Day 67 of walking
I forgot our tax appointment is this Saturday, so now I’m scrambling. Honestly, I would be scrambling even if I didn’t forget. Looking back on the last few weeks, I don’t know where I could have fit it in. I feel like I’m always trying to catch up, always moving on to the next project. I thought disconnecting from social media would free me up and give me more time, but I feel as time-starved as ever. I don’t want to believe that this is how life just is. That doesn’t sound right. Surely there is something I am doing wrong, or something I need to stop doing.
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about “busy” this week. I gave up my hours of tv time at night for Lent thinking I’d get so much DONE without that time suck. While I’m better rested thanks to not getting sucked into binge watching, I’ve found other work that needs doing. (And my knitting isn’t getting done, which considering two jobs are commissions, I need to get on with or without binge TV).
All that to say, I think this is just a really overwhelmingly busy time of year for a lot of people in a period of history where we are BUSY people. Kids’ activities, home care, self care, jobs, maintaining friendships – everything just takes TIME. Add to that that you’re working/volunteering out of the home and that takes not just on the spot time but PREP time. There’s just always something to do. Hang in there.
I definitely think we are in a period of busy historically. I’m not sure if there is a way out of it, but I’ll keep looking.
Have you heard of the 2.5 Rule? The premise: Humans can only do 2.5 things really well- we have two elements of our life that are given full priority, and one element that is given half priority, and the rest doesn’t really register on the scale, because there just isn’t enough left over.
So, take the Big 5 for life- Family, Fitness, Friends, Sleep, Work (I would actually argue there are seven categories, but that’s another story). Pick three. That’s it.
That’s not to say that the three you choose have to remain FOREVER- as life changes, your three priorities can change as well. Heck, your three priorities can change weekly, if you need them to. But you cannot have everything.
If you cut out social media, expecting an enormous amount of time to open up, and it hasn’t, it means one of two things- you either didn’t spend as much time on social media as you thought, OR all the other tasks you undertake on a daily basis have expanded to fill the extra time (which is Parkinson’s Law). 2.5 things- that’s all you have.
So, NO, IT’S NOT JUST YOU (I cannot emphasize that strongly enough- IT’S NOT YOU), but yes, this may just be how life is.
Whoa! This is so fascinating! I’ve never heard of the 2.5 Rule. Where is it from? I tried googling it but all I found related to short hairstyles.
I heard it from my friend Holly, who in turn heard it from her husband, who heard it from his entrepreneur friend Leif. This is basically the same idea (don’t know if the link will work here or not, but the article is still live, I just checked):
http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/work-sleep-family-fitness-or-friends-pick-3.html
Hi Jules,
What you wrote here speaks so much to me too–always feeling like I can’t catch up. I think a lot of that has to do with having a toddler and school-age children. There is always someone getting sick, a new developmental leap that throws off the routine, a new sport or activity popping up. And then there is just life–I recently went through a little health scare, which thankfully has turned out to be manageable and temporary, but for a while it’s all I could think about, I had appointments to get to, and that disruption really messed with my organizational system (what I have of one, anyway). All this to say, hang in there. I don’t think anyone else really has it all together.
Love that you are posting your walks again, it’s inspiring me to attend to my own health.
Thanks for being brave and putting out there the things that many of your readers are thinking and feeling.
Thank you for such a nice comment! I’m sorry I only just saw this comment today (3/16). It was in my spam folder. Ugh. So sorry!!