Time management

I've never been great at managing my time but recently I have been getting worse and worse. I've also noticed that now that my boys are older they also seem to be requiring more of my time too despite gaining more independence. Perhaps it is because I used to be able to do two things at once when they were smaller but today they will require my full attention. Regardless of the reason the amount of time at my disposal feels as if it is shrinking daily.


Add to the above that it is spring and I am feeling the need to spring clean. And my garden is crying for attention. And I need to focus on me and improve my own fitness. I just can't do it all!

But I have found a middle ground.

After much pondering I have decided not to Spring clean. This was a surprisingly hard choice much as I hate housework as I do like to know that a room has been properly cleaned thoroughly at least once a year even if the whole home is never tidy at the same time. But instead, each morning, I am grabbing my timer and spending 5 minutes in each area of my home cleaning or sorting or whatever jumps out at me as requiring urgent attention that day. And so far it's working! The whole place is feeling much nicer already and we are all feeling better for it.

On a practical note I now set my timer for 4 minutes. I found that 5 minutes meant that I would get sucked into jobs that went on for much longer and I would lose the whole morning to housework. But at 4 minutes I find it easy to finish the job I am on and then move onto the next room. The interesting thing about this technique is that it is forcing me to deal with tasks that I've been putting off, it's amazing how much can be done in with a 4 minute timer.

To get into the garden was even simpler, I have purchased a new pair of XXXXXXXXXXLarge waterproof trousers. Perhaps I have exaggerated the size just a little but these offer lots of wiggle room that is required for wearing over other clothes and to allow plenty of flexibility for kneeling. Why do I need these? We get a lot of dew in our garden and, thanks to our trees, it can take most of the day for this to clear. Late afternoon and early evening is when I tend to have other commitments, if I can't get into the garden in the morning it often won't happen and after the winter we've just had I need to get into the garden. The trousers help prevent me from procrastinating due to not wanting to get muddy. Simple.

And the last issue on the list, my fitness? To be honest if I'm running around the house for at least an hour a day followed by a couple of hours of hard work in the garden my fitness is probably covered for now. I am currently falling into bed exhausted at night with the knock on effect of waking up bright and early. I can't guarantee that I'll be good forever but it's working for right now.