Real life stuff happening over here. Some weeks I feel like I can’t do it all and, guess what, I can’t do it all! That is so hard for me to admit because I’m a go-getter and I make things happen. But, sometimes life just gets in the way of life. Does that make sense? I have two new great-grands who live right next door to me and I didn’t see them all last week. How does that happen? Am I a bad great-grandma??? Do I have a problem with time management? 

Here’s the deal. Just because we’re grandmas, it doesn’t mean we don’t have a life. Right? In fact, logistically, sometimes it’s just not possible to see everyone all the time. Our want to doesn’t always match up with our have to. As much as we want to do a thing, the things we have to do sometimes weigh out. 

I bet you remember feeling guilty as a mom, right? That climb-in-bed-at-night-but-can’t-turn-off-the-brain feeling because of all the things you needed to get done, but didn’t get to it.  I bet you thought that feeling would go away once your kids were gone. Not happening. Not in 2020. 

We’re just busy! I told my husband the other day, one would think with the invention of so many things to free up our time, we would find some free time. And, then I remembered something my brother told me. You see, he was one of the very first recruits at our private Christian school to learn all about this new thing called a personal computer. Lol Well, one of the first things he says he was taught is technology was never designed to make what we do easier, it was designed to make what we do more efficient. HUMMMMMM….that’s some food for thought. Right?

So, what can I do to make my job easier or give me more free time or let me, at least, walk next door and see the babies?

I decided to go back to by office brain. The brain that showed up at work at 7:30 every morning and worked outside of the house. That brain. What did I do then that could help me now? Now that I’m a writer full time. Now that my schedule really is my own, but I don’t have any free time. Now that my priorities are not so clearly defined. Here’s what my office brain reminded me to do.

1. Make a list every night of the things I have to accomplish the next day. In our older years, this list can help us stay focused through a day when we could tend to get sidetracked easily. This also gives us something to look forward to or a goal for the next day. Having a goal for any day is an important piece of the puzzle of staying productive in life and being mentally strong. 
2. Get up earlier and get started. When I used to work at an office, I loved getting there before anyone else got there. It helped me start my day off on a calmer note before everyone came in with questions and requests. Now, if I have a particularly busy day ahead of me, I set my alarm an hour earlier than I need to get ready and use that extra hour doing what I want to do. It may be reading my bible or loading the dishwasher, but it helps me start my day feeling like I can do it all.
3. Work in a work out. I’ve just recently gotten back to a regular workout schedule, which is something I always did when I worked fulltime. It’s funny, I had less time then, but I still worked it in. Here’s a quote someone once told me: If you need something done, ask a busy person. It’s true, it seems the busier I was, the more I got done. Ugh! I’m not saying I’m not busy now, but my time is more flexible and, in that flexibility, I let my exercise program go down the tube. When I’m working out, I just feel better and I know it’s better for me too. 
4. Avoid or schedule in the “time wasters.” Time wasters are things like looking at social media, watching TV, reading a magazine, surfing the web, etc. All of these things are okay things to do, but, before you know it, your day can be gone! So, schedule your time wasters. For me, I look at social media when I wake up, at my lunch break or before I go to bed. And I don’t do it for more than 15 minutes. If I am posting something significant that day, I allow more time to self-edit, etc. I also save my social media reading for when I am waiting in line for anything. If I know I have a dr. appointment that day, I save all my media time until I’m sitting in an office. 
5. Don’t get distracted. This is a tough one when we’re at home because the home itself seems to speak to us and say things like “clean me” or “organize me”, but think like you did when you worked for someone else and you couldn’t afford to get distracted. One thing I used to do at work and, now do at home, is keep a list up in front of me of things I am working on, like articles I’m writing and deadlines, other editing jobs I’m doing for people, speeches I’m working on. I keep this right in front of me at my desk so I can look up and see what I need to work on that day or cross off that day. It’s a great way to keep focused on the jobs at hand. 

That’s my thoughts for the day! Hope some of it helps you.