About Me

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I am a full-time mama with a passion for writing and talking to fascinating people. I live in a one horse town with a Cowboy and my son. Thank Lord for cyberspace! I lived a colourful life in Sydney for a number of years. Working in advertising and journalism for FPC and the Sydney Morning Herald. During my time in Sydney I competed in a Dragon Boat race, choreographed a dragshow, used the Share Accomodation advertisements as a way to meet men and was told by Noiseworks frontrunner Jon Stevens that I was a bitch! Then came the decision to move back to country for 3 months to help out my Father with newspaper business while he was having treatment. Convinced I was a city girl I was caught by surprise when I fell in love with a farmer (and no, he didn't want a wife... still doesn't it seems!) convinced him that we needed to see the world, popped off to Vietnam to teach english in Saigon - before realising that the "food" in Nam didn't agree with me... turned out to be Monte - my son who is now with the Cowboy and I back in country NSW! I am in a wonderful stage of my life where I am focusing on the things that really make me tick. Including writing these chronicles.

Monday, January 11, 2010

The paralysing gift of 3 hours

Can't type, typing.

 today is the first day since giving birth to Monte where I have official time to write, blog, plan, work on my website and I am ... all over the shop. anxious, not sure where to start. too busy. putting fullstops. in inappropriate places.

I am sitting down to write then noticing I need to mop the floor - grab the mop then tell myself "No, this is my writing time" and force myself back to my seat.

Problems I tell you!

My Ma and Pa (so don't call them that) have agreed to mind da boy from 2-5 mon-fri, for which I am extremely grateful.

 Particularly since Monte became mobile and has taken to climbing on lounges, tables - shaking milk around the room and opening the dishwasher (kill me now!)

These 3 hours of me-time are needed and I have some foundations to put down for my ambitions to get off the ground!!

You see I have a BIG website launch looming - with so much to do for it that I am frozen!

In fact I am frozen in every regard - because in the same breath I am longing to organise a Blogging Get together in the OHT - nationwide (no small dreams here) AND look into starting a Kayaking business.

Am I crackers? Over ambitious? Enthusiastic? Maybe all, maybe none...but I am just following my instincts here...

I have a to-do list longer than my life and I don't know where to start!

So thought I'd try and clear the cobwebs by unleashing these feelings out on you.

It is like the feeling I get when Monte has his one hour kip - I start washing the dishes , than halfway through that I make a cup of tea, type an email and pull in a pair of socks off the line.....

I feel that I don't have enough time to do all the things so start doing them all in a rather rushed manner.... but never really completing any...

There is a lesson in here somewhere isn't there....

Maybe I will take a deep breath , slow down, and focus on one at a time ...

apparantly we can have it all, just not all at once...

what is 'it all' anyway?

I have become so accustomed to multi-tasking I have lost the ability to single-task.

hopefully tomorrow the excitement of having these 3 hours will have calmed down and I'll be a dash more productive

Has anyone ever felt completely overwhelmed with projects and the feeling they do not have enough time - yet conquered this and came out on top?


Inspire me, please! 





pic from here 

6 comments:

  1. Why yes, yes I have. I can only work properly when deadline is looming. If I still have plenty of time I just procrastinate and leap from one thing to another. Why dont you write everything you need to do on a piece of paper, put it into a hat (or, you know, a bowl... why is it always a hat?) and see what comes out first? I don't know if that strategy will work. I have never tried it. If it does, do let me know.

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  2. ooops, blogger just ate my very well worded responce.........goodness I started getting panicy and all shallow breathy just READING your post! That used to be me all the time! Gentle advice.....remember to breath and trust that it is OK to just do one thing at a time. Write a list to get it out of your head. Just do one thing at a time.......if your brain starts jumping to other things just remind your self you can only do one thing at a time and this is what you are doing now.

    Have courage to believe that you can still be creative and do excellent work if you slow down and actively DONT multi task.

    duckie.

    PS,. if my other comment appears somewhere - just delete the one you least like!

    PPS, get ducks! they help a lot!

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  3. Yes serie! I've been there and came out the other end with a successful (well I reakon anyway) business and a lifestyle to boot! Sure, it's taken time... and HEAPS of effort but my Dad used to always tell me to follow my heart, take calculated risks and the sky is your limit. If I can be of any help whatsoever - how to go about starting up, tax shit, inspiration... whatever! You just let me know love!

    Another word of advice from my wise old father... When things become overwhelming and you don't know where to start, break it down into small steps and take one at a time. Each step you take gets you closer to your destination.

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  4. I used to get so overwhelmed. Now I just ask myself "will it really really matter if I don't do this now?" And most of time the answer is no.

    Go easy and be gentle with yourself Sharni.XO

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  5. I have learnt (or to be honest AM learning) to slow down. Rome wasn't built in a day. I used to try to change the world in a nap time. And clean the house and do laundry and lose weight. I.D.I.O.T.

    Way to put too much pressure on yourself.

    Take it slow. One task per day. Anything on top of that is a bonus.

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  6. It's a catch 22 isn't it - motherhood teaches you to multitask like a motherhummada, then you need to focus on just one thing and can't!!
    I am not a naturally organised person, yet a had a very successful career as an Exec PA, organising other people. One trick is to use 5 mins of your time in the morning to write down what needs to be done that day, along with the time it will take. Leave heaps of space between lines, because as you think of them, you prioritise them, and give a quick guess on how long each will take. You may not have time to do a long job at the top of the list til later, but in his nap time, maybe you could knock out a couple of quick jobs in the middle.
    Just a thought!!

    ReplyDelete

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