time management

Taking control of the steering wheel

Imagine how great it would be to have just one extra hour in the day to get done exactly what you wanted to complete. Now, let’s take a look at how much time you spend in a day worrying about the things you’re not getting done. How much time do you spend convincing yourself that this is alright? Or what about the energy you expand on being frustrated and angry that you’re not even close to getting the things done you used to.

For me, I would start out gung-ho with a plan and an agenda of how I was going to get everything I needed to do done. Then usually a “crisis” would come up which needed my attention more than my schedule did. Now the crisis didn’t have to be very big like a cracked tooth or a school invent, but usually it’s something that just needs all my attention. Slowly but surely the things that I had put on my schedule were being left undone. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy doing some of the things that interrupted my day, but I didn’t love all of them. What would happen is that I would start worrying late into the night and wondering whether or not anything was ever going to get finished.

I started waking up earlier in the day just so that I could get in some of the things I wanted to do for myself, such as meditating. At the end of the day there was never enough time to finish cleaning up the house and making sure that the lunches were ready for the next day or making sure that my mother in law was dressed for bed. This all led to me fretting and worrying into the night trying to get everything done. Waking up earlier, and stressing at night, inevitably led to shorter nights.

Then came the breaking point. My days as the family octopus and go to girl had met their demise. I was sleep deprived, angry and overburdened by everyone’s imagined and real demands. I had completely worn myself out. My body started to give out, and I was bed ridden with the flu. While I was in bed unable to perform at my usual efficient level my brain had gone into overdrive. My inner critic went to town on a litany of abuse for not being there for everyone. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t control the superwoman driving my bus anymore. I had wound up in the ditch, wheels up and I needed to hit the eject button to survive this crash.

Then my brain as the benevolent observer of my life came in.

It was demanding that I get help, and pronto.

What came next is a host of research which finally landed me in self coaching scholars. It was something I could learn and do at my pace, and since I felt very trapped, I was happy that I could do this from my own home.

The lessons I was learning and the relief I began to feel urged me to help others (you) to learn and change your own thinking and teach you how to get the life you want if the life you have is not working for you To find out more about how you can start taking these steps and book now.

Get back being in the driver’s seat of your own life.


One extra hour

One extra hour

Imagine how great it would be to have just one extra hour in the day to get done exactly what you wanted to complete.  Now, let’s take a look at how much time you spend in a day worrying about the things you’re not getting done. How much time do you spend convincing yourself that this is OK? Or what about the energy you expand on being frustrated and angry that you’re not even close to getting the things done you used to.

 

For me, I would start out gung-ho with a plan and an agenda of how I was going to get everything I needed to do done. Then usually a “crisis” would come up which needed my attention more than my schedule did. Now the crisis didn’t have to be very big like a cracked tooth or a school invent, but usually it’s something that just needs all my attention. Slowly but surely the things that I had put on my schedule were being left undone. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy doing some of the things that interrupted my day, but I didn’t love all of them. What would happen is that I would start worrying late into the night and wondering whether or not anything was ever going to get finished.

 

Time Stress

Time Stress

As caregivers we almost never reach out for help. I wonder why we continue to believe that just because we are taking care of someone, we cannot take care of ourselves, or that we cannot somehow be take care of at the same time.

Unsurprisingly, over one-third of adults with a parent 65 or older and a dependent child feel constantly rushed, compared to 23% of other adults. This makes sense—if you’re trying to manage your own life and career plus jet between a kid’s soccer game and a parent’s house to make sure the fridge is stocked, sitting down can feel like a luxury.

 

As with the standard airline warning – when the oxygen max arrives, please put yours on FIRST before helping those around you who cannot help themselves. 

 

“If the cabin air pressure changes dramatically, oxygen masks might fall from the ceiling directly in front of you. Follow the airline's instructions in operating their masks. If a child is seated beside you, put on your own mask before helping to put a mask on the child. “

 

And yet we forget.  All of the time, we believe that being exhausted busy and selfless is the ONLY way we can trust we are doing our best as a caregiver.  We take on way more responsibilities for others, we often give up self-care simply because there is no more time for that.  We deem ourselves less important, we tell ourselves it’s only for a short time, we decide things like hot meals, haircuts, and visiting with friends is not as important as being on hand to watch over our loved ones when they need us most.

 

 

Planning ahead of time

Planning ahead of time

Planning ahead of time

How often do you hear stories about parents failing health causing falls or worse?

rushes to hospital emergency. The levels of stress and emotional upset these

events create are intense. There is a drop everything call-to-arms and we all rally

around to wait and see what happens next.

Does this sound familiar? Are you having these events happen with alarming frequency? How can you stop the knee jerk reaction when it is so instinctive.

Getting stuff done

  Getting stuff done

Do you ever feel like no matter what you start, how excited you were when you started, nothing ever seems to get finished? There's always some interruption, there's always something more important that needs to be done, there's always someone who needs your time and more than you do.  Is it just impossible to find the time to get tasks completed that you started no matter how exciting they are if they're not important to the collective that you belong to?