Finding My Rhythm - Starting with Monday

Rhythm - a strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound OR a regularly recurring sequence of events or processes.

Once again, it is all about perspective...  You talk to people out in the working world with a 9-5 job and they often will say that they would love the flexibility of working from home.  You talk to someone who works from home and often they say that they lack that structure needed to succeed that the 9-5 set up provides.

I have been blessed to be a work from home mom for the past ten years.  I have definitely struggled with the second statement.  I love having the flexibility that being at home provides so that I can put my family first while still being able to work.  That is a beautiful thing!  In that beauty there is a constant struggle it seems.  I have no isolation of my roles and I often feel pulled every which way.

For the last couple years, my constant mindset was that I needed to just set working hours.  I needed to decide what time I was going to sit down every day and then train my people that those hours were for working - much like a person does who leaves and goes into work each and every day.  I had thought that my family would be the biggest obstacle in this.  They are used to me being available 24-7 and have been known to take advantage of that.

It turns out that they are not my biggest obstacle.  I am!!!  Isn't that humbling....

My office is right smack in the middle of our open concept living space.  I love being right in the middle of the action and did I mention - my view out the window in front of my desk is awesome!!!  I would not chose to put my desk in any other place in our home (which is why my sweet hubbie rearranged the entire house to make this work).  My battle is in the distractions that my to do list provides.  I have work to do's and I have home to do's and because of my physical location I feel the pull to be doing them all at the same time.  I sit down to work and my washing machine summons me.  I can see the dust bunnies and the front flower bed in need of some serious love.  I start to clean the bathrooms and as I walk by my work area, I see the piles of client files that need attention.

I have found that this setting of regular work hours based on the clock is not working for me.  Instead, I am starting to embrace some rhythms in my life - starting with Mondays.  Monday was always one of my biggest struggle.  All my peeps head out the door.  I finally have that feeling of some control over my own schedule where I do not have to take their wants and needs into consideration and can just get down to work.  BUT...  My house is turned somewhat upside down from the weekend and I have a list of to do's a mile long.  Historically, I would try to do it all.  Yup, super woman syndrome.  I would get in the middle of changing the beds, cleaning the bathrooms and doing laundry, all while trying to sit at my desk and work.  Then all of sudden 3:30 seems to appear and I am in the middle of everything.  My stress level rises and I start running around like a crazy person trying to finish it all up before the school bus drops my kids off.

The last few weeks, I have released myself from doing any work on Mondays.  I have decided that for the rhythm of my life and family that Monday is best spent as a day to prepare for the rest of the week by focusing on preparing my environment.  After I send my family off to conquer the world, I take my sweet fur boy for his morning walk (it's a daily rhythm he has come to expect), write my blog for the week (yes, I know it's Tuesday but sometimes rhythms get disrupted) and then head out to kung fu.  The rest of the day is dedicated to my household to do's so that they are not screaming as loudly for the rest of the week.  By focusing, things are actually getting finished instead of partially done.  My state of mind is better when my family returns to a home that feels a little more like a hug than like chaos.

Releasing myself to focus on only one area of my life has had huge benefits the past few weeks.  I am still working to find rhythms that work in other areas of my life but this is definitely a good start.  Trying to set a rigid schedule really has not been a successful way for me to structure my life so instead I am looking to get some simple routines that fit the natural rhythms.  When you shift your perspective, sometimes crazy wonderful things happen.  Not only did the beds get changed, three loads of laundry fully done, bathrooms cleaned and supper made, I was able to spend 2 hours at my desk working.  There was no pressure to sit and get that work done, just the wonderful feeling of choice because I had focused well on the other area.

I still have much to learn and experiment with in this area of rhythms and routines.  We are in the middle of shift in our evening rhythms because of a change in our kung fu schedule.  So far we've managed to make it work and still sit down and eat as a family.  The goal is to take much of the decision making out of the mundane, repetitive parts of life so that I can save that mental energy for loving my peeps.