When I think of only one side of my life at a time, it's easy to over-schedule. Of course I can work out for an hour and a half every day, work 10 hours, tidy up here and there for an hour and a half, play with the dog throughout the day totaling about 2 hours. Surely, tending my important relationships is worth 1/2 hour a day? Larger-scale remodeling and landscaping projects take about another hour. I'd love to sleep for 7. Showering, preparing and eating meals, getting from here to there, running errands..... that's probably another 2 hours a day, at least. And that's not even everything that has to be done. I want to knit and sew and write and cook and read and watch the occasional television show and see and do interesting things and contribute to my community through some service.
Isn't YOUR day 40 hours long?
I actually have a daily list of tasks and plans which I use to help move myself forward. The thing is, when I get home from work, I have very little energy. I feel really DONE, even though being done is sort of not an option. And acting as though I were done has brought us here - to the house that's not as remodeled as I would like, or as tidy as I would like - to a body that isn't as healthy or fit as I would like - to a life that has more shame than power in it, in short.
Maybe I don't get to be exhausted if I want to achieve all those things and more. So, how do I deal with this? Remember please that this book isn't written yet; it's being written. I don't know the answers. But I think that I have to hold the whole puzzle of all I want to do and the available time in my head at one time.
Two days a week the dog goes to daycare. I could use that time when he's being safely cared for and exercised to get more of my work done. I could take my "lunch" in the last hour of the workday and go to the gym. The dog does not care if I pick him up wearing my gym clothes, bless his tolerant heart. That's two more days than I'm going to the gym now, so it's something. And it helps me to set better boundaries at work, which is another goal of mine. It's not wrong to take a lunch, after all. On non-daycare days, I need to come home at lunch and walk Finn around. I also need to get him in the habit of an evening walk. It's better for him, which is an ongoing concern. I want to do right by my dog, after all. It enhances our relationship. And it's better for me; walking him adds exercise to my day. It's not multi-tasking, but it gets more than one thing accomplished.
They say that exercising increases your energy. It certainly used to do that for me. Let's see if it still does. And knowing that these ideas let me address more than one goal at a time.... well, that helps.
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