Ride the Waves
We all have our ups and downs. Some days are just harder than others and that is okay. For me, this weekend is definitely an example of those kinds of days. Sometimes we just need to ride the waves.
I have managed to put off writing this post till the very day I wanted to post it. I kept telling myself that I would write it tomorrow, but tomorrow never came. I also had to run a D&D campaign session yesterday for which I hadn’t fully prepared. That usually isn’t an issue, I can just come up with some ideas that day write them out and be ready to go. When I sat down to do just that I found myself unable to even think about what I was going to do, let alone put any words to paper.
That was when I realized that it was just one of those days. The best way to describe it is that I felt defeated. I had just suddenly lost all motivation. I am realizing now that it was the same feeling I got whenever I had a school assignment to do. I would just get so overwhelmed that I would shut down and just not be able to work on it. I had the same feeling this morning when I went to start this post. I’ve been so overwhelmed with things I need to do that the thought of doing something for myself or for fun just made me feel guilty.
As I am finally putting my words down I can actually feel that pressure decreasing. I enjoy doing this and I am letting myself do something I can enjoy without having to feel guilty. I don’t think I am alone in this feeling either. It is really easy to feel like there is so much that has to get done and that anything you do that isn’t a responsibility is wasting time. But if you don’t make time for yourself to destress and do what you enjoy, it is going to make doing the things you have to do that much worse.
This segues into what I had originally wanted to talk about this week: routines and structure. Everyone's mileage will vary with this one but I know it is helpful for me and I hope it can help you as well. I found that trying to simplify my day as much as possible helps me mentally prepare for and handle other situations better. I have been trying to structure things I don’t enjoy doing.
The simplest form of this is just not having to think about what I am wearing to work. Picking out what I am going to wear to work is not something that I enjoy doing. By buying several pairs of identical pants and mostly identical shirts I am able to just grab them and put them on and not have to think about it much. I try to do the same thing with breakfast in the morning. My goal is to make unenjoyable tasks more structured so that I don’t have to actively think about them. This allows me to have more processing power, for lack of a better term, for the rest of the day. I can devote more time and energy to more complex tasks or tasks that I want to do.
I am also trying to structure my days by blocking out time. This is something that I have just started so I am not able to comment on the effectiveness but I can explain my goals a little. I am trying to look at my days and say, “I have six hours of free time after work. I want to use one of them to work on a project I need to do at the house, I want to spend at least an hour working on the podcast, and the rest I can just relax and do whatever I want.” I am hoping this helps to take the pressure of relaxation off of me because I know I have time set aside for things that need to get done. I want to be able to spend my free time the way I want to without having to worry about all the things that I need to do.
The final and most effective form that I have done so far is setting up a calendar and alarms for anything that is recurring. For me, a lot of these are routine home maintenance issues but I am sure everyone has things like this. One thing I started was setting alarms to take the trash out, and a different one for the weeks I have to take the recycling out. I never have to wonder if I put the trash out yet or if it is a recycling week or not. The alarm goes off I take the trash out and if it says it is a recycling week then I do that too. This works really well with things that have long timeframes. Every month I have an alarm to check the water softener and the AC filter. I never have to wonder when the last time I did it was because I know that I will have confirmed that reminder once I do it. I recommend this one the most because it doesn’t take away anything interesting and it helps alleviate the stress around a lot of these things. I never find myself worrying if I did X or Y because I know I have a structure in place to handle those things.
I hope that I may have made some semblance of sense with this post. I feel much better than I did when I started and the act of just starting something that I wanted to do without worrying about everything else helped me get over that feeling. I am going to wrap up with some self promotion after this but thank you to everyone that took the time to read this and I hope you have a good week!
I plan on doing at least one post a week but I would like to do some more throughout the week maybe as shorter posts about more specific things I am trying. I have also enabled comments on the posts and will try to respond to every comment. If you want to support the project you can click this link or the “Support the Project” link at the top of the page. There are a variety of ways you can help me make this grow and everything is greatly appreciated. Finally I wanted to mention the podcast that I am a part of with two of my friends called “3 Guys and a Pie.” We have covered all kinds of topics from films to the moral implications of genetic immortality. It is available on the following platforms below:
