Recently I was talking with a client and she commented that she \u201cshould be more positive.\u201d\u00a0 This came after her sharing that she was struggling with feeling depressed and overwhelmed.\u00a0 What people might not know is that I have felt this way more than I would care to admit.\u00a0 So I shared with her that first, we need to eliminate \u201cshould\u2019s\u201d from our vocabulary and to allow herself to feel her feelings.\u00a0 But is that all there is?<\/p>\n
Frequently the people I work with have a tendency to neglect taking care of themselves.\u00a0 This is an area that is important to make time for \u2013 if you are struggling with feeling down and to make progress \u2013 look at how much time you are spending on things you enjoy.\u00a0 It\u2019s surprising to see how much we think that I\u2019ll make time for this once I get caught up, once I get that all done.<\/p>\n
Our bodies and mind need time to rejuvenate.\u00a0 If we push ourselves to only be \u201cproductive,\u201d then we actually become less productive.\u00a0 We struggle to get things done.\u00a0 We end up feeling down and overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the end all, be all answer though.\u00a0 Just because we make time to nurture ourselves, it doesn\u2019t magically cheer us up or make the work easy.<\/p>\n
We could use successes.\u00a0 Our struggle to make sufficient progress leads to another possible culprit to our feelings \u2013 depressed, anxious, overwhelmed, etc. \u2013 we try to do too much.\u00a0 We want the whole basement to be organized and expect we can do that in one weekend of dedicated effort.\u00a0 This is an extreme example \u2013 what is \u201ctoo much\u201d varies from person to person.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to figure out what is reasonable for you, and only you.<\/p>\n
Therefore, as you work to discover what is realistic for you personally, do small things \u2013 those things that you can start and finish with a little effort.\u00a0 By focusing on an area that you can finish in a short amount of time, you can begin to see the effects of your working.\u00a0 As most people I know struggle with paperwork to one degree or another, I would recommend choosing something other than papers to organize \u2013 it\u2019s hard to make enough progress in a short amount of time.\u00a0 Do something small and feel rewarded with your efforts by seeing your success.<\/p>\n
One of the first things I ask myself if I am struggling in this area is, \u201cwhat do I see that would take less than 5 minutes to do?\u201d\u00a0 Often it’s those things that are small enough I put off, for whatever reason, – thinking, \u201cthey\u2019re so easy, I\u2019ll just do it later.\u201d \u00a0Yet, by simply doing them, I see the small successes.<\/p>\n
Another thing to consider is a contained space to work on \u2013 a single shelf or drawer.\u00a0 It can be other things as well, as long as it\u2019s relatively simple.\u00a0 Or consider what else you might be able to break down into a smaller piece to work on and finish.\u00a0 Shelves and drawers are great options since their space is defined and limited \u2013 therefore it\u2019s clear when you are done.\u00a0 It also means that you can see the effects of your work.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a link to what I wrote a while back on Diving into a Small Organizing Project<\/a>.\u00a0 Consider where you have a clear vision of what needs to happen \u2013 you know how and where to organize your photographs, your jewelry, your music, your office supplies, and etcetera.\u00a0 This is a potential direction for your efforts.<\/p>\n An additional benefit to working on those small pieces is that it frees up the spaces around us \u2013 seeing if we have more space here or not enough space there.\u00a0 We have the potential to see how to break other projects into smaller pieces.\u00a0 It\u2019s rarely a good idea to set aside a whole day to working on one of our projects \u2013 it easily leads to burnout \u2013 rather than building up the energy to work consistently, which is more effective in the long run.<\/p>\n Sometimes, we just need to walk away from our projects.\u00a0 Not for months – yet to step back and let it be for a while.\u00a0 Whatever it is that you are dealing with, it likely didn\u2019t get that way in the last week, and will take time to work through.\u00a0 When emotions are running strong, it\u2019s generally hard to make progress, so consider what you can manage.\u00a0 Then give yourself permission to do only what you can handle \u2013 even it\u2019s nothing at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our feelings can interfere with our making the progress we want. There are things we can do and more importantly things to consider as we deal with trying to make progress on our projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,8,18,5,9,7,22,17],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-household","tag-motivation","tag-procrastination","tag-productivity","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-jo","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1206,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/1206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}