At the bottom of Elisabeth’s Cool Bloggers Walking Club Week 2 Recap she asked the question: “Do you cut exercise when your schedule gets too full or do you drop something else and if so, what?” I am currently in a period where my schedule has been a little more full than usual. I work casually, and generally have set tasks to do each week and month, but also do some projects. At the moment G has me working on a project automating aspects of his and his business partner’s jobs which has added at least another 10 hours of work into my schedule the last couple of weeks. I have also played in the church band the last two Sundays. At the moment, since I have only played five times in total, that means learning 2 new songs each week and for yesterday one particularly piano heavy song. It is also slower going than I’d like because I am trying to remember how to play after twenty-five years not playing, and learn how to play by ear with a chord chart after only playing off sheet music when I was younger. That means that I can answer Elisabeth’s question of what I drop when things get busy in real time. Starting with:
- Writing and reading/commenting on blogs: I normally have a Monday, Wednesday, Friday blog posting schedule, and the last two weeks I’ve gone down to two posts each week. I was going to try to power through with my normal schedule, but then I came to my senses. My reader, which delivers both blog posts and newsletters, currently has 213 unread posts. I haven’t commented on as many posts and have been commenting later. I’ll probably scroll through what’s there quickly and then hit read all.
2. Cleaning: I don’t follow a set weekly cleaning schedule. I have a system for cleaning where I have a list of weekly, monthly, quarterly etc jobs. It lives in my notes system which allows me to very quickly tag something for a particular date and highlight them. Once I’ve done, for instance a weekly task, I tag it to appear in my notes in a weeks time. At the moment I’m allowing weekly tasks to go a bit longer than a week (if the bathroom goes 10 days instead of 7 between cleans it’s not the end of the world) and I haven’t done any of my monthly tasks that have come due (I just highlight what hasn’t been done and know to come back to it). The only non-negotiable is changing our sheets, which I change every week and a weekly quick vacuum.
3. Cooking: Our meals have been pedestrian to say the least. I’m actually getting a bit bored by it all, to be honest, especially since I’m avoiding cooking anything that has dairy in it.
4. Some habits: Some of the habits on my tracking list are not getting done. The last time I did any mobility (except for the quick morning one I do) was the 9th of October. I’ve got to inbox zero once in the last two weeks, and I’ve even missed making the bed 4 times last week. Even filling in the tracker has been sporadic.
5. Personal Projects: Most are on the back burner—at least during the week. I have managed to carve out a little bit of time on the weekends to do some tasks that were time sensitive, like setting up our new wicking bed ready for the tomatoes to be planted.
What I haven’t dropped
I’ve kept up all my scheduled running and weight training. I have a fairly clear couple of months to get some good training in, I’m healthy and uninjured so fitting this in has been non-negotiable. Family dinners on Monday nights, and time with family and friends in general. Hanging with the girls when they come over. Eating healthy food, even if it is boring.
Do you have non-negotiables? Short cuts on the must dos for when things get busy? What would you drop or keep?
Comments
14 responses to “When Life Gets Busy”
Cleaning and tidying can fall to the wayside when we get super busy. We already only make about 3 meals/week and live off easy meals/leftovers the other days, so that can’t be any further pared down, but I will buy lunch at work more often if I don’t have the mental energy to do lunch meal prep.
Sadly, exercise has been dropped at times or is done less regularly since having kids. I am trying to fit 3 real workouts in/week but sometimes I slip and don’t get them all in (I’m speaking in regards to my normal, pre-accident schedule… right now I’m prioritizing long walks and anything else I do is a bonus). It’s hard because workouts for me aren’t something that can be done at anytime. I do not want to exercise at 8:30 at night when the kids are in bed… But I remind myself that life will look much different in 5 years. I did leave the house yesterday morning for a workout class before Phil was up. The boys were watching a movie and I asked them to not bother daddy… but the 4yo of course did. But oh well. It was 7:20 at that point so pretty close to when Phil comes down on weekend days (he gets to sleep in and then I get to rest in the afternoon).
When the kids were younger, I did not exercise like I do now. G would leave for work by 7 am and get home at about 6 pm, and the kids were not in care, so I pretty much limited myself to walking. G also travelled overseas and was probably away for a total of 3-4 months of the year so I never tried to do regular weekend activities. Once the girls started school, I did put E in the creche at the gym once a week, and I think I also would go to an evening pilates session. Things do change as the kids get older.
