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When it comes to gardening, I’ve often had good intentions but failed at execution.
The tray of pansies stays on the porch until it’s too hot to plant them. The flowering vines that were supposed to decorate the back deck instead eat it alive (this kind of thing can easily happen in Georgia).
It’s the same old thing many of us face: We start with enthusiasm but not much of a plan, and then get distracted.
Read MoreThe other day, I didn’t leave the house.
This happened for a mix of reasons: Covid. A high of 19 degrees Fahrenheit with 20 mph winds. A busy schedule of Zoom meetings. And then, the coup de grâce: I didn’t feel like it.
Listen, I know that sitting is as bad for you as smoking, or whatever they’re saying to try to scare us these days. And exercise and fresh air is important to me. But sometimes, I don’t do what’s best for me. I don’t have the energy or the gumption or the desire. So I do…other things. Or nothing at all.
Read MoreNebulous tasks are always the easiest ones to put off.
Even if you have clearly defined what you are going to do (“Write first draft” or “Fill out recommendation form”), there is an ugly amorphousness to certain things on our to-do list. We just don’t know how long they are going to take, and we suspect that it isn’t going to be a fun experience to do them. This one is going to require an uncertain amount of effort, attention, and focus; that one requires us to pull something out of ourselves that we aren’t sure we have. It makes perfect sense to choose something smaller, better defined, or practiced.
Read MoreThere are times when that elusive quarry known as “productivity” is impossible to get ahold of.
Grief, stress, and anxiety are like RAM-intensive applications running in the background of your mind, hogging all the resources and leaving you with only a sliver of processing power to complete your work.
Sometimes, you can still spend the afternoon putting in the time and going through the motions. A day of being present in body only isn’t much of a setback. But if you’re working from home — or worse, working for yourself — day after day without being able to focus, you might need to do something differently. In this article, I’ll share my tips for being productive when I’m exhausted, distracted, or overwhelmed and the work still has to get done.
Read MoreIt is incredibly frustrating to be the parent of a child who would seemingly never turn in their work on time (and maybe never get it done in the first place) without intervention. Not only does it make many afternoons and evenings a joyless slog, it leads to worry that your child will still be lost and helpless as an adult. I am guessing that fighting over homework was not part of the live you envisioned as you beheld your newborn infant for the first time.
Below, five tips to help make things better. Ready?
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