What Day Of The Week Is It?

Image by Blue Shutters Web Design


A common theme I see on social media and with talking to friends is how all the days just blend into one another with not much to distinguish them so is it a work day or weekend?  It can be hard to tell.  Also who missed trash day because those days are blending?

Our daily patterns help us make sense of the world and keep track of days.  It helps give us something to look forward to, 'I cannot wait for the weekend I am going out with my husband'.  The monotony of everything being the same can be really numbing, which is part of the reason I love vacations they break the routine.   

 

But don't get too excited I as much as I believe in breaking routines every so often, I am an even bigger advocate of schedules and routine.  Your schedule and routine can be as structured or unstructured as you need it to work with your personality.

Where I Am Coming From

I have worked from home since 2017 (Ok in 2017 I was going to school full time, online, from home and work began in 2018 when I started my own business).  But I have never had a problem with knowing what day of the week it was because my little Padawans and Mr. Padawan were leaving the house M-F and on Sunday we would go to church.  

In addition to that I had things that I did on specific days of the week to help the days be distinctive and not just float along like an eternal summer vacation.  Now I am not knocking an eternal summer vacation but the reality is that stuff needs to get done, and if I lose track of days it adds stress.  So back then I had established specific days, laundry day, trash day, grocery day, now it is not every day of the week but enough to keep things humming and not adding too much stress.

“What can be done at any time is never done at all.”
~ English Proverb

My guru (Gretchen Rubin) had touched on this in one of her podcasts from 2018, and I realized that the hack she suggests is one that I do, and I do it because that is what my Mother did, she generally does know best. Below is a bit from the podcast notes (see the full notes at the link for Try This at Home).

Try This at Home: Make each day of the week distinctive. This idea was inspired by Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Ma tells Laura:

Wash on Monday,

Iron on Tuesday,

Mend on Wednesday,

Churn on Thursday,

Clean on Friday,

Bake on Saturday,

Rest on Sunday.

 Are you feeling lazy but don't know what to do?

Make a schedule!  Seriously do it, start out small if the thought seems really awful to you.  Just pick one thing to do each day and make sure it gets done.  Make a list of things that you do weekly and then assign them a day.  They could be things like:

  • Load of towels
  • Load of sheets
  • Load of dark laundry
  • Load of light laundry
  • Dust the house
  • Mop the floors
  • Vacuum
  • Take the trash/recycling to the curb
  • Go to the grocery store

I think you get the idea, pick what is relevant to your life situation, maybe you want to do laundry two days a week so you do towels and sheets on one day and light and dark laundry another.  Do what works there is no right or wrong way to start just pick something and see how it feels for a week or two. Then at the end of your trial period re-assess and maybe add something else to the schedule.  

Get Dressed!

Get out of the yoga pants, PJs, or other lounge wear.  Seriously do it.  You don't need to get into full blown office wear if you typically wear a suit to work but you do need to get changed.  You can still be comfortable outside of your yoga pants and have a professional style.  The way you dress really does affect you mood and mindset.

Think about it when you are home sick and you are finally feeling a bit better what do you do?  You take a shower and get dressed.  The principal is the same here, and Teresa Maria at Outlandish blog has a fantastic post about this.


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What to do when it seems that the world is on fire?

 First of all DO NOT PANIC!  Nothing good ever comes from panicking. Second, take a deep breath and then say a prayer, then count your blessings.  People that lean into their faith are happier.  Here and here Third, focus on your small circle what is going on there and focus on that.  So the stock market is crashing you really can't do a how heck of a lot about that other than don't panic.  So focus on what you have been doing to care for yourself and your family, use this time to identify an area or two to be frugal.  Being wise with your money is always a good thing, and this is a way to make lemonade. Fourth, largely ignore the news especially that of overseas tragedies.  Humanity sucks, but it is also beautiful.  We were not designed to have all of this information especially horrific information coming at us 24/7/365.  There is absolutely nothing I can do about some far off place to make it better, if I focus on those areas I feel ...
Read more

I am losing my momentum...

in many different areas.  I am still in showed up mode just skating by and maintaining but not breaking out of my rut. In some ways, I want to say it is ok because I spent two weekends in NJ visiting my Aunts and helping clear away some things at their house and the funeral.  I think everyone in this house has been sick not all at once so it seems like it has lasted forever.  So yeah there has been a lot of stress and uncertainty. I spent a good chunk of today focusing on some business-related things that I am really hope come to fruition.  I have also been doing some planning on Pinterest to try to incorporate some fun with my boys.  One of my fears is that as a 'Boy Mom' that I don't engage with them as much as I should or could because quite frankly I love them to bits but their interests don't really align with mine.  As the parent I know that it is my job to focus on them and come up with ways to join their interests, I get a lot of support from ...
Read more

Success...Happiness...Preconceived Notions....Letting Go

I am not really sure where I am going with this but I have been toying with this idea that success doesn't lead to happiness but it can sure enhance it.  So what exactly is success and really shouldn't I define success for me and ignore what "others" define as success? I have been thinking about this a lot and not really going anywhere partly because I am afraid of the answer.  But really I need to think about this for my own happiness, I get to decide what is right for me.  I also need to accept that I do not live in an ideal world so my vision of what I thought was success, probably isn't going to exist in the real world.  I need to adjust my idea of success to match reality and not what I wish, I have done it in other areas... Example of shifting expectations and ideals So I had this idea of how I would be as a parent before I had children, in fact I was an amazing parent and then I had kids.  The the kids came into my world and life changed in so many...
Read more