Everyone’s got an ideal day. What’s yours?
My ideal day would be to get up early, exercise, get some work done before my kids get up, get school accomplished, take a trip to the library, cook three healthy meals from scratch including appetizers and desserts, have an always spotless home, do a fun art project or science experiments with the kids and enjoy playing with them for a while, spend several hours on client work after they’re in bed, write or blog just because I enjoy it, spend some time reading a spy novel, and look like a million dollars while I do it all.
How often does that happen? Well most days I’m in sweats with no make up on, so the million dollar look is out the window. Sometimes we order pizza for dinner (that’s smart outsourcing, right?). So I don’t have ideal days. If I compared every day to my ideal, I’d be discouraged! I’m not sure there are enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I wish I could.
But I’ve learned to be okay with that.
I have successful days.
A successful day is one where my kids are fed healthy food (healthy and safe for the various food allergies, not necessarily cooked from scratch), complete the important school subjects (reading, writing, math, science, history, but not elaborate art projects every single day), my house is generally neat and tidy (not ready for a visit from the Queen, or my grandmother), and I’ve finished the work that needed completed, even if my email box isn’t empty.
See the difference? I’ve accomplished the most important tasks instead of everything on my perfect list.
Identify what’s the most important and what you are comfortable with letting go of–not permanently, but on some days.
I’d love to clean like whirlwind every day so there’s never any crumbs on the floor or dust on the shelves. But it’s not realistic in a home where I’ve got three rambunctious homeschoolers constantly creating their own art projects, lego creations, and re-enacting their own version of Mythbusters.
So, I’ve identified what really matters for myself and my family and I base my definition of success on that. I’m a heck of a lot less stressed out than I used to be.
Feeling like you’ve got too much to do and you’re too far away from your perfect day? Try shooting for a successful day instead and see if it works for you.
Photo credit: anitapatterson at morguefile.com
Michelle,
I work with what is called and Admin Scale. One of he major steps is to create the ideal scene for the project you are working on. It is interesting to see how different people in a group see as their ideal scene.
My ideal day would be to spend a sunny day on the lake fishing with my sweetie pie. We would be catching so many fish we would have to start cooking and eating them right there on the beach.
But like you if I compared that to what I want to accomplish on a daily basis, that day would not work. So create the the ideal day on a daily basis according to that days goals might work a little better and could include pizza for dinner.
What a lovely day. *dreaming*
I think I should define an “if I could do anything” ideal day and then a “real life” ideal day. :)
Ideal day, HA! Successful, OK. I agree wholeheartedly with you on this post!
I’ve always been a list kind of girl. Not on the computer, but pen and paper. If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. You know, “out of sight, out of mind”, that’s how computer lists/organization is for me.
I have found a way to become a little more accountable, using my blog. I’ve started sharing my “to-do” list on my blog every day. It’s helped me so much this week to “geterdone”. I don’t have problems getting my normal daily things done(most of the time), it’s the extras I tend to let slide. My days are such good days with doing this (at least this past week was :-)
That’s me, too. I’ve got to have it written down on real paper. I’ve tried all sorts of online systems and I miss things. So paper & pen it is for me.
Cool idea with your blog. I’ll have to pop over and see what you’re up to today. :)