Nibbling Off More Than You (or I) Can Chew

As I constantly chew and chew on our schedule, re-work it, try it out, and never manage to get everything done, I often think to myself “Kyndra, you’ve bitten off more than you can chew again.”

I’ve always been this way. Always had dreams and grand plans and always had trouble with execution. When I was a teen I remember waxing eloquent on some scheme I had and my mother stopping me by saying that she didn’t really want to hear about a new scheme until I had completed at least one already begun project. As I contemplate homeschooling and regular weekly hospitality , and church work, and hanging out with friends and…and … and…? I sometimes wonder where the time goes.

This week I am trying yet another organizational scheme, which so far is at least allowing me to get all the laundry done (one of my 3 in30 goals for June) and I think I’ve noticed something important: I don’t bite off more than I can chew, I nibble.

 

What I mean is this: almost everything that I’m involved with or would like to be involved with takes very little actual time.

Here’s a breakdown:

  • Blogging: an hour of dedicated writing divided between morning and afternoon
  • Homeschooling: Most days an hour of teaching time and a half hour or so of prep.
  • Planning the Neighborhood Fall Festival for a local church an hour once a week at this point.
  • Cleaning house: 2 hours a day
  • Cooking probably another two hours per day
  • Reading things I both want and need to read: and hour or sometimes two per day

I’ll stop there- that’s already 48 hours per week! It’s no wonder I find it hard to squeeze other things in, let alone have the mental energy for planning some of the things I dream of doing. The trouble is most of those things are things that I do in 15 minutes here, half an hour there..nibbling at the time at my disposal. It’s rare for me to schedule something that takes a large dedicated chunk of time (a bite if you will), rather I do? a bit of this and a bit of that and suddenly it’s ten o’clock at night and I’m done but not finished.

Now I’ll admit that I am by nature a putterer. I can get a tremendous lot done if allowed to sort of putter at it. Puttering is one of the reasons my garden is so good this year- I doubt I’ve spent more than an hour on it at any one time, I putter at it several times a day instead!

The problem with puttering is that I find that suddenly I have too many things on my plate to allow me to putter and then I stress, and then I walk right out of holistic living and into snarling. Not a good outcome.

So what do I do? What do you do when you find that all of the good things you are doing just take more time than you have available?? Ideas anyone?

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4 Responses to Nibbling Off More Than You (or I) Can Chew

  1. Mariposa says:

    I’m one of those people that likes to stay busy, so I can understand where you are coming from. The main thing that helps me is to figure out what my top priorities are and focus on those.

  2. K_Steinmann says:

    Yes, and the new To-Do Chart I’m using found here is really helpful since it has a limited amount of space…K

  3. Rebecca says:

    Wow, that’s a LOT of cleaning. I have nibbled down to two hours/week…. You have some wonderful goals…..can’t wait to check in and see how they go!

    • K_Steinmann says:

      3 preschoolers can make a lot of mess, plus we host a weekly Open House supper, and my husband teaches a class here once a week, so the downstairs/public spaces need to be tidy and clean pretty much all the time…K

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