The Struggle of Productivity

There are 24 hours in a day and it is recommended that at least eight of it is spent sleeping.  Another eight goes to your job/career, then 30 minutes for physical activity.  I say one hour for grooming, another 30 for meditation and prayer (at least), a total of possibly two hours for eating, and who knows how much goes to commute time.  That is a total of what, 20 hours used up right?  Now with the remaining four, we more than likely spend it thinking about what our next meal will be, texting, planning our next dates/meeting/life events, and getting to and from wherever.  Ha!  I only wish daily life could be this calculated

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What a tangled web of “to-dos” I weave

The things that I do wish to get done often get trumped with the things that HAVE to get done.  I am a mother and I aspire to be a hands on one at that, so a lot of time is devoted to planning, prepping and cleaning.  I prepare clothes for school, I prep lunches, I clean up the kitchen after our family meals and so on.  This takes up majority of my day an in turn sometimes my grooming hour turns to 15 minutes (and boy does it show, lol), or the sleeping block is shaved to about five, and my 30 minute meditation session isn’t even in existence.  On days such as this, when my domestic demand overpowers everything else that defines my ideal perception of productivity, at the end of the day I feel “unproductive”.

However, to be able to say that I fed my children healthy meals and got them in the bed clean with a bedtime story to think about every night at a decent hour is productivity at it’s finest!  I recently decided that this negative perception I had of myself being unproductive, wasn’t mine at all, at least not originally.  It was something that developed as a result of comparing my days to other people (celebrities, other moms, anybody), or people in conversation who say “so what did you today?”, and they would answer the question for me with “Nothing?”.  I realized this one night after feeling so proud of myself one when my three year old was so happy with the story we just read.  I smiled and said “now this is more than NOTHING”.  To say that my domestic triumphs were nothing, was negating my main existence as a Mother.

So screw the calculations and just make the most of what you have.  I now find 15 minute pockets to do something “productive”, like write a blog post, prep a new recipe, learn a phrase in a different language, or pray/meditate.  What now defines my productivity is my end result every evening.  I ask myself: 1. Were my children entertained/happy/nourished/cleaned today? 2. Did I do at least one thing to focus on the …..uh-oh speaking of domestic duties, my oldest is demanding a hulk smoothie and my youngest just put a huge deposit in his diaper.

 

till next time.  looks like my 15 minute pocket is empty:)

About Jeanette 137 Articles
This is me being me so that you will be you. I'm a woman who smiles till my cheeks ache, crochets until my fingers twitch, hugs the hell out of my Hubby and children and in between these things I make the time to read, cook, write and attempt to inspire others to do something to improve their overall health.

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