Being Intentional
**Post originally written 31/7/2019**
My name is Karen and I’m addicted to starting new projects and then getting distracted by a new project and then getting distracted by a new project and then oooh shiny…..etc.
Playing with shiny new ear wires when I probably should have been doing something else…
I am now nearly eight months into my year long experiment to become a better version of me and although I haven’t written it down until now I did mentally do a mid-year review of how I was doing. Ok so I did it at the end of June so a bit over mid way but the point is I did it. The goals I set myself in December served their purpose for a few months but so much has changed since then that I’ve let them go so there’s no longer that wee nagging voice reminding me of all the things I said I would do but haven’t. It was quite nice to let myself start with a fresh page.
I still have goals for my self though, I don’t plan on coasting until December and then starting again. One of the biggest changes I’m making is how I use my time. I remembered listening to an episode of ‘The Next Right Thing’ podcast (Epsiode 73: Design a Rythm of Work – Theme Days ) where Emily explained how she had to divide her week up so she could record her podcast, write her book and study for the course she was doing in grad school otherwise she would either write all the time or feel guilty about neglecting her studies then study all week and have no time to record a podcast. It also reminded me a bit of The Organised Mum Method so although the housework has taken a nose dive (I managed to hoover yesterday – standing ovation please) I now have a new schedule I’m going to stick to and you can all bask in my productivity!
I still have roughly one hour to work with in the evenings depending on when my son finally sleeps so from now on this is how my week should look:
Monday – Money day! Otherwise known as keeping on top of my business paperwork! I am definitely guilty of putting off the boring/challenging stuff in favour of making more earrings.
Tuesday – Blog day! hence me sitting here and finally writing again. I’ve had loads of times I’ve wanted to sit and write but I know it takes me a good two or three hours to get through a post and I just didn’t have that block of time available. Well now I do, I’ve just spread it out across a few weeks.
Wednesday – Making day hooray!
Getting my making on…
Thursday – This is when my husband has pipe band practise so I have to get both kids to sleep therefore nothing is scheduled in. Lets not be stupid.
Friday – Making day again hooray! It takes about three hours (not including the time I leave the posts to set overnight or varnishing which takes 24 hours per coat!) from making a batch of components to having the final assembled pieces so I will be working on the same batch for around a week and a half.
Saturday – Free choice…but probably making! If i need to catch up on extra paperwork or have a boost in orders then I can do it here. I do hope to eventually have a proper website combining everything so I imagine one of the weekday making hours will get used for that.
Sunday – The plan is to have nothing to do on Sunday. That didn’t happen Sunday just past, nor did Money Monday happen as my husband had extra pipe band practise due to them competing soon. My husband plays bagpipes and my son is called Hamish. Yes I am living the Scottish stereotype dream.
Scottish Sunday family walk with our kids ‘Haggis’ and ‘Black Pudding’
I’m now on week 2 of this and so far I’m enjoying having the structure in place. I know what I’m doing each night (mostly) and the anxious feeling of ‘I need to get that done’ is easing off.
So that’s for the evenings. Now the mornings. Ugh mornings. I have never been a morning person but if I want to also include stress busting, muscle building exercise into my day then the only place to eek out that extra hour is in the morning. BEFORE the kids wake up. Welcome to the newest member of the 5AM Club. Or maybe the 5:15AM Club is more accurate by the time I make it downstairs and get changed. If you follow me on Instagam (@beingenough.blog ) then you’ll have seen a couple of post/stories about this already.
I can finally pineapple my hair again! I promise the gnomes are my son’s. However the Marauders Map is definitely mine.
I’m still having to pep talk myself into getting out of bed but even with the few morning workouts I’ve done, the difference I’ve noticed in my ability to handle the day (whether it’s at work or with the kids) can’t be ignored and that has made the pep talks a little shorter each morning. Some mornings all I’ve done is yoga in pjs. That’s ok, I’m still up and moving and getting time to myself. Other days I’ve started Liift4 again to keep me going until the 100 Morning Meltdown workout series goes on general release. By then I’m hoping the fear of cardio first thing won’t make me hide under the duvet! Aside from the exercise part, I am loving having that little bit of quiet alone time. Most mornings I can workout, do my journal and have a cuppa before I hear feet ploddng downstairs. Hamish has come down early on occasion and let me know i’m not doing the same moves as the people on the laptop. I just mutter something sarcastic under my breath and keep going. I would say it louder but all breath is critical at those moments.
My CGD London planner doubles up as my Start Today journal
There we have it then, the new goals all generally fall under the umbrella of being intentional. There are still four months left of my own challenge. I’ll take December to think about what I want to do with the next twelve months but I imagine it will be ‘to become a better version of myself’ (I have dropped the frazzled as by then I will have forgotten what frazzled feels like. Right?).
Are any of you members of the 5am club? Do you jump out of bed in the morning or is it always going to be a little bit of love hate? And of course morning routine – do you have one and if so what is it? I love hearing how people use their first hour of the day or even how people just generally use their time better!