March Madness or Spring Simplifying for Sanity?
The joke is, I almost "simplified" myself out of writing this newsletter. I reasoned, "It'll be okay. No one will really notice. I'll do a newsletter every quarter. That's good enough."
Thank goodness I see my monthly newsletters as a way to keep in touch with you, not just a way to share tips and life hacks. In fact, on my scribbled scratch paper to-do list, I wrote "journal" and then quickly wrote "/newsletter" just to catch myself. This is for you folks, not me. Right? Oh man, I love you guys.
The late timing of this newsletter is telling...my time management skills, or lack thereof, are showing. But I'm not mad. This month was a busy and fun one. We celebrated my daughter's 7th birthday with a huge house party, I taught Art Literacy for her class, we met Minnie Mouse and took a wild ride with Mr. Toad (whoever that is!) and celebrated Easter at the "Hop at the Hunt." Phew! Rico even got festive with a new hair-do. Life is full and good.
But how am I accomplishing my daily goals yet finding time to sleep? Firstly, I'm taking things off my list. I'm simplifying in every way I can. I'm focusing in like I'm in my last year of grad school. I'm getting monomaniacal like I'm writing my Honors College thesis. And then re-writing it, all 72 pages, in a week.
Yes, I'm temporarily cutting out the "extras" that are enjoyable but not necessary. I'm saying "no." Which is so hard for me. Especially with my special dopamine-seeking neurodiverse ADHD/C-PTSD brain.
You see, it's much harder for me to "not do" than it is to "do." And as my friend Margot Miles put it, I have an optimistic viewpoint on time. Which means that I usually underestimate how long it takes me to do things by at least 15 minutes.
In other words, I'm checking myself before wrecking myself. I'm taking the days that I don't have Maya and grinding out the work. This "work" includes seeing patients and working on improving the office. And, this work also includes improving my mindset, aka. getting out of my own way. It.Is.So.Hard. I would much rather be out on a leisurely walk outside on this beautiful day. I mean, Cafe Marzocca is still open and welcomes Rico in with a complimentary"puppacino." It would be a win-win.
But, around bedtime tonight, I would stress about all that I didn't do. Now, I'm not saying to cut all fun out of your life. But if you're like me and think that everything can be done right now, there might be help for you, too.
Literally take a page from Stephen R. Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In it, he categorizes tasks into 4 areas, dividing a piece of paper into quadrants of:
1. Urgent and important (ie. publishing this newsletter)
2. Not urgent but important (ie. getting items for the office at Target)
3. Urgent but not important (ie. going to the gym tonight before it closes)
4. Not urgent and not important (ie. getting bark chips at Home Depot)
I love this chart because I'm a visual person and this exercise helps me sort out my brain. If I didn't make this quadrant, I would probably be at Target right now. Wouldn't you be?
But by consulting this guide, I'm shown that if I was really smart, I would ask my landscaper to pick up the bark chips at Home Depot. And I just might!
You might be happy to hear that I did delegate something for Maya's birthday...I hired Laila Murphy, a teacher and musician, to entertain and teach the partygoers a few songs. They even performed a T Swift song for us! I think that counts, right?
As always, thank you for doing this with me!
