Finding a Rhythm
We’re tumbling into November, well into fall, and winter is knocking on the door (well, it’s knocking here in Minnesota where winter arrives early and unwelcome). Am I the only one who is taking FOREVER to get back into a regular rhythm? When the kids went back to school in September I thought, “Yes! Now I can get back to getting things done!” I had big plans, big goals, big expectations of myself. Let’s just say things didn’t go as planned. I found it hard to get motivated, I struggled to be productive and prioritize tasks. I procrastinated, I scrolled, I baked. And then I realized I needed to give myself some grace. It’d been over a year and a half since I had a “normal” schedule. In that time I was very lucky to not experience a lot of “extra” stress (you know, just the normal amount of “world-wide pandemic stress”). But nothing was predictable and I had to constantly adjust. So it took some time to re-learn how to do this! I’m finally feeling like I’m getting into a groove. I’ve never been particularly consistent about my productivity, it ebbs and flows, and for the most part I don’t mind it and I work with it. But I do feel better when the momentum is there. Now, I know the approaching holiday season will interrupt my rhythm again but hopefully the recovery time won’t be quite as long this go ‘round.
I am not one to give “tips” about how to be productive because I constantly struggle with it. But this fall forced me to be a little more intentional about how I work and there are a few things that seem to be working for me.
Working in “blocks” of time. You’re probably familiar with this technique and I’ve tried variations of it over the years without a ton of success only because it sometimes feel a little too “structured” for me. BUT, I do find that it helps me accomplish things in less time if I put some boundaries in place. For me, I tend to split my day in two parts (am/pm) and try to have one big task for each chunk of time. I also got this timer and it helps me put a time limit on those tasks that shouldn’t take too much time or if I want to work on something for an hour and then move onto something else.
Lowering my expectations on what I can actually get done. My to-do list is always far too ambitious, so limiting myself to 2 or 3 things is helpful.
Being flexible. Sometimes I need to rearrange what I’m working on because I might feel like doing creative work like drawing or I might want to tick off a bunch of “administrative” tasks.
Paying attention to where I’m feeling stress and addressing it. Sometimes a task is so up in my face that I just need to give it attention even if it’s not what I’m supposed to be doing. For example, I told my son I would make him a Loki costume for Halloween. I had plenty of things for work that I needed to do but this was stressing me out. So I worked it into my schedule, shifted some things around, and felt good about it. That’s one of the reasons I like working for myself anyway - I get to call the shots.
So I’m trying to take things in stride. Keep working hard on the things that are important to me, cutting out the things that aren’t, giving myself some grace for where I’m at, and recognizing the times when I hit the sweet spot. It’s a funky little rhythm.
