshen the routines, change the order of things, alter my basic mode of operation slightly to help kick start some new motivation. So with this in mind I have chosen 10 things that I am going to do differently this week. Some are only small and will be easy to do and some are going to require significant discipline on my behalf. I plan to do them for a week and will evaluate after that and see whether they become part of my new routine.
1. Go to bed at 10pm
I am terrible at going to be at a reasonable hour. As a consequence I think that I am suffering from a chronic sleep shortage accumulated over the last six to nine months. I need to feel more rested as, the more rest I have the more effective I am am and the better my mood is.
2. 30 minute cleaning tasks
When I only had a couple of children and a smaller house, I would clean the entire house in one go. I loved the feeling of knowing everything was clean and organised at the same time. Three more children later and a bigger house, I have been aiming to have cleaning done over two days, which to be honest is incredibly difficult with a toddler and preschooler under foot.
So inspired by Julie from Works For Me Homemaking I am going to try 2 x 30 minute cleaning tasks every day this week and see if this makes the cleaning of the house more manageable.
3. Laundry
I am completely out of the habit of folding the washing as I bring it in. And as a consequence, it has been piling up to unmanageable levels. This week I am going to go back to what I know works and stay on top of the washing.
4. iPhone
I really do love my iPhone, but I think it can become distracting! I am not going to check my emails or twitter on the iPhone this week. It inevitably ends up with double handling as I read them but don’t action them (very often at least) and then end up re-reading them when I am on my Mac.
5. Toy Rotation
Our toddler has hit the tipping out stage and I really need to rotate the toys that are out for him to play with for two reasons:
- So there are more age appropriate toys that are meeting his interests.
- There are toys that he doesn’t actually play with but just tips them out 100 times a day and I pick them up 100 times a day!
6. Get outside more.
Other than walking to school in the mornings, I haven’t been playing outside with the kids as much as I would like. I am going to spend some time outside each day, which I think will help break up the day better for us and give me more energy.
7. Garage Sale Box.
There are so many things in our house that really need to leave! Often I will put things back in their place, thinking that it is not really needed or I when getting an item out of a cupboard that I need, I will move an item that I haven’t used in months to have to get to it. Well not this week. I am going to find a large box and start putting these things in it for the garage sale we are going to have soon.
The next three are actually blogging related, but as I blog at home, the two areas are very intertwined and how much time I spend on blogging impacts on the state of the house.
8. Unitask
This one was inspired by the column in Sunday Life by Sarah Wilson. You can read her full article here. I have to admit to taking great pride in my ability to multitask. At the start of this article I wrote about how I came up with this idea at the gym – at the gym where I was on the stepper, reading the Sunday Life magazine, listening to my iPod and contemplating how to mix things up in my life!
I could completely relate to this part of her article:
Perhaps the most alarming factoid I read on the matter was from a paper published in Psychology Today last month that compared multitasking to eating empty calories. When we eat a Krispy Kreme it switches on the reward-seeking dopamine circuitry, which creates an addictive crave cycle (due to the lack of nourishing reward from said empty calories). Ditto when we consume empty neural calories like Tweeting and Googling and stimuli toggling. When done together, it creates a dopamine overload, or mental hyperactivity, just like when you down a doughnut. There’s no reward (for instance, a focused sense of closure to each task) so not only do we become flabby of thought, we also become addicted.
Deep down I knew this anyway as for a almost a year now when I have my post writing sessions, I have email and twitter closed, but other than that I often have 8 -9 tabs open in Firefox, Skype, Twitter and email running. This will be my biggest challenge this week to see if I can stick to completing one task at a time.
9. More time on projects
I constantly struggle with dividing my blogging time up into time for posts, social media and projects. Inevitably I spend more on the first two and very little on the project side of things. I am going to change that around this week and make sure I set strict time limits for my post writing sessions and then spend an allocation of time on projects, then social media.
(The inspiration for this came from a guest post on Problogger by David Risley titled Poor Bloggers Focus Too Much On Blog Posts. There is lively debate in the comments of this post to which is worth a read.)
10. Decluttering Email and My Google Reader
Each day I delete emails without reading them and skip over blog posts in my reader without looking at them. I need to stop just ignoring these incoming messages and actually unsubscribe myself from them. In a recent post on his blog Seth Godin talks about this exact thing – “Incoming”
The relevant discussion here: are the incoming messages helping? After all, most of them aren’t initiated by you, they have the power to change your mood or your energy or even how you spend your non-electronic time. And they’re addictive. When, for some random reason, they ebb and you have a really light few hours–admit it, you check more often.
How is your daily routine?
