Motivated Mum

In the past, for various reasons, getting motivated wasn’t easy.   There is always the eternal competition between what I want to do, what I should be doing and what I have to do.   If I don’t want to do what I have to do, I get resentful because it’s stopping me doing what I want to do, and if I do what I want to do, I get a guilt trip because what I should be doing isn’t getting done.   All in all, I end up in a mass of doing nothing at all.   Still following?

It also makes me a bit lastminute dot com.   Guides is on a Wednesday, so I end up taking ages to get down to planning things because Wednesday is so far away isn’t it?   Surely I can squeeze in a few more wants and shoulds before this have to?   Then I’m racing around on Wednesday itself to get something ready (as well as doing Craft Club, looking after the Craftyguidelets, cooking dinner and all the other things that come up).   Thursday is Mother-in-law day and Rainbows so I always dash around trying to get the house tidy before she gets here.   She probably wouldn’t mind that I hadn’t dusted, but it’s what Daughter-in-laws panic about, isn’t it?

Enter Motivated Mum.   The new, improved me who gets things done in plenty of time, who balances family, volunteering, housework and me-time.

1. Don’t get overwhelmed

I use my Google calendar for appointments etc., but I also have a pretty slimline paper diary for my to do list.

When I get a blank sheet of A4, it fills up with everything I want and need to do.   It gets so big, I look at it and get put off from doing it.   I accumulate several scraps of paper with things to do on them which I can never find it when I need them.   Things that are important get mixed up with things that don’t really matter.   With this diary I physically can’t add too much to a page.   Also, things are dated so I know my deadlines.   World Book Day coming up?   Need a costume?   That needs to be entered in plenty of time so I can get it done rather than a last minute scrabble through the washing pile on the day.

2. Tap the app

I bought an app for my phone called Motivated Mom (yes, it’s from the US).   It suggests housework tasks to do every day so that over the course of a week, in theory my house is clean and tidy.   It doesn’t factor in Craftyguidelet chaos though.   It also suggests things like washing the garage door and other large tasks to do once a year.   I’ve programmed in things like sorting out my ‘take upstairs’ bag every couple of days.

I’ve also started a new section in Google calendars for my blog posts and twitter hashtag hours so I remember what happens when.   If I’m free, I can join in with the chats, and my blog posts are vaguely themed for each day.

3. Inspiration

I am reading ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin.   There are so many things in this book that seem such simple and effective ideas.   Obviously her life doesn’t match mine, so I’m going to try a mini happiness project.   I’m starting with health and I’ll be developing that soon.

4. Perspiration

One of the things that has been holding me back is my health.   I’m tired all the time, I suffered from PND and I have a dodgy back.   I’ve eliminated so many things from my diet, went on and then gave up antidepressants and I’ve tried seeing a chiropractor.   I’m now going to try and focus on exercise a bit more.   Today I walked the girls to school and then walked to the local farm shop, bought some veg and then walked home which was almost a 3 mile round trip.

It was a beautiful day today so it was lovely being outside (apart from the weight of the veg I had to carry and my shoes which rubbed just a bit too much).   Having a bad back has prevented me from using the gym for a while, but I need to allocate some time now so I can get more active more often.

I am going to try harder to get more enthusiastic and interested about things, and hopefully I have the tools to do this now.   WI bag is ready, Craft Club bag is ready, Guide email sent, now to sort out cleaning the toilets.   Hmmm, can anyone tell me how to get motivated to do that?