Christmas is approaching with the speed of light, and if you’re like me it keeps taking you by surprise to look at the calendar and see how close it is.
I keep having a heart attack when I think about all the work I need to get done before taking time off to be with my husband and girls. In that vein, I thought I would share some thoughts with y’all as I shape my to-do list.
- There will always be more to do than time in which to do it all
This is a hard one for me, but I’m trying to be better about reminding myself. When you own your own business it tends to come home with you (or in my case….it doesn’t leave home much) and it’s so easy to carry that to-do list around like a heavy coat. It’s cumbersome but you can’t do much about it.
When those thoughts keep barging into my family time I try to consciously lock them away somewhere else, giving myself permission to be in the moment. That list will be there tomorrow. If I know that I did all I could that day, there’s really no reason to keep running through the mental catalogue. If (and let’s be honest….this is most days for me) things popped up that made it impossible to feel like I had a productive day, I try to remember to give myself grace and move on.
- Make your list manageable
When I start feeling bogged down by guilt and generally overwhelmed, I start looking at my to-do list. I trim a little here and there and all of a sudden I feel lighter. Once I’ve trimmed the fat, so to speak, I find the priorities and focus on them. If I do this in a timely manner the train doesn’t de-rail. When I forget to do this……it gets ugly. But that’s okay. I start over.
- Break it down
Some people have a running list that they try to get through in a week or month. Some people need to see specific tasks assigned to specific days or they get overwhelmed (this is me). Whatever your method is, use it to your benefit! Once you’ve trimmed the fat and highlighted priorities, break it down into manageable chunks.
Here’s the bottom line. The importance of setting work aside so that you can be with family at the end of the day, on weekends, and over holidays cannot be overstated. There will always be something you feel like needs to be done yesterday. It can wait. When you have a chance to spend time with your spouse and children…..take it. Take it and embrace it. Time isn’t an infinite resource. It’s very very limited.
