Could have used the time I spent taking this photo and uploading it to pick up the bats or the Spider-Man costume but nah.
A friend of mine told me the other day she’s not exercising right now. No time. That’s fair—I AM exercising, but in exchange, I’m not cleaning the house. I have a theory that everyone has to fall down on the job on ONE adult thing to make room for the other things, so what’s yours?
Also not exercising because in the summer I would so much rather be gardening with that brief window of time each day that I can allot to self-care. (Also gardening is kinda exercise and why be an overachiever! I’ll have all winter to do cardio. Or not.)
Also, as an extrovert with a million acquaintances I have finally given up on the idea that I'm going to be a good friend to all of them. I made a list of my 20 favorite people in the world and they're my VIPs for birthday wishes and checking-in texts. It's sad to relegate everyone else to a "b-list" but there are only so many hours in the day... *note - I'm not avoiding these folks, just declining the job of staying in touch*
I realized that over the last chaotic year I fell down on connecting with my partner. Our relationship generally just works, but we realized a few weeks ago we both had big ideas and work things we just had kept to ourselves - our convos have been mainly coordination and co-parenting. We cut out of work early yesterday while the kids were still at day camp to have an actual conversation and it was glorious.
I am not cooking. I am buying excessive amounts of fruit at the grocery store and eating it all day and feeding my kid hot dogs every damn night for dinner. I am also not paying much attention to the mail. Or my email.
I'm deferring a college class and also exercise is wayyyyy down the list these days. Or the intense exercise I used to do is replaced with "I will escape with this audiobook for 15 minutes while I wander up and down our street"
Meal planning. Which is horrifically self-defeating because at 6:30 every night I look at an unfed 3 year old and think “crap, he had pizza yesterday” and then I feel bad both physically (from lack of vegetables in my diet) and mentally (from over feeding the child pizza).
Not doing normal levels of cleaning, which is fair to middling at best. Too hot and humid, working at home so dealing with work mess as well as home mess. Just not that important right now.
I'm not really cooking well or cleaning deeply. There are a lot of hot dogs and carrot sticks. I'm sweeping not scrubbing. Walking to errands is my exercise, instead of like, you know, "exercise."
Oh you just fall down on the job on ONE thing? Overachiever. :)
I am NOT texting in group chats unless urgent. I can't keep up with 45 unread messages & gifs.
I AM loving this thread & the idea that we cannot do something & the world will go on!
Brilliant Claire!
~Mo Callahan Rimlinger
Also not exercising because in the summer I would so much rather be gardening with that brief window of time each day that I can allot to self-care. (Also gardening is kinda exercise and why be an overachiever! I’ll have all winter to do cardio. Or not.)
Also, as an extrovert with a million acquaintances I have finally given up on the idea that I'm going to be a good friend to all of them. I made a list of my 20 favorite people in the world and they're my VIPs for birthday wishes and checking-in texts. It's sad to relegate everyone else to a "b-list" but there are only so many hours in the day... *note - I'm not avoiding these folks, just declining the job of staying in touch*
I realized that over the last chaotic year I fell down on connecting with my partner. Our relationship generally just works, but we realized a few weeks ago we both had big ideas and work things we just had kept to ourselves - our convos have been mainly coordination and co-parenting. We cut out of work early yesterday while the kids were still at day camp to have an actual conversation and it was glorious.
I am not doing laundry. I got my kids to run everything through the wash yesterday but now I need to fold it all and I'm passionately ignoring it.
I am not cooking. I am buying excessive amounts of fruit at the grocery store and eating it all day and feeding my kid hot dogs every damn night for dinner. I am also not paying much attention to the mail. Or my email.
I'm deferring a college class and also exercise is wayyyyy down the list these days. Or the intense exercise I used to do is replaced with "I will escape with this audiobook for 15 minutes while I wander up and down our street"
I am not paying any attention to social media. even though technically I'm supposed to be doing it for my business/practice/professional development.
Meal planning. Which is horrifically self-defeating because at 6:30 every night I look at an unfed 3 year old and think “crap, he had pizza yesterday” and then I feel bad both physically (from lack of vegetables in my diet) and mentally (from over feeding the child pizza).
I think I'm taking a different approach - dialing down my GAF by 5-10% across the board; maybe it would be wiser to cut out one thing instead...
Not doing normal levels of cleaning, which is fair to middling at best. Too hot and humid, working at home so dealing with work mess as well as home mess. Just not that important right now.
One of my clients calls it "Curating Your Life," which I think is a much more chic way of saying dropping a ball or two: https://www.gailgoldenconsulting.com/time-management-book-curating-your-life/
I am also not cleaning. Or improving. I am embracing stasis.
I'm not really cooking well or cleaning deeply. There are a lot of hot dogs and carrot sticks. I'm sweeping not scrubbing. Walking to errands is my exercise, instead of like, you know, "exercise."
I'm not doing any of my non-exercise personal hobbies, which is actually kind of shitty, I'm realizing.