Like many women, I feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. I struggle on and on every day, grumbling endlessly that ‘someday’ I’ll have enough time. I finally realized, what if time isn’t the problem but my priorities and organization? I also keep thinking, someday I’ll be more organized. Nope, if I am realistic with myself then I will declare that this is about as organized as I’ll ever get. So, what to do? Re-evaluate myself, my work, and my priorities. I thought I’d share the changes I’m implementing in case they can help you too.
Priorities. What tasks are most important for me to complete every day? What will make me satisfied? If I was smart, I’d do those things first and use the rest of the day to do less important things. But, apparently I’m not smart because I seem to start off my day doing the least important things. In fact, they are usually the time sucks: reading emails, looking at Ravelry and Pinterest, and reading blogs. Will any of those things really help me accomplish my goals? Probably not. So I made a list of the most important tasks, and the tasks I was complaining about at the end of my day.
Changing everything at once would be overwhelming, so I’m beginning with something simple. I felt that I didn’t spend enough time knitting samples for my designs, so after breakfast I will spend at least one hour knitting. Before emails, before Facebook, and before everything else computer related. I’ve been able to do that the last few days, and I’m feeling much more accomplished. Which moves me on to the next point...
What is ‘work’? I realized I had the wrong mindset when it came to what counted as ‘work’. I thought of my design business as my ‘work’, and all my household responsibilities as other chores I just wanted to rush through. But, when my house was messy and my meals were boring and quickly thrown together I felt frustrated. I remembered reading a book on the Amish, and one of the key things the writer noted was that Amish women placed equal importance on every chore. They didn’t rush through sweeping the floors because tending the garden was more important. It was all important and all essential to running the house efficiently. So, when someone asks me what I do for a living I will explain being a designer, but I am also keeper of the house, chef, baker, and gardener. All of these things are important and should get equal amounts of my time and focus. Which leads me to...
Stop comparing yourself to other people. We hear this all the time, yet we all still do it. We see photos on Facebook and Pinterest and imagine how perfect that person’s life must be. But what we don’t see are all the failures, messes and frustrations. Whenever I read a story about women who ‘do it all’ I remind myself that you can try to ‘do it all’, but that doesn’t mean you can do it all well. I had a friend who used to cook a gourmet dinner every night. She’d insist on sharing her recipes with me, but I found them far too complicated and frou-frou for my liking. I finally asked her, “Just how long do you spend cooking dinner every night?” She thought for a moment, then replied “Oh… about three hours.” Three hours??? Nope, not for me. It is important to me to make healthy food from scratch, but I am in no way interested in spending three hours in the kitchen every night. So I stopped comparing myself to her, and started to feel better about my turkey-meatloaf-and-salad dinners. But, in contrast to that, I learned to stop saying…
“I don’t have time for that!” I’m trying to cut a few phrases out of my vocabulary, and this is one of them. I have come to see it as an excuse, and it doesn’t allow me to be realistic about my priorites. Every person alive has the same 24 hour day. We like to pretend that some people have more time than others through magic or some other means, but we all have to same amount of time. We choose how to spend our days, whether we realize it is a choice or not. I’ve come across more than a few people who scoff at my hand-knitted sweaters and tell me sarcastically, “Well, I don’t have time to do stuff like that!” You could if you really wanted to, but it would mean giving something else up. A few months ago, my husband was complaining to me about how he didn’t have enough time to read or play guitar. But he did manage to have several hours every night to watch TV and play video games. I knew that being blunt and saying that to him wouldn’t be effective, so being a sneaky wife I tried to get him to see it on his own. During Lent I declared that we would turn off the TV at 8PM every night. At first he balked, but then decided to go with it. And you know what? It was like magic. Suddenly he had time to read and play guitar. So decide what is really important for you, because your time is precious.
Also remember, taking care of yourself is just as important as working, doing and making. If we aren't healthy physically, emotionally or spiritually, then we won't be energized for our work. Be sure to keep rest and relaxation on your list of priorities!
Priorities. What tasks are most important for me to complete every day? What will make me satisfied? If I was smart, I’d do those things first and use the rest of the day to do less important things. But, apparently I’m not smart because I seem to start off my day doing the least important things. In fact, they are usually the time sucks: reading emails, looking at Ravelry and Pinterest, and reading blogs. Will any of those things really help me accomplish my goals? Probably not. So I made a list of the most important tasks, and the tasks I was complaining about at the end of my day.
Changing everything at once would be overwhelming, so I’m beginning with something simple. I felt that I didn’t spend enough time knitting samples for my designs, so after breakfast I will spend at least one hour knitting. Before emails, before Facebook, and before everything else computer related. I’ve been able to do that the last few days, and I’m feeling much more accomplished. Which moves me on to the next point...
What is ‘work’? I realized I had the wrong mindset when it came to what counted as ‘work’. I thought of my design business as my ‘work’, and all my household responsibilities as other chores I just wanted to rush through. But, when my house was messy and my meals were boring and quickly thrown together I felt frustrated. I remembered reading a book on the Amish, and one of the key things the writer noted was that Amish women placed equal importance on every chore. They didn’t rush through sweeping the floors because tending the garden was more important. It was all important and all essential to running the house efficiently. So, when someone asks me what I do for a living I will explain being a designer, but I am also keeper of the house, chef, baker, and gardener. All of these things are important and should get equal amounts of my time and focus. Which leads me to...
Stop comparing yourself to other people. We hear this all the time, yet we all still do it. We see photos on Facebook and Pinterest and imagine how perfect that person’s life must be. But what we don’t see are all the failures, messes and frustrations. Whenever I read a story about women who ‘do it all’ I remind myself that you can try to ‘do it all’, but that doesn’t mean you can do it all well. I had a friend who used to cook a gourmet dinner every night. She’d insist on sharing her recipes with me, but I found them far too complicated and frou-frou for my liking. I finally asked her, “Just how long do you spend cooking dinner every night?” She thought for a moment, then replied “Oh… about three hours.” Three hours??? Nope, not for me. It is important to me to make healthy food from scratch, but I am in no way interested in spending three hours in the kitchen every night. So I stopped comparing myself to her, and started to feel better about my turkey-meatloaf-and-salad dinners. But, in contrast to that, I learned to stop saying…
“I don’t have time for that!” I’m trying to cut a few phrases out of my vocabulary, and this is one of them. I have come to see it as an excuse, and it doesn’t allow me to be realistic about my priorites. Every person alive has the same 24 hour day. We like to pretend that some people have more time than others through magic or some other means, but we all have to same amount of time. We choose how to spend our days, whether we realize it is a choice or not. I’ve come across more than a few people who scoff at my hand-knitted sweaters and tell me sarcastically, “Well, I don’t have time to do stuff like that!” You could if you really wanted to, but it would mean giving something else up. A few months ago, my husband was complaining to me about how he didn’t have enough time to read or play guitar. But he did manage to have several hours every night to watch TV and play video games. I knew that being blunt and saying that to him wouldn’t be effective, so being a sneaky wife I tried to get him to see it on his own. During Lent I declared that we would turn off the TV at 8PM every night. At first he balked, but then decided to go with it. And you know what? It was like magic. Suddenly he had time to read and play guitar. So decide what is really important for you, because your time is precious.
Also remember, taking care of yourself is just as important as working, doing and making. If we aren't healthy physically, emotionally or spiritually, then we won't be energized for our work. Be sure to keep rest and relaxation on your list of priorities!
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