I’ve had a lot on my plate lately. Okay, if I tell the truth, I ALWAYS have a lot on my plate.
When live becomes unmanageable, as it periodically does, I have a strategy for dealing with it and for getting things back under control. I simply don’t try to accomplish more than I realistically can in the amount of time given. I do challenge myself, yet I set goals that are attainable. For example, my kitchen table had become a mountain of paper over the last couple of weeks. Rather than try to clean it up all at once, or procrastinate and do nothing, I’ve found a happy medium. I do things bit-by-bit. I take enough time to clear a space in which to work, and then I divide my task into doable segments. Tonight I separated all the papers on my table into groups (work, filing, personal, my son’s school papers, etc.). I placed work papers in a box lid near my briefcase. My personal papers went into a binder I use for papers that are relevant at the present moment. I created another box for papers to carry upstairs so I could file them. When I got the papers into manageable piles and threw away papers that were no longer needed, I cleaned the table surface, changed placemats, and put some fresh cut flowers into a vase on the table. Now I have cleared the space enough that I can think. I commit to working on my paper pile daily for 15 minutes or more. By committing to a doable daily task, I am reducing the stress that comes with trying to tackle too much at once, and I am sure the job will get done… bit by bit.
