Overwhelmed

The other day a colleague and very dear friend of mine meet up for a meeting. As we both sat there studying our notes for the meeting I looked up and told her that I was heading towards being overwhelmed. She looked almost relieved and stated that she was heading in that direction herself.

We both run our own business and had recently joined forces to create a new business together, and had also become the leader and operations assistant for a network group that has just started up in Melbourne. She had also jumped out of a plane. Yes, that friend! We both realised that we were juggling more projects without any new time management and it was starting to tell.

We evaluated our situations and various projects and worked out together how we would improve our time management. This meant that I would stop calling her nearly every day about the latest aspect of our joint business and/or the network group and we arranged set days and time for each. We also worked out improved time management for our own projects and businesses.

Years ago women used to have set days for each household task. Monday was often washing day and the entire week's laundry would be one on the one day. The big copper boiler would be heated with white cottons going in first and by the time the water was cooled it would be the delicates. That said I'm not sure just how clean the water would have been by the time the jumpers went in but soap and water usually do the trick. We had a machine with an agitator in the middle that my mother had to fill and empty. I remember her lifting the lid and giving the nappies a serious mix up with a large wooden spoon before closing the lid again.  A different day was set aside for cleaning and even as a small child I remember Fridays being cake making day as my mother made cakes and pastries for the weekend. In those days you could like the spoon without the risk of getting sick.

I also remember when we got our first automatic washing machine. I used to sit and watch the washing go round and round. To us it was amazing and my mother loved this new time saving device.

But here's the problem. It seems to me that the more time saving devices we have the less time we have. How can that possibly be? I can only assume that we under estimate just how much time is saved and attempt to fit in more tasks that are reasonable. Whilst delegating can reduce some of the time it takes to get all the housework done and run a business or two, I am still attempting to fit in more than I have time for without going into overwhelm.

Time to pause, breath and re-evaluate. Then time to plan and test it all out. If I am still heading into overwhelm I will go through the process again until I get my time better managed. This includes scheduling time for me to exercise, relaxing, meditating and have fun.

love
Sarah