Sunday, May 11, 2008

When I feel overwhelmed

Whenever I feel overwhelmed - by clutter, or by things to do - so that my creativity starts to suffer (and worse, my sleep starts to suffer!) I ask myself this question:

What can I do that will give me the greatest sense of accomplishment today?

Sometimes it may be a creative thing - giving myself time to complete a layout or two, make a card, allow myself time to shuffle through my papers. Sometimes it's something very much more mundane: seeing the bottom of the washing basket, phoning up someone I've been putting off.

Still, however, I find sometimes things hang over me and worry me more than once. It's silly to let that go on - recent examples have been getting round to applying for a passport, finding my birth certificate that I'd lost in the overflowing paperwork pile...

But when I finally received my new passport, and when I found the birth certificate (in the box of papers I had already thrown away, then decided to look through one more time!) I DIDN'T feel a sense of accomplishment. Despite the disproportionate stress not doing the task had caused, I didn't feel all that much better when I completed it... it was just high time! And what gives me the greatest sense of accomplishment? Clear kitchen surfaces, a dining room table clear of the usual flotsam and jetsam of family life and ready for a meal to be laid (or a creative session to start), a clean loo.... have I become a housewife in my middle age????? !!!

No - I still HATE housework with a passion. I just like the results. It was great when I could afford a cleaner, because every Thursday evening the family knuckled down and tidied up (which they would never do just for me!) before the cleaners came on Friday, and every Friday I sat in a clean and tidy house, without even cooking to do because we also had Friday as takeaway night. And the whole weekend stretched ahead with the house tidy so we could do useful family things and not chores. Maybe I really need to find the money for that again - in fact - that's a great incentive for making my new business work - if the business brings in money I spend my time doing what I want to do and hire someone else to do the housework!

My grandmother used to say "What every woman needs is a wife..."
She was right. (Think about it)
Or maybe: "Every scrapper should have a cleaner!"

What do you think?

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