20 comments...read them below or add one
I am feeling much the same right now. I want to find the things that aren’t of benefit to me and cull them.
It’s hard though. A percentage of people I care about I only communicate with online, otherwise I would really rather just leave the computer turned off for most of the time. (oh except I do use it to listen to music).
My three year old has just gone into childcare fulltime so I can return to working fulltime, and after three months of it not only have I reached breaking point, I think my three year old son is going much the same way. I need to make a feel larger changes (considering going part time, for a start), but I suspect a lot of smaller changes would help. I feel like the moment I get home from work I spend the rest of the evening doing household chores and then getting ready to start over for the next day and only get half an hour with my son before bed. I think the toy-rotation and the 30 min cleaning blocks would really help me – I know my son just tends to empty out the toy basket to play with a handful of the same toys, so it’s time for the unused ones to either be put away or given away.
Um, yes yes yes yes and yes to all of the above.
Have you been spying on me Nic…?!
I find myself getting into these ruts of no motivation as well. Great reminder to re-evaluate and re-focus.
Oh my – this is awesome timing. I’ve been thinking about this same topic this last week or so. Definitely number 1 and 3 for me and that’s a great idea of the 30 min blocks of housework – I’m going to give that a go and see if that helps. Thanks for a very timely post.
Stitch Sista – I am only a couple of days into it now (I wrote this on the week end) and although not a perfect strike rate on every item listed, I am feeling so much more in control of things and not weighed down as much. It is actually motivating me to go even further!
Jasmine – The 30 minutes blocks and the toys were the first ones that I started on and they have made a fantastic difference.
SquiggleMum – It is so nice to know that others have the same issues as well. Especially when I am in such good company!
Debbie – These small changes have really helped my motivation in many other areas too, which has been a positive flow on.
Jacquie – Good luck trying the 30 minute blocks. I am not sure why I have never done this before, it is working very well so far.
My kids have gone back to school today and I am feeling very uninspired. In fact, I always do when it comes to housework. The thing that really gets to me is that I am constantly cleaning something then move onto the next and by the time I’m finished there, the first thing is dirty again.
Hanging the washing out IS my outside time. LOL
Definitely not alone, in fact I am a little green that you have found a way to work through it.
I think unitasking is a big one for me, also. I find I usually have quite a few tasks on the hop at any given time, and I know when I need to slow down, because my focus wanders. I admit, I also need more sleep. 10pm sounds divine
Again, your posts are spot on for your readers. I was just thinking about my obsession with multi-tasking tonight as I scrubbed the basin while supervising my 2 year old having her bath. I always find inspiration in the discipline you clearly have to change and improve. Thanks again.
I find it so hard to get back on top of things when I have had one of “those weeks”. These are great practical ideas to mix things up a bit.
Thanks for the link too!
Great ideas here. One thing we find helpful with the cleaning is to rearrange the furniture every few months. I think because it creates different play spaces, so the kids play different games, and because it all feels new and clean we’re inspired to keep on top of it for a while.
I just found your website today and I have to say, it’s an immediate add into my reader. I found your articles about 2 1/2 year olds and 3 1/2 year olds a great help, considering I have one of both! Haha. And I have to relate on #3 when it comes to laundry. I allowed my own laundry to get out of control and just recently begun a routine to get back on track. So far it’s working but laundry is my dreaded chore and I have a feeling it’ll get out of control a few times in the future again lol.
I got as far as writing a list of all the household tasks that need doing and deciding how often each needs to be done (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly). Haven’t gotten past that yet, but I’ve just mailed off my work to College, so I’ll sit with it while I’ve no study on my desk to be done.
Outside of home I’m going to be thinking hard and praying carefully about priorities and whether I need to cull anything out of my regular week, which feels pretty jam packed.
What a great list, Nicole. Good luck with the changes, I look forward to hearing how it goes.
I find I go through stages of just hating my job at home (not being a mum, but the running the household bit). It sometimes seems so futile. I hadn’t considered mixing things up, changing the routine to get me out of the rut. Great idea.
@tiff – I hang out the washing for some “quiet time” too
Just found you today while doing some research on planning. Love, love , love your tips and advice! I like the concept of the 30 minute blocks, but I am to ADD for that! I do mine in 15 minute blocks of time. The kids handle that amount of time well also.
SO LOVE THIS POST. #8 is my big one. I have 6 windows open now, plus skype, twitter and my email AND my calendar.
Thanks for the inspiration!
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This is a great list! I think I am going to print this and try to do these things tonight. Just found your site and love it!
.-= Laura´s last blog ..Sunday Chuckle =-.
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