1, 2, 3, Go!

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for just five minutes on a one-word prompt without heavy editing and see what happens. Today’s prompt is “start.”

My 20-month-old grandson has a little plastic slide that he likes to climb on and sort of slide down. I say “sort of” because he likes to put his sticky little feet down and therefore stop himself before he actually gets to the bottom. But when he is at the top, he will look at me expectantly and say something that sounds like “1, 2, 3, go!” because that’s what he has heard me say when he’s up there.

Then he’ll push himself down, get to the bottom and say “weady?” and jump off the end onto the carpet. He feels quite proud of himself for his accomplishment. Every time.

Jesus encouraged people to have childlike faith, and I would submit that having childlike enthusiasm would be a good idea as well.

How many times have you just sat on the couch and thought, “I should just get up and take a walk” or clean the house, or make dinner, or take a shower. The list of things we procrastinate on goes on and on.

So next time you find yourself procrastinating, say out loud, “1, 2, 3, go!” and then actually get up and get started. You can’t accomplish what you never set out to do. That may sound obvious, but it’s not always easy.

Nike had it right. Just do it. Let’s get this party started.

What Have You Done Today?

Many years ago when my husband and I went through counseling to try to firm up some sagging places in our marriage, our counselor told him that when he came home from work, my husband was not allowed to ask me what I had done that day.

We had small children at that point, and I was volunteering at our eldest’s parent-involved school 2 days a week. I was lucky to get dinner on the table each day.

I am not a high-energy person when it comes to physical labor. I can’t work in the hot Florida sun for more than about an hour before I’m just done. My husband can go on for hours at a time.

Sometimes I feel guilty for being inside in the air conditioning. Maybe I’m reading a book. Maybe I’m playing a mindless game. Or maybe I’m working on my computer, actually accomplishing something.

Wait, what was that I just said?

That’s exactly the problem. If I’m just resting or reading or playing, I have the mindset that I’m not ACCOMPLISHING anything.

And that needs to change.

There’s a saying: God made us human BEings, not human DOings.

Yes, there are chores that need to be done. But sometimes just BEing takes precedence.

 

This post is a part of the Five-Minute Friday link up. Join the fun! Today’s prompt is “done.”

More Productivity Hints

To add to my list from my last post, A Lazy Person’s Guide To Productivity, I thought of something else:

Never leave your dryer unattended. Pull things that matter out before they sit there and get wrinkled and you end up having to — shudder — iron. That goes against every lazy person’s law there is. Ironing is one of those tasks that just shouldn’t have to happen. I’ve been known to dry things with other loads because they’ve gotten left in the dryer. In fact, as I write this, there is a load just like that drying. I hate spending time ironing.

Don’t spend most of your time doing stuff you hate. Set aside time to do something you like. It will energize you. There are days when I spend all my free time in administrative household stuff. I’m the bookkeeper in my home, so I have to keep the budget, enter receipts in ibank, fill out forms, pay bills, make phone calls, etc. While I’m doing that, which I don’t actually hate, but isn’t the most fun, I watch a movie or catch up on a television show on Hulu. Of course, I can’t do that while I’m on the phone, but the pause button works for that. 🙂

Keep your house clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be happy. I won’t ever be Martha Stewart, and I won’t have a showcase in Southern Living, but people are welcome and feel comfortable in my house. I won’t pass any white glove tests, and please don’t look under my bed, but my kitchen is clean and my eating surfaces are sanitary. I don’t like clutter, so things generally get picked up, but with three kids and multiple animals living here, there is some degree of mess that I just put up with because I love them. As some wise pundit put it, “Cleaning the house while the kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk while it’s still snowing.” Amen.

That’s all for now. Hope that helps!

Thankful today for:

764. new fishies

765. a birthday celebration

766. a spontaneous lunch date with my husband

767. my son’s first real job

768. another licensed driver in the house

769. my animals

770. a sweet, warm, dry January

771. good return policies

772. opportunities

773. life

A Lazy Person’s Guide To Productivity

I have two what you might call “real” jobs: I am the copy editor for a magazine and I am a 6th grade teacher. Both of these jobs come with mandatory deadlines. I have to have things done at a certain point: procrastination isn’t an option.

In all of my other roles–wife, mom, housekeeper, etc.–I have some wiggle room, and that’s where my innate laziness kicks in. So I’ve come up with a few tricks so that things actually get done around here, but I’m not forced to manipulate my round self into a square hole.

One caveat: this doesn’t work if you have small children at home. Mine are all 10 and up, so they can do so much for themselves, plus they’re at school a good part of the day. I also start the day talking with my Creator and making sure I’m on His page. That’s the only way I’m going to get anything done.

OK, here goes, a lazy person’s guide to productivity:

1. Once you’re up, stay up. An object in motion tends to stay in motion; an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Don’t sit down until you’ve accomplished something. If you sit, all is lost.

2. If you find yourself feeling like completing some task, do it! Even if it’s in the middle of something else you were doing. Don’t let those feelings pass by; you may never get them back again!

3. If you’re doing something, and, let’s say you walk into another room to get something and see something else that needs to be done, do it! If your distractions are productive, go ahead and get distracted. For instance, if you’re looking in the refrigerator for lunch and see a bin that really needs washing, wash it! Lunch can wait. That kind of goes against the grain of every organizational, productivity guru you’re ever going to meet. They’ll tell you not to leave things half done. But, I almost always go back to what I was originally doing, especially if it involves eating. I don’t like leaving things half done either.

4. Multitask! If you’ve got laundry to fold, watch that show that’s been on your DVR forever. I always have my laptop with me when I’m watching a baseball or football game on TV. The game doesn’t need my undivided attention, and there’s always something I need to do for work or school on my computer. This only works if you’re a good multitasker. If something needs your full attention in order to be done well, don’t divide yourself.

5. If you’re going to sit down, take everything with you that you need for several different projects: mail that hasn’t been dealt with, a button that needs to be sewn on, correspondence, your laptop computer :-), a junk drawer that needs to be organized. Because once you’re down, you’re not going to be getting up for awhile :-).

6. Whenever you feel like accomplishing something, do it. Don’t talk yourself out of anything that takes energy, because you never know when that energy is going to be there. There was a day that I decided to paint one of the walls in my living room as an accent wall. I went to the store, got samples, chose a color and then did it! I think I got it accomplished in two days. Then I had to rest for a week. Just kidding.

7. Combine errands. I almost never go out for just one thing. Not only does that waste gas, but it wastes energy! Grocery shopping is one of my least favorite chores. I don’t know exactly why, but it just is. So I procrastinate that job all the time. If I have to be out for any other reason, I will get groceries then. Today, in fact, I will be combining three trips: one to my chiropractor, one to pick up my son from an after-school activity, and then to the grocery store. Of course, that means bringing my son along with me, but he doesn’t usually mind. Getting off this comfortable couch today was just too much work!

I might add to these pointers as I think of more ways to be productive. Truth is, I’ve fought against my laziness in my head for years, but I realize that I really do get a lot done, maybe just not in the traditional ways other people do them. I hope this helped!

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Thankful today for:

753. a newly licensed driver in the house (that’ll really help with those errands)

754. movies that make me cry

755. gift cards–I just love them

756. warm January weather (I will have a lot of disagreement to that one)

757.  a still-green Christmas tree

758. people who keep their word

759. accomplishments

760. acceptance

761. music

762. books

763. cameras