Do you ever feel like you have I.S.S.? I.S.S. is an acronym for a term I coined "Insatiable Somnolence Syndrome." Somnolence is defined as the state of being sleepy or drowsy. So it could more simply be called Insatiable Sleep Syndrome. A classic I.S.S. episode is best epitomized by those mornings where you hear the alarm go off, hit that snooze button, and cry out in a whiny, petulant, child-like voice, "I don't wanna get up!"
That was me this morning. That was me this morning 21 times as I hit the snooze button for one hour and fifty-five minutes!!!! Lord, help me. The thing is, I went to bed relatively early in preparation for my 4am waking time. So when the alarm went off at 4am, why did I feel like a truck had just hit me?! Why did the fact that I needed to get up make me feel like pounding my fists and kicking my feet on my bed like a 2-year-old having a temper tantrum at the grocery store? Why did I wish that it wouldn't be completely lame and irresponsible of me to just call in sick so I could stay in bed and sleep til noon?
This kind of thing happens inexplicably sometimes (and sometimes you just stayed up way too late watching Arrow on Netflix--which was NOT me.....not last night, anyway.) And these mornings can really throw a wrench in your day. I got out of bed only 20 minutes before I had to leave for work! Thankfully, I had picked out my outfit for the day the night before. Thankfully, I had a bunch of breakfast, lunch, and snack options packaged up in the fridge ready to haphazardly throw into my lunch cooler for work. Thankfully, my purse was packed and ready for the day by the front door. Thankfully, I had cleaned up my bedroom and the kitchen the night before, so I wasn't all distracted by clutter as the whirlwind that was me was getting ready to head out. And amazingly I got to work on time.
Work. Now I have to work after getting what feels like no sleep?! I sat down at my desk, and before doing any actual work, I opened up this notepad that I'd been utilizing as my To-Do notebook for the past few days and wrote out my task list for the day (I even drew little boxes to check the items off as I completed them). I only wrote down tasks that didn't require too much complicated thought, setting those aside for another day, because I knew that, as tired as I was, I wouldn't be able to complete them adequately. And surprisingly, I got a ton of work done. I was sleepy, which really makes it hard for me to stay focused, so I planned the day to be a day full of lots of tasks, but tasks that don't take too much time to complete...and I ended up being really productive.
So, in preparation for those inexplicable mornings when you wake up feeling like a zombie, or it's that one week during the month when you're expecting to wake up feeling like a zombie, or if you just stayed up too late watching Scandal on Netflix (huh? what?)--if you just do a few preparatory things the night before and take a second to thoughtfully plan your day, it might not end up a complete disaster. Those small, preparatory measures you took, which really only take a few minutes in the evening, could really save your butt and your day.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Friday, February 5, 2016
Time Poverty
First, I knew my posts would be irregular, but I didn't think it would take me over a month to get to posting the next one! I want to make a habit of doing a little writing in the mornings, so maybe that will help make regular posting a reality. Please enjoy this next post.
As a single person living alone with no children, people assume that I have so much more time than people living with partners or couples with children. And there is a little truth to that--I don't have another person's emotions to be sensitive to; I don't have anyone else I have to feed (other than my 112-pound lapdog); I don't have anyone else's schedule to have to keep track of; I don't have anyone else to clean up after, although looking at my house you'd think I did (ha, ha). But, the difference is, a person living with a partner has a partner to help. A couple can share the responsibilities of grocery shopping, running errands, cooking, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, taking the dog to the vet, taking the car to the auto shop, waiting for a technician to come to the house for a repair, and one of the times I cried out "I wish I was married!" was after the snowpocalypse that recently blew through Virginia requiring me to spend two and a half hours shoveling snow with a bad back. As a single person, I have to do all of that myself. This leads to time poverty.
"Time poverty" is a term I learned when taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course. I had never heard the term before and it is such a great one. Do you know how many days I had to take off work last year for emergency vet appointments, being at the house for multiple plumbing backup issues, being at the house when the plumbing company finally jackhammered my basement to replace the sewer pipe under my house (after digging up my yard the previous year to replace a different section of sewer pipe), and then that same week taking more time off for the heating & air guy to come and replace my HVAC unit? (Yes, I cried that week.) In addition to all that, I have to work full-time, work overtime if I can, attend meetings of the leadership team for the worship band at my church, actually sing at church, spend some time with friends and my hobbies, clean the house, shop for myself, cook for myself, cook for my food-sensitive dog who eats almost a pound of chicken thighs a day, run all the errands, sit at the auto shop for 3 hours when I go in to check on the grinding I hear while running those errands, try to keep my house clean, etc, etc. There just never seems to be enough time to do all this and not feel stressed out about it. Scraping for "time pennies" just left me feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. In addition to all of the responsibilities I listed above, there are things in my life that I want to work and improve upon, such as getting to a healthy weight, changing to a clean-eating lifestyle, getting to a point where I'm consistently paying down debt, and a new goal was to declutter and switch to a more simple, minimalist-like lifestyle (which would ultimately help with the financial fitness goal)
I began to notice that financial stress & time poverty were starting to bog me down. I felt like I needed to start working as much overtime as I could to help with the finances and that I needed to spend time developing better time management habits in order to reduce some of my stress. This was starting to show whenever I was at my worship team meetings. I was spending a lot of time each week on my duties for the team, as well, and whenever I did, I was very preoccupied and I didn't find the same joy in it that I used to. After a few months of feeling like this, I made the tough decision to step back and take a few months off of the leadership team. My worship pastor had actually noticed my preoccupation and broached the subject with me and understood that I needed this, which was amazing. Now I have more free time to work overtime as I can and to work on developing some healthy routines to simplify my life.
Another thing I decided to do was reduce the amount of time I spend in my biggest hobby, which is boardgaming. There was a period of time where I was gaming with friends four times a week!! I have no right to complain that I have no time for responsibilities when I spend hours upon hours doing something purely recreational!! I reduced it to about two times a week, but I think I may also stop going to Monday Night game nights because I always get home so late and hate life the next day when I get up at 4am. And not getting enough sleep brings along a host of problems on its own.
Those are the big changes I made. To help better utilize my time, I've also been trying to be diligent about writing out meal menus, grocery lists, to-do lists, and sending myself reminders on my phone to look at my to-do list so that I actually do the things on the list! I'm still very much a work in progress, but I'm aware of my time poverty and making a concerted effort to get to a point where I don't feel overwhelmed by everything. And it's slowly working.
So, for those of you who feel like you're suffering from time poverty, I suggest really looking at evaluating your priorities and cutting things that don't bring you joy or are not fitting well with your lifestyle at the moment. It can be hard sometimes, but it can help reduce stress, which is soooo good for your overall mental and physical health; and you may find some time to really focus on the things that are really important to you. As hard as it can be to change things up sometimes, there's a feeling of freedom you can experience when you work towards reducing your time poverty. So, go! Turn those time pennies into time dollars!
As a single person living alone with no children, people assume that I have so much more time than people living with partners or couples with children. And there is a little truth to that--I don't have another person's emotions to be sensitive to; I don't have anyone else I have to feed (other than my 112-pound lapdog); I don't have anyone else's schedule to have to keep track of; I don't have anyone else to clean up after, although looking at my house you'd think I did (ha, ha). But, the difference is, a person living with a partner has a partner to help. A couple can share the responsibilities of grocery shopping, running errands, cooking, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, taking the dog to the vet, taking the car to the auto shop, waiting for a technician to come to the house for a repair, and one of the times I cried out "I wish I was married!" was after the snowpocalypse that recently blew through Virginia requiring me to spend two and a half hours shoveling snow with a bad back. As a single person, I have to do all of that myself. This leads to time poverty.
"Time poverty" is a term I learned when taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course. I had never heard the term before and it is such a great one. Do you know how many days I had to take off work last year for emergency vet appointments, being at the house for multiple plumbing backup issues, being at the house when the plumbing company finally jackhammered my basement to replace the sewer pipe under my house (after digging up my yard the previous year to replace a different section of sewer pipe), and then that same week taking more time off for the heating & air guy to come and replace my HVAC unit? (Yes, I cried that week.) In addition to all that, I have to work full-time, work overtime if I can, attend meetings of the leadership team for the worship band at my church, actually sing at church, spend some time with friends and my hobbies, clean the house, shop for myself, cook for myself, cook for my food-sensitive dog who eats almost a pound of chicken thighs a day, run all the errands, sit at the auto shop for 3 hours when I go in to check on the grinding I hear while running those errands, try to keep my house clean, etc, etc. There just never seems to be enough time to do all this and not feel stressed out about it. Scraping for "time pennies" just left me feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. In addition to all of the responsibilities I listed above, there are things in my life that I want to work and improve upon, such as getting to a healthy weight, changing to a clean-eating lifestyle, getting to a point where I'm consistently paying down debt, and a new goal was to declutter and switch to a more simple, minimalist-like lifestyle (which would ultimately help with the financial fitness goal)
I began to notice that financial stress & time poverty were starting to bog me down. I felt like I needed to start working as much overtime as I could to help with the finances and that I needed to spend time developing better time management habits in order to reduce some of my stress. This was starting to show whenever I was at my worship team meetings. I was spending a lot of time each week on my duties for the team, as well, and whenever I did, I was very preoccupied and I didn't find the same joy in it that I used to. After a few months of feeling like this, I made the tough decision to step back and take a few months off of the leadership team. My worship pastor had actually noticed my preoccupation and broached the subject with me and understood that I needed this, which was amazing. Now I have more free time to work overtime as I can and to work on developing some healthy routines to simplify my life.
Another thing I decided to do was reduce the amount of time I spend in my biggest hobby, which is boardgaming. There was a period of time where I was gaming with friends four times a week!! I have no right to complain that I have no time for responsibilities when I spend hours upon hours doing something purely recreational!! I reduced it to about two times a week, but I think I may also stop going to Monday Night game nights because I always get home so late and hate life the next day when I get up at 4am. And not getting enough sleep brings along a host of problems on its own.
Those are the big changes I made. To help better utilize my time, I've also been trying to be diligent about writing out meal menus, grocery lists, to-do lists, and sending myself reminders on my phone to look at my to-do list so that I actually do the things on the list! I'm still very much a work in progress, but I'm aware of my time poverty and making a concerted effort to get to a point where I don't feel overwhelmed by everything. And it's slowly working.
So, for those of you who feel like you're suffering from time poverty, I suggest really looking at evaluating your priorities and cutting things that don't bring you joy or are not fitting well with your lifestyle at the moment. It can be hard sometimes, but it can help reduce stress, which is soooo good for your overall mental and physical health; and you may find some time to really focus on the things that are really important to you. As hard as it can be to change things up sometimes, there's a feeling of freedom you can experience when you work towards reducing your time poverty. So, go! Turn those time pennies into time dollars!
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