Overwhelmed...Again

I love to plan.  LOVE IT.  Working the plan and following through, however is another story.  Oh I usually make some forward progress for a while.  And some of it actually does stick, but usually I end up just sliding back into my old lazy ways.  Over the long run, I can see that I have made progress during my six years of being married.  I've grown spiritually, I'm in much better shape physically, my eating is better (though still needs a lot of work), and my housekeeping skills are improving (to list a few).  I am getting there, but the day to day efforts still don't seem to be doing much.

I had forgotten just how much better I've gotten on my housekeeping especially.  I feel in some ways a little under the microscope here in Orlando where our family drops by at least once a week, usually more.  Before moving back here, the day to day condition of my house wasn't really a big deal.  I kept it clean-ish, but not like I am concerned with now.  Plus, I had fewer mess makers running around.  So, even though I don't feel like I'm currently doing well, looking back I have to admit I have made quite a bit of progress.

Which brings us to today, or more generally, the whole week.  I have accomplished very little, which is really frustrating me, even though I have some very legitimate excuses (the biggest being that my son got sick Wednesday and has kindly shared it with me).  But even with the excuses I'm upset with myself.  I have so many things that I need to change up and then others that I just want to do and it ends up overwhelming me so I just sit and don't do anything.

So here are the things I'll be changing for next week:

• Split things up into routines/habits and one time to-dos
• Only add ONE new habit per week
• Have no more than five one time to-dos (this gives me only one a day to worry about)
• I have tons of areas that need to be worked on, but I really need to stay focused to be able to ever get anywhere, so I'll pick one and break it down into teeny, tiny, ridiculously small goals.  Hopefully then I'll have no excuse and it will get done.  I'm just not getting anywhere by trying to do it all at once.
• I may have to add more to my "not right now" list...the list of things I'm just not going to stress over anymore.  

So there it is.  Sigh, I just love the idea of making progress so much that I end up over-reaching.  Hopefully these changes will help next week, if not you'll see another post like this next Friday (if necessary!).