Game Over

Day 25 of 365 Tiny Changes

Yesterday morning, I decided to do a little change-up in my morning schedule.  After all, it was Sunday, and everybody deserves a little break now and then.  Right?

I got up at 8:00 and made my cup of tea, and sat down to read a fiction book, until everybody else woke up.

Any other day, I have a whole list of things I do before I sit down to read.  When I do read, it’s a research book of some sort, and I’m eating breakfast while I’m reading.  This is my one success at multitasking.  Today I didn’t do this.  BIG Mistake.

I’ve only had a really organized morning system for a very short time, but amazingly, I've gotten used to it.  I'm even to the point that I’m  beginning to feel productive, each morning.

Yesterday, I read fiction for an hour, then got up to take my shower.  That was like the green light for the rest of the household to jump into action.  “Mom, when are you gonna be out, I need in there.”  We only have one bathroom.  

I go upstairs and begin my stretching routine.  “There you are!  I was wondering where you went to.  Just checking on you.”  What did Guy think, I fell into that mysterious black hole we have floating around our house?

I sit down to write my blog, and it’s game over.  They win.
 
“Hey, Linda!  Can you help me rearrange the garage?  Now!  There’s a big line of rain coming and I need to get more stuff in there.”
 
“Hey Mom, I’m making cinnamon rolls, want some?”
 
“Hey Mom, listen to what happened to me last night.”

“Hey Linda, do you want me to go get a newspaper this morning?”
 
It’s nice to be needed.

My finely planned day was called due to rain, and the adventures of every day life.  I was able to  get my blog out, eventually, with several other interruptions.  I finally gave up, totally, on what I had planned to get done, and  we went shopping, instead, without coupons. 

Yesterday’s change-up didn’t work out so well.  The needs of the relationship part of my Life Plan were making themselves known, loudly, yesterday.

I’m considering several options for handling days when the rest of the family is home.  I don’t want to completely abandon all the tiny changes I’ve made to my daily routine, to accommodate their presence.  I don’t want to push them off, for hours, until I’m finished with what I have to do, either.

If I abandon it all for a day, I either have a bigger day, the day before, or the day after.  If I stick to it, I cut into my time with my family.  Hmm.  A dilemma, for sure.

When I was working, I faced this same issue with my clients.  I worked inside a banking office, that was open to the public from 9-6.  There were things I needed to get done that were best done without the interruption of a walk-in client. 

I solved this problem by going in at 7:00 AM and staying until at least 7 PM.  That gave me 3 hours of uninterrupted time to work on those projects.  Long days, true, but I was able to accomplish what needed done and was able to meet with walk-in clients as needed.  This, also, cut down on my frustration with being interrupted.

When I was working, we had a term that we used, “train your clients”.  This meant, setting boundaries.  In the business I was in, it was very easy to allow the clients to claim every minute of my day.  And I mean every minute. 

You don’t know how many calls I got at 2 AM, from clients.  Either because they couldn’t sleep, or they worked 3rd shift, and must have thought I did, too.  The only way for me to stop this, was to communicate with  them, early in our relationship, how I did business, including how I communicated information to them, and when I was available to them.

Sounds cold, but once they understood, they were usually cool with it.  I would do my best to accommodate their schedule, too.  We would usually get into some sort of loose routine.  My 3rd shift clients were the first clients I communicated with every morning, at 7:00 AM, so I wouldn’t interrupt their sleep.  We were both much happier, being less sleep deprived, and all. 

Perhaps a combination of these 2 methods will work with my family.  I can streamline what I do on Sundays, to make myself more available to them.  I can speak to them, and claim a few hours at the front of the day as my own, and when I’m finished, I’m all theirs.  All of this will be even easier to accomplish if I do it while they’re still sleeping.

Tiny Change 25: Wake up at 5:30 AM, every day.

Sleep experts say it’s best for our health if we wake up at the same time every day.  So here’s another one for my Health Life Plan.

If you have ever experienced this sort of dilemma and have found a solution that has worked for you, I would love to hear about it.

Best  Regards,

Linda

Tiny Blessing for the Day:  I am blessed to have warm clothes to wear as the cold weather sets in.  There are so many people who don’t.