Monday, March 4, 2013

Surprising productivity

How does it happen that some days are remarkably productive? This morning I did the usual routine: breakfast for kids, unload dishwasher, load breakfast dishes, dress kids. Some days that seems to be the end of my productivity. The rest of the day slowly passes between diaper changes, attempts to start a project, constant tidying, mealtimes, clean up, and bed time. Every day Paul calls me on his commute home from work and invariably asks how the day was and what we did. Sometimes I know that I did something, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. The house is a disaster, I didn't cook dinner, and I am still in sweats.

Happily, today was different - after the usual morning start, I got some laundry started, crossing my fingers that with a bit of luck I might actually wash it all today, and, with a miracle, have it folded *and* put away by bedtime. Hattie stayed home from school, having vomited on Sunday evening. So while she would have been at preschool, we instead did school together. She loves doing math. We've purchased a few math workbooks from Wal-Mart & Target. She eats them up. She will often finish a work book in a day or two. While she rarely volunteers to do a reading lesson, she'll jump at the chance to work in her math workbook. Suddenly the 20 minutes I had planned for math time had turned into an hour.

We were interrupted by my phone chiming, tell us it was little cousin Rachel's birthday. Which led to a 40 minute FaceTime party, playing hide-and-seek, Swiper no swiping, and singing happy birthday with Luke and Rachel.

Then lunch for kids, planning an FHE activity, making cookies with Anna, folding a few loads of laundry, fixing my hair, reading with Hattie, reading my scriptures in Spanish, folding more laundry, making dinner, washing dishes, and folding yet again. Kids to bed at 7:15, more folding. Now I am even blogging. What happened that made today different from other days? I didn't necessarily wake up this morning, randomly determined to be productive. I feel like I always have intend to be productive - even if my productivity is focused on spending time with my kids and forgetting about the house for the day. (Did I mention that the kids didn't even ask for TV today? That really made me feel like super-mom. How did I get stuff done and not entertain them all day?)

So if you know the secret to how you pull off your productive days, please let me know.

And the laundry is completely put away. Check.

4 comments:

jenny t said...

My secret is caffeine. If I know I have a lot to do, I start as early as I can and try to drink some soda (yuck). (Even more effective is a 5 Hour Energy, but that messes with your body in weird ways so I only very occasionally will give in after a really bad night with the kids.) I've been amazed at the things I start doing unplanned when I have a little caffeine in my system. I would SO be a coffee drinker if only. . . :)

The Beers said...

Pure chance. Maybe some luck too. If you find the secret, tell us!

Sharee said...

enjoy your days and your kids the work will ALWAYS be there

Laura Bernard said...

I had a super productive day the other day and spent half the afternoon trying to figure out why it was different. Unfortunately I never discovered the answer, nor have I had another productive day since then. Oh, well. I just hope to get lucky and have another one soon . . . maybe the day before you visit so the house will be tidy before the kids tear it apart together! : ) Can't wait!