The Juggling Act

Do you ever feel like your life is a juggling act? I sure do. Sometimes I have a hard time focusing on what I want to get done because all the things I need to do are constantly swimming in my head. Believe it or not, this is complicated for me because I do have a lot of discretionary time while my business is taking a bit of a recessional rest, shall we say? (Too weird, a Realtor just called me for a consultation appointment as I was typing that last sentence!) For all my adult life I have had a schedule that was pretty demanding and I had to just fit things in as I could much of the time. Now I have more options for how I spend my time, along with plenty to do.

I heard something about juggling yesterday that I have been thinking about and it really resonated with me. Of course everyone knows that time management is essential to any kind of order. This is old news, right? But for me what is crazy making is the overwhelming feelings of all the things I have to do, replaying over and over again in my head like a computer caught in a loop. All these balls I am trying to juggle....

So I heard this guy talking about the art of juggling and he said that when you are juggling the only ball you have to worry about is the one coming down, or the one you have to catch. If your concentration is on anything else your balls will land up on the floor.

So what I gleaned from that is that it is important to schedule the things you want to accomplish each day and then focus on just that during the allotted time. I know this is easier said than done but it just gave me a new way of thinking about my goals and why it is hard to get them accomplished, over and done with sometimes.

I know we women are the masters of multi-tasking but sometimes total focus is required. I am not very good at this after many years of doing several things at once. So I have been trying to sort out my goals and trying to figure out what requires 100% focus and when is the best time of the day for me to do that. I am a total early bird so that means I better start to do the hard stuff earlier in the day and the fun stuff, like blogging, later in the day.

As an example, at 5:00 am it is easier for me to concentrate on planning a lesson or working on my business plan if Jim is gone and the house is quiet, the phone isn't ringing, etc. So waiting until a Saturday afternoon to do it makes it so much harder. I know this isn't rocket science but better planning should make it a more productive experience. Then I can do the thing that take less focus during the other parts of the day. I guess it is just working smarter, maybe.

It is hard to do the juggling in a fog! I need to slow down and focus!

The next thing I am going to do to get more organized and balanced is I am getting out and dusting off my FlyLady binder. I made it several years ago and it was a big help to me then and I know it would be now too. I am revamping it to reflect things that have changed and have been added as a small business owner, grandmother, etc. I am kind of excited about it and will let you know if and how it helps! What are you doing to make life better for yourself and your family?