Tuesday, January 25, 2011

WFMW: Weekends and Motivation

This past weekend I found myself highly motivated. That's not far from my norm, but my motivation to do chores in the early morning was high. Minutes after my son got out of bed, I had my first load of laundry in the wash (I'd even prepped it the night before), and shortly after breakfast, I was already dusting. Sure, we had company coming later in the day, so of course I wanted the house clean, but I had a moment (yes,  a moment), where I thought, "I should do this every weekend, get the chores done early and have most of the rest of the day, or next day off." I felt exhilarated by the idea, then realized that while I felt that way Saturday, I might not feel that way every Saturday.

What I realized that might just work instead, is to go with the flow each Saturday, and see where my motivation takes me. I often try to plan, plan, plan my moments, to get the most accomplished, when in actuality, sometimes the less I have planned, the more I actually get accomplished because I do things as I'm in the mood for them. I also find I seem to have more fun and am more in the moment, versus where I need to be going or what I need to be doing next.

Of course, while that feels like a revelation, and one I'd like to stick with, who knows if I'll really follow through? I always love great ideas to start with, but don't always continue with them.

How are you best motivated on weekends?

See We Are That Family for more of What Works for Me Wednesday.

2 comments:

  1. It's tough to stay motivated on weekends--my husband is off & I want to be too! This results in a huge workload on Mondays. I like your idea of getting started right away!

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  2. I'd count that as a revelation, definitely! I try to have a plan but also be flexible, and it's always something of a struggle: "Am I really letting this go to better serve my own or someone else's needs, or am I letting it go because I'm lazy??"

    My son and I like to watch Christian children's television 7:30-9:00 on Saturday mornings. It's tempting to sleep in until 7:15, an hour later than we get up on weekdays...but I find that when I do that, then I miss one show while I'm making breakfast and my son is hollering from two rooms away, "Mama, guess what's happening?!" and I begin to feel very stressed out. Also, for some reason watching TV makes me more likely to drink too much coffee, which means that I get up after TV feeling dizzy and nervous. The whole day goes better if I get up by 6:45, tidy up or start laundry or some other small task, get breakfast ready in time for the first show at 7:30, have something to do (like mending or sorting junk mail) during TV time after I'm done eating, hold off on a second cup of coffee until after 9:00, and have something planned for us to do immediately after TV so we don't start jumping around and arguing! It takes some motivation to keep aware of all these things, but it really pays off.

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