Old habits die hard, or should I say old habits are hard to break? So, I had some struggles carrying out my scheduling goals for the week and being consistent every day with writing out My Daily Top 5. (You can check out my 2020 goals in the post, entitled Degrees of Maternity 2020 Scheduling Goals.) I knew I would have some challenges. How did I know? Well, past experience tells me that my history lends to being really excited in the goal planning phase, but not having the same level of enthusiasm when it comes to actually executing the plan and having to put in the work.
For this reason, I think last week was particularly hard to get off to a good scheduling start. I was lacking somewhat in the energy levels needed to really get physically motivated to carry out those scheduling goals that I’m actually proud to call my own.
And after reflecting upon my failure to be consistent in following my well thought-out plan, I determined that the root cause of the problem had a lot to do with how I ended the previous day.
One of my ongoing scheduling goals is to get to bed at a decent time. I’ve set 10:30p as my bedtime and have managed to comply less than a handful of times so far. Even worse, I’ve been historically neglecting my recommended daily allowance of sleepy time hours for many months now.
I tend to be somewhat of a night owl and can easily stay up into the wee hours of the morning. But, physical limitations of the human body will eventually cry out when the constant abuse of staying up way too late (coupled with waking up way too early) becomes down right unbearable.
I’m amazed at how long I’ve been able to function off of less than the recommended 6-7 hours of sleep for adults. I said I’m “amazed”, not “proud”. And, the schedule is something that I hoped would get my body regulated to receiving the energy reserves that it so desperately needs replenished. Those reserves have been dwindling down to little to nothing lately. I ain’t gettin’ any younger, folks. So, it’s time to get this predicament under control.
And, I really do believe that my day could start off on a better note, if I could just get the bedtime routine down to a science. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll try to simplify things a bit and just really concentrate on going to bed on time most nights. If I can do that, I have a feeling that I’ll have more of the get-up-and-go needed to carry out the daily agenda to the best of my ability as an efficiency-focused newbie with a newly-created Schedule Board.
I think much of a person’s productivity and motivation (starting at the onset of the day) has to do with being well rested, being alert, and having those energy reserves replenish themselves for the new day. And when I’m not getting enough sleep, I do feel that I’m not GETTING THINGS DONE at my efficient best.
Try this. Picture yourself going to bed extremely late (into the a.m.) and then having to get up in 2 to 3 hours to see husband/wife off to work. Then, you realize that Little Man will be waking up soon to get ready for school and that you could lay down for an hour or so. But if you do, you may just oversleep because you’re so tired and would probably sleep through the alarm clock. And, Little Man would be late for school.
So, you stay up but don’t have much steam in you to try to do your devotionals and exercising because you’re so tired and won’t do either activity justice. Therefore, you say you’ll get to them later when you may be more alert. But, you end up not getting to them at all that day.
You just have so many other things you’ve got to get done and you’re moving in slow motion, which means you’re taking twice as long to get things done. And that means some things are getting left out and will have to be put off until tomorrow. But to catch up on your backlog of tasks, you decide to stay up late again to get some things done. Needless to say, the vicious cycle keeps on rollin’.
DO YOU SEE HOW THINGS CAN GET OUT OF CONTROL REALLY FAST (if you keep on doing what you’ve always done and what you’ve always done isn’t working)? (I’ll answer this question.) Yes, I know this to be true from experience.
Something else I know to be true is that complete productivity overhauls don’t usually produce outstanding results right away. So, I’m realistically giving myself several more weeks to really get acclimated to having a structured approach to carrying out my day. After all, I’ve lived my life (up to this point) with very flimsy, makeshift semblances of schedules in the past. But, nothing concrete like I have at the present. Truth be told, I’m dealing somewhat with a mindset shift and bodily functions that must adapt to those shifts.
And I’m coming to terms with the fact that I can’t continue this current pattern of what I’m calling “destructive and unproductive behavior” at this point. It’s not getting me further along in my personal and professional growth process. So, I might as well nix it. I think I would rather go to bed on time and not get everything done on the schedule than to go to bed late and not get everything done on the schedule. My deductive reasoning is telling me that getting more than adequate sleep is going to increase the amount of things I’m able to accomplish on my schedule each day. It’s an educated guess; but the only way to test my hypothesis is to carry out the plan. Just call me the ma’am with the plan.
However, I’d rather be known for more than my planning skills. I want to be known as the “ma’am with the plan that knows how to execute it and come out victorious on the other side”. And, once I can successfully complete my probationary period, using my new schedule board and scheduling goals, I’ll be a stronger and more organized woman for it.
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