Mindfulness Project Update

Even though it's almost the end of September, I never gave an official update on how my August 'mindfulness' activities went. I was focused on time. Mostly I thought about how I spend and organize my time.

I'm sure most of you know that I'm a pretty organized person but I also tend to over commit myself. I see that I'm free one night so I make plans - rather than looking at the big picture of the entire week and realizing that was my one night free. While I love being busy and social, I equally love having some alone time and down time - when I can just be.

August was a great month to try out some of these new strategies since I was around most of the month. There was one entire week that I did nothing social after work, which is rare for me. Instead I tried to focus on getting things done around the house, which I'm not always great at during the week. I tend to save my chores and errands for weekends, when I have more time. I'm also so tired when I get home from work after a typical 10 hour work day that I just don't want to do anything. I may take a look at my never ending to-do list but immediately feel overwhelmed with how much there is to do and too tired to do any of it.

My friend, Jess, suggested that I just set up realistic goals for myself. That I pick one item on the list and just do that. Then I'll feel both accomplished and slowly chip at my to-do list so my weekend isn't busy with all that I need to get done.

In many ways, this goes against the sort of person I am. Not that I'm all or nothing but I do like to maximize my time and pride myself on being efficient. So, typically, if I'm not going to get 'a lot' done then I'll just put it off to when I can get 'a lot' done. Crazy, huh?

But I was willing to try it and I found that it was just as rewarding! I could get one thing done in a given night (laundry, iron, pay bills, blog) and then it was one less thing I 'had' to do over the weekend. I'm still trying to employ this strategy on a regular basis.

I also created a family calendar for Carl, me and Buster (yes, even Buster has things on the calendar). I use my work (Outlook) calendar for pretty much everything but I've also maintained a paper based calendar for largely just social events. But with a new addition to my family (Carl), who also happens to travel so much I wanted to find a way to put all of the social and travel items in one place.

So I created a Google calendar that we can both access and update. To be honest, I know I'll primarily update it but I'm ok with that as long as he uses it and references it when making plans - and he does! The first time he told me he looked at the calendar to make a plan, I was so happy! It's win-win. I still get to plan and he gets to reap those benefits. But we also have an easy way that references where we are and when. So far, I'm still using this and loving it.

So, while it wasn't as busy of a goal as my July financial month had been, I feel good about what I accomplished.

I'll report back on September soon. Sadly, I'm not too pleased with myself but there is still a week left. Wish me luck!