Are you overwhelmed?

Tracy left this comment:

Roxanne, I love the way you break down tasks so that they don't become overwhelming. I know I should do that too, but have a tendency to want to get the whole thing done at once--and then never do it again!!!

I decided to do a post with my reply. I can easily feel overwhelmed. When too much is going on, when I want to accomplish more than seems possible in the time I have to do it, when I think that I'll NEVER get past the "daily" stuff to get to the "other" on my to-do list, I take a deep breath and apply what I've learned. Here's my philosophy. I hope it's helpful. I would appreciate any comments about other ways to avoid that overwhelmed feeling when facing those mountainous tasks.

Tracy--you said you had, "a tendency to want to get the whole thing done at once--and then never do it again!!!"

You have described my personality exactly. There are two words that define the reasoning behind that thought pattern: Perfectionism and Denial LOL!

It took me a LOT of years to discover that a "once and for all" approach to housework, dieting, business management, child rearing, well, everything in life, is not realistic. All it does is create an unattainable goal that results in unfair feelings of failure when it doesn't happen.

I feel like I've discovered a secret. I know everyone else seems to know it, but it has finally become revelation to me:Take that big task, break it down, and then call yourself successful as you complete each DAY'S task(s).

For each success, give yourself a pat on the back and decide that whatever it is is now easier to MAINTAIN since you've conquered the hard part of it.

I WILL have to "spring clean" again. Meanwhile, I have daily tasks listed out for me so that the major parts of homekeeping are reasonably under control--or at least not approaching the "overwhelming" level again.

I think I'll share my maintenance housekeeping schedule soon. Perhaps others will share their ways of keeping on top of things, too.

I love seeing how others make their lives "work." We've gone 2-3 generations without this type of knowledge being passed down. It's time to rediscover the proper ways to handle these areas and SHARE them with each other!