I've been feeling like life has just gotten too busy recently and I don't really like it!
This is really because of trying to juggle four things:
- Basic life chores - which just seem to take forever here in Portugal!
- The Land - there is just SO MUCH I need to do and want to do!
- Regular paid work - marking and sociology blogging - in fairness these don't take too long!
- Dicking about on Hive - always a pleasure, NEVER a chore!
Somehow, there's never enough hours in the day to do ALL of these things as much as I feel I need or want to, and hardly any time to just add on number five which is...
FIVE: just chillaxing, which ATM would primarily involve just sitting by the pond listing to the frog chorus (strictly sans Paul McCartney).
So I've decided to just chillax and take a 'basics first' approach every day until whenever the mood takes me to get back to being productivity mode.
TBH my life is PRETTY SORTED so there's NO NEED for me to stress myself out by carrying on with my attempts to be super productive and keep on progressing, progressing, progressing in every single aspect of my life.
Moreover, I figure if I just focus on number one above, and start each day early and RIGHT by just doing ma basic chores, then move straight into NUMBER FIVE: CHILLAX, my general feeling for the day should then guide me into whatever I need to do from 2-4.
I'll probably end up being more productive than I have been launching into one of 2-4 first thing in the morning, begrudging choring out the basic life chores in the early evening and then not chillaxing at all!
Chillaxing with the Frogs!
Basic Life Chores Morning Version...
- Get out of bed - (I mean it when I said basic). NB in fairness I do manage to this at some point every day, usually well before 8.00 a.m. without too much hassle, I'm just including it for the sake of thoroughness!
- Eat breakfast - I know, I know, it's better to eat later and have a fast window, but this gets me out of bed for now.
- TIDY UP! This is is something I'm slack on! I mean wash up, sweep the cabin, put anything and everything back in its place!
- Get ready for the day - brush teeth, pack stuff if I'm heading to the land and so on. Plan the day too!
- Get any shitty urgent chores out of the way, if they're hangin over me, they shouldn't be as I'm usually quite good with shitty chores, but IF they are do them NOW.
- Prep my food for lunch and dinner - I've been a bit slack with the old diet recently, I think if I pre-prep (like make sandwiches, chop veg etc.) it'll make cooking and eating well easier later in the day!
- Practice Portuguese - I need to get into a habit NOW!
- Meditate and chillax.
I figure 1-6 should take me about 2 - 3 hours. So if I get up at 6.00 a.m. I can still be meditating by 8.30 at the latest.
Chillaxing and meditating
I've just (literally just now) evolved this into 'chillaxing/ meditating - just sitting there for a while.
This is something I used to be most excellent at, but I've slackened of late, but now it's time to get back into it!
This is really just about pausing. If I choose to pause for the whole day, FINE!
If I choose to carry on with any of 2-4 from the first list above, ALSO FINE!
What I anticipate happening is that most of the time I'll just be planning my day with this time, then cracking on from 9.00 a.m. onwards!
And the rest (which should follow!)
Then it's either or...
- Land chores
- Work chores
- Dicking about on Hive
Or a combination
Basic life chores P.M. Version
Historically I am VERY slack with this, but here goes:
- Cook and eat dinner - being realistic, this is going to come first
- Chillax - again being realistic there is no way this isn't going to happen straight after dinner!
- Wash up - this used to be so easy back in the UK, a bit of an effort to lift myself off my ass, but when I had actual kitchen, the actual cleaning bit was Smooth. Now I don't have a kitchen, it's a bit of a chore to say the least!
- General tidy up/ unpack the car/ put everything away.
- Yoga and or meditate session.
Final thoughts
Now that's all clear in my brain-thing, it's really just a matter of putting this all into practice.
Alternatively I might ignore these lists like usual and then do another list or two or three which are broadly similar but with a couple of things in a different order in a couple of months!