Procrastination.

I think often that I am the queen of procrastination.

I put things off until they desperately need doing or the very last minute. I have always been like this. When I was at Uni, I was the student rushing to finish all the assignments in the last two weeks. I remember one time staying up all night to finish off an essay that was due the next day. I got it in on time but I swore to myself that I would never put myself under that kind of pressure again. I never pulled another all nighter doing an essay but I did always rush at the end of semester to finish off the work that had been neglected. The kicker was, every start of term, I would think this term I am going to be ultra organised. I am going to start all my assignments in the first week and work my way through them slowly. I never ever did though.

A couple of years ago, I read about she's and born organised people in Fly ladies book. I recognised myself straight away and realized that I am a she. A "she" is a side tracked household executive.

In our family of nine, I would say that there is three people that are born organised. Those three are Steve, Daniel and Brigette. The rest of us a she's. I remember talking with Steve about it. Brigette overheard our discussion and then decided to take it on herself to speak up everytime I got sidetracked. She would say to me whenever she wanted something or whenever I put something off, don't be sidetracked mum, you can be a born organised person too. You just have to say now instead of later.

One thing I realized through from reading Fly ladies book is there is nothing wrong with being a she, but you need to learn how to work with it, rather than against it. I think part of my problem is I think to be a good housekeeper, home schooler and mother that I need to be a born orgnaised person. I just have to realize my limits though and that I will never be one.

My tips for those of you that are shes.

1. Write lists. It is the only way I accomplish what I think needs to be accomplished.
2. Be realistic in what you can do. Don't go putting together a list that needs 2 hours attention when you only have an hour to get it all done.
3. Take breaks and do not expect to get everything done in one day. I think that one of the biggests problems of being a she is we think I will catch up and do everything then keep it all up to date. The only problem is, when we have caught up with everything, we are so exhausted that we don't do anything for a week and we start going in cycles just like I did at uni.
4. Routine. A routine is good. It helps you remember what you need to do and stick with it. I find that often real life gets in the way of the routine. The biggest problem with this is it only takes one day to stop the routine and then it goes out the window. This happens to me all the time. I have been concious since we started home schooling though that just because abc didn't go well yesterday, it doesn't mean it has to go badly today. I make more of an effort to start the routine again.

Anyway, I just wanted to post this for myself. We have been back at school one week and for most of the week it has gone well. Today though was a bit of an up and down day and by lunch time I gave up. We didn't get much done even though Christopher was at kindy in the afternoon. I just need to remind myself to get back into it again tomorrow. We only have 3 subjects to do in the morning. Fridays are a bit of a different day though because Christopher is home from kindy. After we have finished Religion, spelling and Maths, we are going out to spend the day with another home school family.

Next week is a new week and a chance to start anew.