Do you have 10 extra minutes to get your life together?
Of course you do, you’ll say. Everyone has 10 minutes to spare!
Well, yes, technically that’s true.
I mean, personally, when I have 10 glorious minutes to myself, I usually just want to stare at the wall. But even I am tempted by all of the promises: increased productivity and better health and sleep and organization and sex and everything—in just 10 extra minutes.
Let me give you a sampling of the wonders that await you from every corner of the Internet…
Wake up 10 minutes early to have a cup of coffee by yourself, meditate and set the tone for the day. Thirty minutes if you want to take a shower. An hour if you also want to exercise or do some blogging or journaling.
Add an extra 10 minutes to your morning routine to stick some food in the crock-pot so you don’t have to stress about dinner tonight. Easy peasy.
Devote 10 minutes to organizing at night, making a dent in the piles of stuff you’ve been ignoring. (I’ve actually recommended this one, and I have to say, it does work wonders when I do it.)
Add another 10 minutes for an effective anti-aging beauty routine.
And 10 minutes more to implement a successful, ongoing social-media strategy for your side business or start that novel you’ve always wanted to write.
And let’s not forget 10 minutes to put out your kids’ clothes and make the lunches and write out a to-do list for tomorrow and…
I could go on, but that will take another 10 minutes that I just don’t have.
Because, of course, it’s not just 10 extra minutes that will magically transform your life. It’s 10 here, 10 there, and then another 10, and so on and so forth.
Consistency is great, but so is survival, sanity and sleep.
I don’t know about you, but this all makes me feel like a failure. Because I am failing. Oh, sure, I start out with the best intentions, and I follow these little 10-minute solutions, but I don’t stick with most of them for the long haul. I can’t. It’s impossible when sickness hits, when teething hits, when life hits.
And then the guilt starts.
It’s a vicious cycle, and I’ve had enough.
Does it mean that I’m not going to find ways to be more productive? Of course not. But I am going to start to be more realistic about those magical promises—because all of them are not happening every damn night. Maybe I can get some organizing done one night. Maybe I can stick a meal in the crock-pot one morning. And maybe I’ll pick the kids’ clothes from the towering, unfolded pile of laundry for an entire week.
Like I said, I’m being realistic.
As with everything else in parenting, we need to pick and choose what works for us when it works for us. Sometimes that will be for a month, sometimes it’ll be for a week, sometimes it will be for a night. And that’s OK. Really. After all, consistency is great, but so is survival, sanity and sleep.
And that’s what my 10 extra minutes is going toward.
Tell Us: What is the one trick that you swear by to make your life easier?
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