Day Twelve- Busy, Busy, Busy

We all have busy lives.  We are coming and going, working and sleeping (sometimes not in equal amounts), we have jobs and families and responsibilities.

But... 

Have you ever stopped to investigate just WHERE you're spending your time?  I'm not doubting that you're busy.  Life in 2023 means that we are going to be busy... as if the year the world shut down taught us nothing.  I was challenged a few months ago when I complained that I didn't have time to do anything "extra" to actually map out where I spent my time. The results were surprising.  Maybe not WHAT my time-suck was, but just how much.
Social media.
Scroll. Scroll. Scroll. 
I spent a whopping 10 hours in that week on social media. 
I was shocked.  Now, because I'm an author and I constantly have promotions running and I am truly invested in my followers, I did expect a good chunk of time to be spent there.  But all the additional scrolling and videos that I got drug into ... willingly.  10 hours!  That's a full work day! 
The other place that could be called a time-suck, was my time spent outdoors... just staring at nature.  I'm not too mad at that because I too, need breathing time.  I don't take naps, I don't watch television and I work a lot, so my coffee/morning time to just wake up and think/pray/appreciate will be staying in the schedule. 

All that to bring about today's challenge.  Take some time- out of your busy schedule- to do something extra for your family.
Take on an extra chore.  Paint that room that keeps getting put off.  Clean out the closet- finally!  Go through your clothes and donate.  Make an extra meal for another busy family.  Get caught up on the laundry.  Thin out the kids toys (& donate the extras!).  Recaulk the tub.
This is a kindness to not only you, but to your family.

Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, once wrote about your brain's capacity to hold things and how it feels "full".  When you say something like, "Oh, I've got to get this garage organized." or "I need to give Gary back his lawn mower," or "Those extra shoes by the front door are driving me crazy"... your brain holds on to those things.  And it will keep circling around and around and around until they are done- using up valuable brain space that could be used for other tasks.

The prefrontal cortex of our brain is an amazing thing.  It THINKS it's helping, and I guess it is, but sometimes it's annoying.  So your prefrontal cortex is going to keep niggling at your thoughts until the thing gets done.  Now if you hadn't NOTICED the closet was overflowing with extra stuff... your brain would leave you alone.  But somewhere along the line, you "made a mental note" to get that taken care of.  And so the brain, is going to keep bringing it up. 

And this is true.  It's proven itself to me over and over again.  Since I rely on the creative output of my brain, I find that it is LESS cooperative when OTHER things are blocking the way.  Once I get the "tasks" completed, my brain is free to create.  You literally free up space in your brain that it was holding.  Jack Canfiled says it can only hold on to "so many things" and that's why when we tell ourselves to remember something and within moments it's gone... it's because our brain is already full.  (To-do lists, anyone?) 
​ It's the darndest thing.  Amazing, annoying and accurate. 

So this was a lot... all to say, go after ONE THING that you've been wanting to tackle.  Don't wait for the meal you were going to make for the family who just had a baby until the child is 8 months old.  (It can happen!)
Let's clear our brain's to-do list by using the time we have... but might have been using it in less productive places. 

Have a fantastic Monday everyone! 

P.S.  If you want to do the challenge of finding your "wasted time", it's simple, but painfully obvious.  It's a 3 day challenge.  
Day One: You write down everything you think you did YESTERDAY and how long you believe it took you to do.
Day Two & Three: you write down EVERYTHING you do and how long it takes.  EVERYTHING.  Including eating, tasks within your job, bathroom breaks, walking from one office to another, feeding the dog, naps on the couch that we tell others we weren't actually sleeping.... everything.
Then, look at your results.  I went over my lists with colored highlighters.  One color for WORK, one color for FAMILY obligations, one color for DOWNTIME (sleeping, showering, bathroom breaks) and one color for UNACCOUNTED FOR... this is the one that usually gets ya.  This is the tv time, Netflix binging, youtube videos, gaming, social media... (some can put reading in this category, but I actually schedule time for reading, so I put it in my Downtime.  So that could work if you, say... allot yourself tv time, while you eat dinner... meaning it's scheduled and not allowed to run over because you're too tired to get up and turn it off! Lol!)
Hope that helps!  (And it IS meant to help, not to overwhelm...)
Happy days to you... 

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