This is a re-occurring theme in my life. As you know from reading on any day I bounce around, get sidetracked easily and often write long rambling posts. I was listening to a Flylady Blog Talk Radio Show about falling ON the bandwagon aka: getting motivated to re-establish daily routines that supply the frame work for a successful…day, week, project, business or even if its getting out of the house on time a routine will help.
I know routines help me. Yet, I can have issues with them…I can get so good at them that I think I don’t need them anymore or my perfectionism can run rampant. If I let it take over I can hyper-focus on the schedule to the exclusion of all else. I lose my joy and my creativity slips like a spoon in hot soup: painful to gather back. So its a balancing act for me to use routines just enough to help and not go so far they turn me into a obsessive order worshipping school marm.
I love the simplicity of 5. I remember a book I read that said our to do list should not be any longer than 5 things. This idea helps me not to be a crazed perfectionist/list maker. Here are Flylady’s 5 simple things to right the ship when chaos reigns. I also use these 5 steps when I have let my routines become a drudgery, and I have become no fun…
1. Shine Your Sink
2. Layout Your Clothes Before Bed
3. Go to Bed Earlier/ Wake up Before the Flow of the Family
4. Dress to Shoes Upon Waking
5. Declutter 15 minutes a Day
Now if you have never heard of Flylady then I just spewed a bunch of gobbly-gook, sorry about that. It will become familiar if you visit Flylady.net FAQs but here is a basic run down of why these 5 steps work from my point of view.
1. Shine Your Sink.
The Kitchen is the center of my household. The sink is the center of the Kitchen, ergo the center of the house. So when I blow it and get either too sidetracked or too perfectionist I go shine my sink. Being at the center of the house centers me. If the sink is shiny or when it is. I grab a glass of water and just stare out my window and give myself an atta-girl.
atta-girl- n. : 1. praise. 2. a compliment. 3. to speak a single, specific attribute or item of wonder about a member of the Sisterhood Of Woman.
Sometimes I give myself the atta-girl for just having made it to the sink. I can get so distracted just remembering where to find my center its an accomplishment worthy of praise! Whoo HOO!
2. Layout Your Clothes Before Bed.
Usually done befor bed. If I am really distracted or frustrated and need a quick re-focus I will go do this. It gets my mind on something simple. More importantly it gets my mind off whatever I am tied up about. My next step become clearer. Its like a mini-vacation when I need it the most *smile* With my clothes out for the next day, I don’t have to decide to get dressed I just do it. Its like running down slope the rest of the day. If its done before bedtime, then that is just more time to sleep!
3. Go to Bed Earlier/ Wake up Before the Flow of the Family.
I love to blame Sleepy Karl, its a fun way to not beat myself up for sleeping in. Still there is no better advice than to wake up earlier than everyone else and have some me time as well as getting a jump on the day. This only happens for me when I go to bed early. I can trace all the bad decisions I made in a chaotic day right back to Sleepy Karl and he will blame that second movie I watched the night before. So if my day fell apart ( forgive, move on) I break the cycle by going to bed earlier to do it a little better the next day.
4. Dress To Shoes Upon Waking.
Okay I suck at this. This morning I was wandering around for about 10 minutes with one untied shoe on, another shoe in hand, toothbrush in my mouth, the other hand on the toothbrush. My toothbrush hand was alternating brushstrokes with untying the held shoe so I could put the thing on. Then I bent down to ( try to) pick up a sock and it hit me. I already had a handful of things to do, why was I trying to do more than I could possibly handle? Stand still! Stop doing so much at once! Some of you are nodding your head…you have been there, right? but some others are like…DUH! One thing at a time, girlfriend! The first group of you are my Sidetracked Sisters. Salute! We know each other without ever meeting. The second group of you are Born Organizers. I used to want desperately to be a BO, but I am not built that way. You got it going ON! Allow my admiration to wash over each of you!
I am glad to report the shoes got tied, the teeth got brushed, the sock got picked up, but nothing was happening ( except my head spinning) when I was trying to do all three at one time. I vow tomorrow to give myself the gift of putting those shoes on before I do anything else.
5. De-clutter 15 minutes a day.
I always feel great doing this one. I have tricks. One of these, is if a box comes in the mail I unpack the goodie and then set the timer to 15 minutes and fill the box with clutter. If its usable clutter I put the box right in my car to go to charity. If its paper clutter I fill it and shred it box and all for recycling. Flylady on How to De-clutter.
Whoosh!
Thanks for hanging with me while I did this therapy session. I have been alternating between slipping in my routines and being obsessive about them. Not using them like the tool they should be to find the time to blog, scrapbook, and design kits as I was doing last month. Getting my routines back will give me more time for the things I LOVE!
Leaving you with Bruce.
A classic end of summer song to wrap around you.
Happy Weekend!
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Edited: August 28th, 2009
