Am I the only one who starts out on a Monday with great intentions that this will be a really productive week? Every Monday I begin with plans to get myself organised for the week; I’m going to be efficient, finish my outstanding patterns, have a sparkling house (right, who am I kidding!?!) and of course I’m never going to run out of the front door 10 minutes too late with a sandwich in the corner of my mouth :) And don’t forget all the exercise that I plan on getting done!
If I’m entirely rational about it I would probably acknowledge that unless I magically managed to double the week length that I am destined for failure. But yet I keep on trying every week. Why? Perhaps it’s because when you do have a week when everything goes your way it’s actually possible. The week, where you bounce out of bed before the alarm, you don’t spend an hour surfing the internet half asleep before you get working and manage to get the load of laundry and a run done before it even hits 10.
But it’s also not just me – with 6 of us in the house a lot also depends on how everyone else is doing. We have a big mixture of personalities in our house and it doesn’t take much for someone to throw a spark into the powder keg. We’ve got high achievers for whom anything less than perfect is unacceptable, we’ve got little messers who just love poking at vulnerable spots trying to make the house of cards fall and we’ve got unpredictable high needs (one was diagnosed with asperger syndrome last year) that isn’t always on the same page as everyone else.
So if we’ve got a morning of tears with irrational arguments that make you want to tear your hair out at 7 in the morning you can end up feeling exhausted by 8.30. If you’re tired our or stressed as well then your contribution to the morning/evening is negative rather than positive. But yet every new week you start afresh with good intentions. I will get to bed before midnight, then I’ll have the patience to get through the day calmly, to start work promptly and to take care of myself and everyone around me.
So this week I’m starting in a good place, we negotiated the morning with relative calm, I’m writing this blog post before nine (!), and I will get me to-do list finished this week.
Happy Monday morning everyone, I wish you the courage to start every week anew.
Isn’t it amazing how those exceptional days keep hope alive? I think we need to plan for more arguments (or bouts of colic, or) traffic jams, etc, so we recognize how special those efficient weeks are.
There is something so optimistic about Mondays.
Hooray for optimism! It’s only healthy to recognise that there are Factors that may make those ambitions unachievable, but I admit I love turning the page of my diary to a new week, unsullied and full of possibility.
Yes, I’m an unreconstructed dead tree planner fan. I like the feel of pencil on paper, I like seeing my own handwriting (messy as it is), I relish ticking things off with a big flourish – and get a lot of motivation from seeing those ticked-off items on the page. Look at everything I did! Or didn’t, as the case may be… but then, looking back at what has and hasn’t happened helps me to plan better for the next week. In any case, a proper oldfashioned diary just enables me to manage my to-dos in a much more personal, right-for-me way than any electronic organiser. There’s so much I like about it.
Anyway, slight digression there… but yay for Monday optimism.
I tend to go for the lists scribbled on random pieces of paper! I never have enough space in a diary, plus I never find it when I need it.
Good Luck! I’m with you – starts off so well…. I find the exercise is the first to go. The rest varies week by week :-)
Your ‘outstanding patterns’. Well you got THAT right! Tee hee.
I have a similar issue but with a different angle. I’m out at work all week so I start every weekend absolutely convinced that I’ll get the house/laundry/recycling all sorted out, get caught up on projects, get exercise, get started on some redecorating and decluttering, make some healthy family meals and have some happy knitting downtime too……so I start every Monday depressed at my failure yet eyeing the next weekend with mounting optimism.
It’s part of the human condition my dear. You can’t possibly keep all those balls in the air and flying in formation. Just can’t be done. Maybe decide to drop one or two tasks every week (different ones each week) or plan for a 2-week cycle? Your list will instantly look more do-able and as a bonus you get a weekend in the middle.
Let’s face it. It’s a good day when everyone gets to bed in one piece. ;-)
This is a lovely post – comments closed probably… but I read this with a smile. I am exhausted on Monday mornings and usually try to do something soothing for myself, if I possibly can. My main objective is for all of us to have a fab weekend (including ME), because it’s only 2 days and some of that time will be spent on chores and individual projects or sport… so I try to maximize the time where we can come together, BE together, HEAR one another. It does not always happen, but that is what I am aiming at… every Friday… and every Monday I pick up the pieces and usually feel that it was worth it.