One of the sayings you’ll see often on FlyLady is “You’re never behind, just jump in where you are”.
While I agree with the concept, I also know how very easy it is to feel behind.
Coming from the point of view of someone who is disabled, I quite often get the feeling that there just aren’t enough hours in the day and that I’m constantly playing catch-up somewhere.
Granted, at least part of the solution, for me at least, could lie in better time-management, which is something I’ve struggled with since the accident. I forget things often thanks to the head injury I sustained in that accident and sometimes find half-finished cleaning projects around the house where I will start something and not finish it, thinking fully that I did.
It’s hard not to let it get to us when it seems like no matter what we do, we can’t keep up.
One of my saving graces has been using a calendar. I personally use the Cozi Calendar because I have it linked to The FlyLady System so that the Zones and the Daily Tasks for those zones automatically show up. It also has a meal planner feature that I finally took the time to set up and that works well for me (but that’s another post).
Although I personally prefer Cozi, any calendar will do. You can use a wall calendar, I pocket planner, the calendar on your phone or computer or Google Calendar or any other calendar you prefer.
My calendar would probably look like a hot-mess to anyone else because of the amount of information I tend to store in it when I’m using it the way I need to, but I know what each item is and why it’s there and it does help my day run more smoothly if I actually have it set up properly and do what I need to do when it says to do it.
Still, things are going to come up that are sometimes beyond your control. You’ll have to work over, one of the kids’ practices will run long, traffic will be backed up and it’ll take twice as long to get to or from somewhere then you anticipated, an emergency, or maybe you just don’t feel good that day, the list of potential mishaps in a day is endless.
You have to leave room in your life, and thoughts, for being flexible. If you have to rearrange something, or maybe even drop something completely from your day, you have to give yourself the grace to accept that sometimes things happen that you can’t control.
Look at what you have left to do that day and begin to prioritize. My personal method for doing that is that I will look at the things on my list and try to decide what I have on there that I can reschedule for my Free Day (usually on Tuesdays since it’s one of Draco’s days off) or my Catch-All Day (Saturdays since he works kind of in the middle of the day that day). Will it kill me to vacuum out the sofa on Saturday instead of today? Do I have any plans for that day that I can’t work around? Is there something easy I can take out of the fridge or freezer instead of the larger and more involved meal I’d planned to cook to give me a little time back in my evening? You get the idea.
Because I keep everything on my calendar, it’s easy to look and see what the rest of my day, and week, hold and try to adjust to the unexpected and this helps keep me from feeling overwhelmed and behind.
If I find myself in a situation where I know there is just no way to make up whatever it is I couldn’t get to, then I try to let it be something from the Zone Cleaning, reminding myself that I’ll be back in that Zone in a few weeks and can make getting that task done a priority for that week since I missed it the month before.
How do you manage when you feel like you’re falling behind? What tips and tricks do you use to help reduce the stress?
