Wow! This week's 8 Things deals with what sucks up all my time. I must say that just this week I've curbed a few already because I know they are eating up the little bit of time I have. Thanks Rachelle for this one!
My 8 Enormous Time Suckers (random order)
1. Networking sites--I belong to quite a few, I've cut back on a good number of them (meaning I've stopped going to them) but I can waste a good amount of time reading 'friends' posts, filling out lists of things, viewing new photos, etc.
2. Cleaning--there is always so much that needs to get done and when I give my attention to it, I want to do a thorough job. Which can take a good portion of my day. I've already starting working on this one and have given my children MORE responsibilities around the house. Once I get an area cleaned, we set up some 'up keep' jobs to maintain the area. Just this week the girls have starting washing the day's dishes (since I've finally gotten on top of all our dishes! whew!)
3. Organizing & Planning--somehow I'm always in the midst of doing one or both. I get these great ideas on how better to do something or how putting things in "this order" will simply my life. Thinking about, reading about, writing about these things takes a good bit of time. I can get fixated on it and voila' my time is gone!
4. Blogging & Reading Others' Blogs--I must admit that as much as I LOVE doing this, when I do it during the time I should be with my children it ends of eating away more of my time than when I wait until after they have gone to bed. I've stopped myself from reading blogs until my children are either napping or are in bed for the night. Now, I've reserved the right to blog on immediate happenings in my life (posting photos, etc) but that is all. So far, things are working well.
5. Meal Prep & Planning--this is something that I've FINALLY gotten a handle on. Just two months ago I felt as though my life was spent in the kitchen. Washing dishes, preparing the meal, cleaning up, deciding what lunch was going to be. Then spending the rest of the afternoon deciding what dinner was going to be (do we have that? we ate that yesterday. but I'm tired of beans!). What I have started doing is meal planning on Sunday. I write out the entire week's menu and make my shopping list based upon that. It's not only cut down on all the mental energy I was giving to daily meals but has cut down on our grocery bill as I'm only getting what we're going to be eating that week! (Bonus: no more wasted produce & meat!)
6. Repeating Myself--and if you're a mother of young children I'm sure at some point you, too, feel like a broken record or CD w/ a scratch! Not sure when this will change, but hopeful that it will at some point.
7. Watching TV Design Star & Project Runway). I've found so much time in my day now that the TV isn't apart of it! --now most of the TV watching is of children's shows, PBS mainly & On Demand but this does eat up our time. I am able to get some of my major project done without the kids demanding my attention when I do this, but I've found that when I am finished, the show isn't or another has just started and I've given in to them seeing it. Plus, it has given me time to engage in some of my other 'time suckers' (internet, networking sites). Well, I've remedied this last week. No more excessive TV viewing--for all of us! We will still watch videos when they add to what we're learning and as a treat on the weekend. I've also curbed my personal viewing to twice a week (I follow HGTVs Design Star and Project Runway). I'm amazed at just how much more time in the day we have without the TV!!
8. General Internet Usage--unless I'm working on something specific. I can waste hours 'surfin' the net.' Really. I'm doing a lot better and guarding the daytime hours I've set aside for the children. But this is still something I can get caught up in without realizing it (checking email, reading a message with a link, following that link, reading something there and following another link--you get the drift! lol).
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