Eat the Frog

Hi there, long time no blog posts. I’ve been busying myself chasing around after my 2 boys and puppy,  running the household and keeping myself well. I’ve also enjoyed listening to a lot of Podcasts lately. When I’ve had a a mountain of washing to fold, or need to clean the kitchen I bribe myself with the  company of one of these great podcasts: Straight and Curly, Let it be, Slow your home. If you are new to Podcasts then let me explain – it is the internet’s version of radio only with much better choices of hosts, topics and even music 🙂 You can listen via the websites linked above or via iTunes or the Podcast app on your iPhone.

On the Straight and Curly Podcast my friend Kelly Exeter and co-host Carly Jacobs recently talked about procrastination. Now let it be known I consider myself to have a University Degree in Procrastination Techniques (Geology with a Thesis). Hence the lack of posts on this blog. I’ve been far too busy, well being busy or making myself seem busy.

So today I’m following Carly’s advice and Eating the frog! What? Yep, I’m getting up and getting on with that thing that I am avoiding, the task that seems too hard to start, seems too big to conquer. But actually when I get down to it, its just taping on a keyboard and it will be done. TICK!

I do like ticking things of a list, I’ll write a to do list just to feel that satisfaction (just like Kelly). And if I’m starting to feel overwhelmed, or I’m not making any progress, the act of writing that to do list helps me clarify what really needs to get done, or what it is that I am avoiding. I hate that feeling of going around in circles and not getting anything done. You know when you sit down at your desk and the first thing you do is check your emails, then reward yourself with a coffee break and a quick check through Facebook, and Instagram, then go back to your emails and start all over again – yep me too! Kelly and Carly nailed it in their recent episode “Stop starting again“. Now I’m a ‘stay at home’ Mum, I do this by walking around the house, picking up 2 things, taking them to the room they belong in, then getting distracted making my son’s bed and picking up his Lego, then ‘beep’ the washing finishes and I hang it out, noticing the garden needs watering and the puppy insists on a play session and afterwards rewarding myself with a coffee, then where was I? Oh thats right my to do list……. still haven’t ticked anything off yet.

 

Recently I reached a crazy point – it took me 2 weeks to ring the plumber, and in that time I even spotted him across the school grounds twice! You know how long that phone call actually took? – 2minutes, yep, 2 minutes and Dave the plumber was all lined up to come around and quote for my laundry job. TICK.

Another thing on my long to do list was to sort out my Superannuation – BORING! I discovered I had 3 different Super accounts – all silently ticking away and costing me money. So I got on with it, followed the sage Straight and Curly advice of single-tasking. No, I did not try to juggle my phone under my ear, whilst sipping coffee, scanning my emails and completing paperwork all at the same time like normal. I sat and instead focussed on my Super mountain of paperwork, analysed the facts and got on with changing one Super to my married name (only 8 years overdue) and then rolling them over into 1 Super account. I felt SO GOOD when I got this #onething done – just as BabyMac (one of my favourite bloggers) says its great to finally do that #onething and this one also felt like a whole lot of ‘Adulting’. So thanks for the motivation (aka kick up the butt BabyMac ?) TICK

As I mentioned I have been running around after our cavoodle puppy Rosie – generally with paper towel, vinegar and bi-carb soda……..to sort out all the ‘messes’ on the CREAM carpet – ugh! It seems Rosie Posie preferred to do her business on the ONLY carpet in our house. After weeks of this spot cleaning, that carpet had more spots than a leopard and looked feral. So #onething last week was call the carpet cleaners. So glad I did because they worked a miracle and the carpet looks fresh and smells it too!

So by exercising some self-control I have finally got stuff done!
My #onething for today was write a blog post – TICK ?

What’s on your ‘To do list’?
Do you like ticking things off?
Can you do #onething today?