Thursday, January 9, 2014

Saying Goodbye to Survival Mode Challenge--Day Four




Today's challenge is about using the little moments in your day to accomplish small tasks instead of wasting them.
 
I have discovered that it takes me about 10 minutes to unload the dishwasher and re-load it.
It takes about 5 minutes to wipe down on all of the counters in my large kitchen and dining area.  It takes 1 minute to take the trash outside and replace the trash bag.  When my little kids are bathing, I wipe the bathroom mirrors and sink down and clean the toilet.  I can make a quick phone call or send an e-mail during the kids' recess time.  When someone calls, I can fold a load of laundry or dust my house while talking on the phone.  I often use little pockets of time between tasks or appointments to tackle the smaller chores on my to-do list.
 
Crystal talks about the distraction of social media and how she avoids it to save time in her day.
I decided toward the end of 2013 that I needed to do the same and get off facebook.
It's not even just the time I spent surfing my newsfeed, but it was also the emotional burden it placed on me.  Even when I wasn't on it I would be thinking about it.  "I forgot to send so-and-so a birthday greeting on fb!" or "I'm so worried about so-and-so and her personal problems." or "I wonder if that one person is mad at me because she never replied to my message." or "I'm so angry about that totally biased political quote my cousin put up!"  Even some of the joyous statuses were an emotional burden as they would tempt me to feel inadequate about myself because I don't run as much, decorate as nicely, or seem as peaceful about having tons of little kids as someone else would.  In addition, being accessible to sooooo many people sucked a lot of time out of my day.  Not being on fb, just like not having a cell phone, keeps me from being "at beck and call" to dozens and dozens of folks and their opinions.
As I told my brother, who doesn't have a fb account and is proud of me for quitting, "Ignorance is bliss!"  Truly, the people I have real relationships with still stay in touch with me and I'm happier not knowing everything about every person I've ever met!
 
Little tasks I can do with pockets of time:
Straighten my desk
Sort my paper pile
Carry my hanging clothing up from the laundry room and put it in my closet
Wipe down the windows on the front and back doors
Sweep the dining room
Check e-mail
Write a note of encouragement or a thank you note and drop it in the mailbox
Wash a couple of pots or pans
Straighten the shoe pile in the entry way
Read a library book to Katri
Enforce a 5-minute cleaning challenge for the kids

 

2 comments:

  1. I went off FB for many of those same reasons. As information becomes more and more accessible for anyone and everyone out there, I found that I wanted to go in the opposite direction - craving and valuing my privacy more and more. I don't want everyone knowing every detail about my life anymore. I also didn't like where FB in general was going in the privacy department. I, too, felt the strain of keeping up with what's going on in the lives of everyone else. I was feeling convicted about my "addiction" to gossip, and FB just fed that. I do miss is at certain times now - like finding out how my aunt's cancer treatments are going - but for the most part, it has been a very good choice for me to leave it. It was such a time-sucker for me and I just couldn't seem to find a good balance with it. I have felt more out-of-the-loop at times, but for the most part, like you said, ignorance is bliss.

    On a separate note, my kids do amazingly well with 5-10 min cleaning challenges. The other night I told them I was going to set the timer for 10 min and as long as they worked hard at cleaning up the house, when the timer went off, they could quit, even if they weren't completely finished. In those 10 minutes, we had the kitchen, living room, and their bedrooms all cleaned up. That sure freed up our evening for us in a hurry!

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    1. That's awesome about your kids cleaning the whole house so fast Kristin!

      I missed you a ton when you went off fb, but it just made me look at your blog more! There are things that are nice about fb, but I guess now you will just have to e-mail your aunt or call her once a week or something. I agree about the privacy thing, I felt like any good hacker could track my every move if they got into my fb account! Also, fb was like "brain training" to base your worth on what everyone else thinks of you (ie. fb "likes") and how popular you are. It started to feel like High School all over again and so I had to leave it behind.

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