You’re so organised, even your chaos has structure! I love that you’ve kept your training non-negotiable. I’m the same way; my whole schedule bends around my workouts so I don’t drop them.
My philosophy on the blogging world is a bit different though: I’d rather drop my posts than not read and comment. If I have time to post, I have to read and chat with others too. Otherwise, we’d soon all be floating around a bunch of unread “ghost posts”.
And learning piano again after 25 years is amazing! Do your fingers remember more than you expected?
I played a lot at school (I did our year 12 music performance subject), so it has come back pretty quickly. The difficulty is refreshing the chords. Luckily my main instrument was the electronic organ, and initially, I played by using a combination of reading the melody and remembering the chords for the left hand, but I didn’t learn as many chords as I need now and obviously have forgotten a lot. With the band though, I only have chords so I decide what to play within that constraint taking into account what the other band members are playing. Which is good and bad, good that you can make it easier or harder, bad in that you need to know a few techniques and I need to develop my ear.
I drop housework first. When I say drop housework, I admit that housework is the last on my list and there are some rooms that we don’t use very often that don’t get much attention until it’s necessary. It helps that the kids living at home are able to pitch in and are expected to manage their own bathrooms. My kitchen floor is a disaster most days – with the toddlers eating lunch here, there’s little chance of getting ahead and staying there. I almost never skip my workout. If I don’t workout, I don’t feel grounded. The only time I skip it is if we’re travelling. I bake quite a bit, but in busy stretches that doesn’t happen as often. I don’t usually have a hard time doing laundry, but sorting it is another story. If I’m gonna have a phone call or be on hold for any length of time – I run and grab a laundry basket to sort.
Your life does sound like things are off the charts busier than usual. I’m in awe of your piano playing at church. Learning to read music -heck, just learning a few songs each week. Impressive. I always wanted to play an instrument, but my folks chose a few select kids for music lessons and I wasn’t one of them. They made me take Irish dancing lessons even though I was terrible and I begged to quit. So silly.
You’re not missing anything earth shattering on my blog. No worries about skipping commenting over there. 😉
I played the electronic organ from about age 8 to the end of school and a few years beyond just for fun. We have a year 12 subject here called Music Performance, which I did. So I was good at reading sheet music, although I need a refresh on the bass clef. But for the band we just have the chord sheets which are the lyrics with the chords written above where they change and you just decide for yourself what you’re going to play to fit in with the rest of the band. This is what I’m trying to learn.
Blogging/ commenting/ reading definitely takes a dive when I’m busy (although, I am not super “busy” these days). I work out so early in the morning, so that never really gets bumped.
I can certainly see the advantage of being a morning person, but I just can’t do it regularly.
Blogging is the first to go, and then housework. Cooking is probably next, if I’m super busy I often don’t have time to THINK about food, much less cook it. Unless I’m injured, exercise is non-negotiable. I exercise before work, so that helps.
I’m impressed about your zero inbox. I haven’t had that in a few weeks, and it’s not because I’m too busy. Just haven’t felt like dealing with it, so I need to get on that soon.
I find a full inbox a bit unsettling because things might get missed in there. It sounds like we have similar priorities.
I think reading has become a non negotiable for me in recent years. There is hardly a day when I dont pick up a book. Gladly my exercise is also becoming a fixture. And I only tone it down if I feel sick or have a severe migraine – but even then I usually do some yoga or go outside for a walk.
Cleaning however will most definitely be dropped first. Last week the bathrooms didn’t get done. However the vacuum ran its course. Don’t asked when the last time I dusted the house. We have so many spiderwebs in the corners. I think I need to take care of it rather sooner than later.
It looks like cleaning is a popular task to drop when people are busy.
Do you have non-negotiables? Short cuts on the must dos for when things get busy? What would you drop or keep?
This was a great, insightful post. It made me think. I am the opposite, I drop everything related to my own wellbeing (movement, meditation, reading) to set everyone else back if the schedule is derailed. I do laundry before exercise, I clean the house before reading, and I cannot go to bed with dishes in the sink.
So weird. Martyr? Maybe, so I need to work on that.
I wish I could ignore the mess and go for a run. Or better yet- delegate it while I do yoga. I can’t. Maybe some time in the future.
I think it is easier now that I’m not looking after kids to prioritise my own needs. Your kids are still very young.