If you're a stay-at-home parent, with children who are not yet school-aged, you know how precious your every minute of nap time is. My girls stay sleeping for an average of 2 hours per day. Somehow, I usually seem to have more than 2 hours worth of household chores, personal upkeep (ie: EATING!), and other projects to accomplish within that time frame. The key to accomplishing anything at all - lies in organizing your time via prioritization. Kind of a whole list of TIPS! today:
First - I try to wake in enough time before them to both ready myself for the day, and also make some initial contact with the outside world via the www. Maybe I can slip in the first load of laundry that taunts my nose with hints of spilled milk, wafts of perspiration, and tales of stale perfume.
Second - I make a point to now finish items on the ol' Too-Much-To-Do-List, according to what I can do WITH the help of my girls while they are awake. They are at an age where they are captivated by the opportunity to pull clean dishes from the dishwasher, and redirect them to close-to-accurate resting places (or the floor - scrubbed 3 times per day - so either way.) They relish in the joys of folding clean laundry *(or unfolding newly-folded clean laundry.) I say - take 'em up on this while they are willing ~ and before they are seeking an allowance! May be slightly more challenging, as their ideas of 'helping' generally tend to make the job slightly lengthier in time, and shorter in the way of neatness, but it's done now, isn't it? Okay then!
Third - They enjoy watching a show (kid vid or TPT) on most days of the week. I require that they play first, getting out some energy. Once it's officially show-time, they sit behind the computer by only a few feet. There, I can put my fingers to work - networking online (or Farmville on Facebook), business emails (or funny forwards), or writing projects (freeing the spinning thoughts from my over-stimulated, under rested brain), all within earshot and eye-shot. I consider it kind of a head-start on projects.
Next - I do what has to be done today, as soon as they are put down for nap. Git-R-Done!
Finally - I use whatever time remains to 'play' (as with processing & blogging non-business-related photos of my kids, etc.) Or, I continue the flow of what was already begun earlier in the day/ week (ie: one load of clean wet clothes into the dryer or hung, and the next stinky pile flung into the washing machine. Oh - the invention of the washing machine! Now if we can just create one that pre-treats stains.) These are typically the things that can spill over into the following day/ week when there isn't enough time to complete the item(s).
Sounds easy, huh? Well I'll warn you now - it's not! But it does help some. If you have the means of allowing yourself even just one day to do what you need - a solid span of hours - while the grandparents, a trusted sitter, or the parkboard take on the kiddies, I highly recommend it.
H-I-G-H-L-Y. Even a few solid hours can make such a diff!
A QUOTE: How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
~ Henry David Thoreau
WHIDFML: Shared some ice-cream with my girls before bed last night! My little birdies :)
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