As moms, we often want it all and we want it all right now. Yet, while there is nothing wrong with wanting to get the most out of life, sometimes this desire to live life to the fullest can come at a cost to both yourself and your family.
Are you one of the many moms out there who is struggling to stand up under a schedule that is packed to the brim? I used to be one of these moms. I remember that I had a calendar where just about every block on the calendar was FILLED with things to do! This eventually wore me out and I hit major burn out. This wasn’t good for anyone in my family and I made drastic changes. Now, I am happy to have a calendar that has more space for rest and my family vs. activities just to fill time. Here are five tell-tales signs that your schedule is too full and what to do about it.
5 Signs Your Schedule is Too Full
1. You’re Constantly Running To the Next Thing
You’d love to sit down and spend some quality down-time with your kids or take some time for yourself, but you can’t. You have to be at soccer practice in 10 minutes and then make cookies for the PTA bake sale after that. Even your “down time” is full of little tasks, and yet you never seem to get it all done.
2. You Feel Overwhelmed
You’d like to cut back and you know you desperately need to, but you don’t know how or where. You feel trapped by all of your prior commitments, and yet you can’t seem to say “no” anytime another opportunity arises. No matter how hard you work, you just can’t seem to get ahead. There’s always more to do.
3. Your Health, Relationships or Work are Suffering
Your schedule is so full that your life literally can’t keep up with it all. You stop eating right and exercising. You can’t remember the last time you went out with friends. Whenever you sit down to do something productive, you simply can’t seem to focus long enough to get anything done. You become grouchy and irritated.
4. Others Don’t Know How You “Do It All”
When others routinely ask you “How do you do it all?” it doesn’t occur to you that you are doing more than you should. Instead, you take the question as a compliment and as validation that you are, in deed, a rock star, despite your diminished health, strained relationships and messy house.
5. You’re Chronically Tired
You frequently stay up late trying to get more done or to get ahead, even though you never do. When you finally get to bed, you either fall asleep immediately or you can’t sleep because your brain is still going a million miles an hour. Either way, you never wake up rested. You need a couple of cups of coffee just to make it through the day.
Of course, we all handle stress and busyness differently, but we all do have a breaking point. If you are at or past yours, then make today the day you do something about it. For the health of yourself and of your family.
Here are some things you can do if your schedule is too full:
Acknowledge that you want and need to make changes.
Learn how to say no to commitments that you aren’t passionate about.
Find tasks in your to do list that you can cut out to make room in your schedule.
Get support from family and friends to help you stay accountable to the new changes that you’d like to make to clear out and keep your schedule more manageable.
Pay attention to your health. If you are still feeling stressed, tired, run down, etc. even after making changes, consider seeking advice from a counselor for more help.
Making changes to your schedule may take some time depending on your current commitments, but over time, I think you may start seeing the positive effects from cutting back.
4 Ways Your Busy Schedule is Hurting Your Family
Is Your Busy Schedule Affecting Your Children’s Behavior?
Is your schedule overbooked? What affect has your overflowing schedule had on your life?
