MY SNOOZE BUTTON BROKE

This morning, when Aqualung started blaring from my alarm clock at 4:58 a.m. (technically 4:53, since my clocks are always set 5 minutes fast), I hit my trusty snooze button, but nothing happened, and it just kept getting louder. (Much to Jon’s annoyance–he doesn’t have to get up until 7:30.) I always allow myself one snooze, and then I do my “zombie sit” (as Jon calls it) for anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on how tired I am. The zombie sit is exactly what it sounds like: I sit up in bed, motionless, with my eyes half open and try to accept that, yes, this is my life. I really do have to be sitting in a cubicle across town in approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

So, anyway, I was so tired this morning that the death of my snooze button didn’t phase me. I simply woke up enough to turn my alarm off, reset it for 10 minutes later, and collapsed back into bed. While I was doing my zombie sit, I had a thought: “YOU HAVE GOT TO GET IT TOGETHER.”

Jon has calmly told me many times, usually while watching me run around like a crazy person yelling “THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH TIIIMMMEEEE” (and sometimes weeping), “you do not manage time well.” I used to find this offensive. I am organized, I am a control freak, I am a neat freak (except at work…?), of course I manage my time well. Um, maybe no.

I don’t think someone who manages her time well rolls out of the house–late–every morning with wet hair, no makeup, and half the groceries in her fridge thrown into her work bag because who has the time to make an actual lunch. The other day I tossed in a can of tuna, a package of arugula, and a whole cucumber. Desperate times, people.

wet hair, no makeup, zombie look still lingering

I’ve done some soul searching, and I think I might have discovered the source of my issues: perfectionism and out of wack priorities. I ~~sometimes~~ usually put off doing something if I fear it won’t be perfect. And I never want to start working on something else until the other thing is perfect. This can sometimes be big things in life, and sometimes it can be that I don’t want to touch the blog or go running until every square inch of my house is pristine and perfect.

I have a hard time prioritizing, especially if I’m feeling stressed. The day before our adoption home study last summer I took time off work to get everything ready. I spent several hours running errands (dry cleaning, the bank, grocery shopping for stuff to make the blueberry bread I found on Pinterest). Then, the morning of the home study, I ran around cleaning like a crazy person and frantically scrubbing the sink with bleach and sobbing (for real)”THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH TIIIMMMEEEE” as our social worker calmly walked up the sidewalk to our door. True story. It was bad. (Then, after she left, Jon helpfully pointed out that there was a giant hole in the back–as in butt–of my jeans. Also a true story.)

So what’s a control freak to do? It’s time to get organized. There are 3 things in my life that need to be bumped up to the top of the priority list:

SLEEP
community (relationships with friends and family)
exercise

I spent a little time this evening watching Amy Lynn’s video (this woman is a genius) on using your Google calendar to organize everything in your life. Seriously everything. She even has her sleep hours blocked off. I’m going to create a Google calendar and give this hyper-scheduling thing a try. I think I need it, at least for a little while. I’ll let you know how it turns out; hopefully there are less zombie sits in my future.

How do you keep from becoming completely exhausted and overwhelmed by all there is to do? Or, are you still trying to figure out how to come up for air? Let’s talk about it!

5 Comments
Filed Under: Uncategorized

Andrea Corbin

Uhm….let me think! I think the thing that works for me is knowing what things I need to have fixed before I need them, and then forcing myself to do them when I don’t want to. Also, I just have to go to bed when I’m tired…but that’s probably just because I’m getting old…er!
http://twitter.com/samdillenback Samantha

As a former roommate this makes me miss you.

I’m terrible at this. Now I’m a WAHM and everything is dependent upon my motivation, scheduling, and self-discipline…. it’s worse. I actually do put EVERYTHING on my calendar in blocks. In the blocks of time I put short to-do lists of related tasks. This helps me to have some flexibility (with a toddler that’s important) and still feel like I’m somewhat in control.

The biggest thing, though, is letting things go in favor of something more important. I set my priorities and then mentally take a minute to let go of what I need to let go of. This is often accepting that my dishes won’t be done because I have to get a project for work finished.

Other things I do: plan a week at a time, live by my todo list, and say no to commitments that are less important than what I already have going on.

Love the blog!
- http://www.completelycaroline.com completelycaroline
  
  Thanks, Sam–I miss you and the rest of the girls, too! Good tips… I really need to work on the whole prioritizing thing.
The Middle Sister

I literally just laughed out loud when I read the description of your zombie sit. I have seen it and could picture it in my head! As far as prioritizing, you know I am just as much of a control freak and perfectionist as you are. When I became a single mom and started working I had to let go of so much. I realized what were the NEW priorities in my life and believe it or not, my kitchen floor being scrubbed by hand every week didn’t make the list. So I decided it wouldn’t kill my kids (your husband) to help with the cleaning and laundry (and it might actually help prepare them for life) and what was more important was to enjoy my life and teach my kids that was important too. The heart issues in our family should also remind you of what’s important and that life is too short to sweat the small stuff.
Pingback: QUINOA WITH VEGGIES()