I'm honestly not a naturally organized person (even though I write posts like this one about my Weekly Action Plan). The truth is, I have to force myself to perform the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly actions necessary to function like an organized person.
Even though organization does not come easily to me, I still crave it--oddly enough. For example, if I'm really stressed out, simply cleaning and organizing my environment can have a hugely beneficial effect. Matt and I planned our wedding during one of the most stressful transitions of our life. We were moving to a new city, looking for new jobs, and trying to buy a house (all while planning an unconventional wedding on a shoestring and worrying that we would bore everyone--at best--and give them food poisoning--at worst).
Whenever my stress levels rise, I have to come back to my coping strategies. My life is getting increasingly busy as I take on a new part-time job (working as the Director of Operations and Compliance for a new charter school in Austin) and work to start my own school. I feel like I'm running from one thing to the next. Henry wakes me up in the morning, I breastfeed him, shower, and then realize I have exactly four minutes until I need to be out the door (and that's assuming there's no traffic, which is a very dangerous thing to assume when SXSW is going on in Austin). In the evenings, I'm too tired to adequately prepare for the next day, so I'm wildly stuffing things into my bag as I race to the car every morning.
So in order to combat my stress levels a little, I identified three areas that needed about 20 minutes of restoration (total): my work bag, the area by my bed, and my car. It's amazing what 20 minutes of a little elbow grease can do. I feel exponentially better already!
Do you have one small change you could make that would reduce your stress levels immediately?
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Today on Feeding the Soil: My updated plan for organizing myself!
1 comment:
I can relate to you in many ways. Since, I'm getting married in almost 4 weeks, I'm a bit stressed. I'm trying so hard to not be stressed out but at times I feel it coming on.
I'm moving to my fiance's place after we get married. I haven't even started packing up my stuff yet. My room is a mess. I'm DIY most everything at the wedding. All my projects are in my room. I don't have all my projects done yet. It's a bit crazy.
If I could change something that would reduce my stress, it would be to spend sometime each day just plugging away at my projects. I tend to procrastinate! Since, I'm doing that right now... I better go work on my projects!!
-Jodi :)
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