On being lazy..

I’m secretly a really (I mean REALLY) lazy person. If I had my way, I’d lie on a chaise loungue all day reading, while someone turned my pages, peeled my grapes and popped them into my mouth.

Nobody seems to have noticed, I can’t understand it, I never realised I was such a good actress. My husband often mentions how I’m always on the go, “Are you still busy?” he asks. What he doesn’t know is that when no one is around, I have to draw up a chart and force myself to follow it, otherwise even the most routine task would go undone. I’m not kidding you, these are examples of what goes on my chart:

Walk dogs, clean teeth, wash dishes, shower, laundry and so on. Basic things a 40 something should be doing on autopilot.

I wasn’t always like this, it happened when my children grew up and left home. Over 20 years of established routines became redundant overnight. Empty nest syndrome? I suppose partly, but I think it was more about the routine. I’ve lived with mental health issues since my teens and establishing routines has been vital to get me through the day.

When you can’t be certain what mood you’re going to wake up in tomorrow morning, it helps to know that certain things are automatic. If you are doing what’s necessary without having to think about it, it’s harder to find time to go out and try to buy a hot air balloon and forget to collect the kids from school.

It can be really difficult to establish a routine, your every instinct is to rebel against it, telling yourself that you don’t need it. That you should just go with the flow. But once I realised that it was my routines that were missing — it only took me 4 years to work it out — I started again with the charts and lists and since then I have become ten times happier and a hundred times more productive.

I have started a new habit of writing every day, even when my brain isn’t giving me anything shiny to play with, and I’m also editing work from previous days and posting here on medium each day in May for a challenge that I’m doing with Ninja Writers. An unexpected side effect of all this is that I started to lose weight and it’s inspired me to go back to my slimming club, which is great.

So, if you’re like me and the whole idea seems completely overwhelming, start small, pick one thing you really need to/want to do each day and start. It doesn’t matter how small a task you choose, just commit to doing it every day and start NOW!

Ps. You’re not really lazy, you just need focus :)