There were several days back when Will was new that I felt I never got anything done and I went to bed with that overwhelmed, nagging, staring at the ceiling until 3 AM kind of feeling. Then, I felt even worse because I was sleep-deprived not from a newborn but from simply not being able to sleep when I should have. For a control freak like me, it was driving me crazy.
While it’s completely normal to find yourself behind on normal day-to-day tasks when you are in the throes of new motherhood, I found a solution to help me feel like I had some sort of life preserver to keep me afloat. It’s really as simple as pulling out your organizer, your cell phone, your wall calendar, or whatever you use to keep your life in order and scheduling just one little task everyday to accomplish.
If you really do have a love affair with organization like I do, I know you have a little calendar contraption of sorts. Mine until recently was my cell phone calendar which just turned into my Galaxy Tablet calendar. It really doesn’t matter what yours is, as long as it helps you stay organized and feel caught up. Here’s how I used mine to help me sleep like a baby (when I wasn’t taking care of one):
· Make sure the task you schedule for yourself is easily attainable; otherwise if you don’t finish it you’ll end up feeling even more overwhelmed and frustrated.
· Choose your daily task wisely. To help you decide from your mountain of must-do’s, schedule the one thing that would make your life the hardest if you didn’t get it done.
· When you finish the task, go back and cross it off your list. This is nothing but therapeutic, but it still gives me a little surge of satisfaction whenever I do it. This silly little step really helped me through those especially frustrating times.
· As you find yourself feeling ready to take on more daily tasks, go ahead and schedule them in slowly. Eventually you’ll be back to your old self juggling tons of appointments, errands and other adventures. The only difference now is you’re doing it with your baby on your hip.
I’ll leave you with an example of my initial calendar schedule when Will was first born. You can see I was not joking when I say to keep it simple at first. Obviously I did more things during the week than what is listed below, but again, the point of this calendar is not to keep a log of your daily occurrences, but to help you get through that one rough day of the week when nothing gets done and to stay motivated and optimistic for the next one. God speed.
Monday: Water plants
Tuesday: Wash sheets
Wednesday: Groceries
Thursday: Target – Gotta love the Bullseye! J
Friday: Laundry
No comments:
Post a Comment