I can't get anything done, there's too much to do.

[cheeseisthebest]

I'm struggling a bit. I want to do everything and do it all perfectly. Each day I want too-
Eat healthily
Drink lots water
Walk dog
Go to gym
Have a perfectly tidy and organised house
Have a healthy dinner cooking
Be super organised
Have a good plan for work, I work from home, and achieve stuff.

I just tend to end up procrastinating and do the bare minimum, work wise and everything else.
I have a total chaos of lists, notes, both paper and on notepad app on my phone.
I never know where to start or how to cope.

I love the organised mums guided clean or focus session's. I use it for housework and work and general life admin, it really helps me focus. Small steps don't sim for perfection.

Firstly, nothing is perfect so no point aiming for that. I think you need more specific goals and a plan. As an example, can you set aside a whole weekend to deep clean and declutter the house as it will then be so much easier to maintain. Make a meal plan for 1-2 weeks, so you know what you will eat for all meals, and you can buy exactly the right amount of food.

Posted to soon the guided stuff is on Patreon app.

Good idea, my house is actually quite clean and tidy, that's just me getting distracted.
2 week meal plan is a good shout. I struggle to meal plan cos my husband doesn't eat meat and kids won't eat much of the veggie stuff.

Gosh are you me? I feel exactly the same. So much I want to get done but end up doing a lot of stuff not very well. 4 kids doesn’t help 🙈 the only area I’ve had vague success in is our food as I always plan and order it on Thursday night and get it delivered on Fridays. I find doing something at the same time every week helps. The house drives me nuts as everyone is so messy. I have a fortnightly cleaner and just do my best in between!

I want to do everything and do it all perfectly.

You have far too much on your list; your expectations are unrealistic.

With the exception of eating well (you will have to eat either way, you may as well eat well) the rest are a lot of things to squeeze into a day.

BUT you say you have a chaos of lists etc - you need to learn to prioritise and plan.

When you write something to do on your list, also write down how long you think it will take (leave a BIG margin), how important it is, and whether it's something draining or something that makes you feel good.

Then plan out your day/days with this in mind: do a good balance of drawing vs energising, and build in time for eating etc.

Good luck!

I had a cleaner, she was lovely but not very good!
I just spiral, so I will think oh I've not taken my vitamins, oh shit do I take too many? I need a daily plan, let's get a notepad, then a glass of water for vits, oh hang on the dishwasher needs emptying, see washing, oh need to put that away, but oh got a work call to make.
Then I give up and have a nap!

Oops that sounded a bit stern! I should have added that I spent a LOT of time learning how to plan my days when I was working. And now I'm retired that's all out of the window so you have my sympathy!

Are you also me?!

I also work from home and I actually think this is much harder to do than we generally assume.

we need to allow ourselves to “cut off” from the home life, housework, washing, meals etc in order to have work time.

this is really hard to do.

I too make many lists - but I do have them organised into “home / life admin” and work lists.

home list is only on my phone app.

I think as pp that routine is really key to achieving all we want to

meal planning - again it’s routine that is the secret - might be a bit boring sometimes but makes it all more manageable

and dropping standards on at least one thing - for me that’s housework!!

and school holidays makes all of it ten times harder anyway. Courage!

Yep work and life admin and home stuff definitely gets all muddled in my head.
I've just come off all social media to try and avoid that particular route of procrastination!

https://bestself.co/blogs/articles/how-to-use-the-weekly-action-plan-system-to-win-your-week. Have a look at this - it's a bit American and work oriented but I use it when I get into that frazzle of loads of small things to do all buzzing round my head and doing a series of half-jobs rather than getting anything actually finished.

You have too many things on your list. You need to prioritise then work through them.

For example you have to walk the dog every day (surely?) so that goes to the top. Once I’ve walked the dog I figure out if I’ve got time to exercise (my work is flexible) that’s my next priority most days.

Eating healthily and drinking more water are habits. So not time consuming. You just need healthy food in the house.

Then your other objectives are too vague for daily tasks! So make them more specific- clean one room on one day. Sort one cupboard out on another.

I want to do everything and do it all perfectly This is very unhealthy thinking.

Why do you want this?

I do everything essential and then do the things I fancy. Because I'm under less pressure I don't resent what I have to do.

My kids are well fed but some days we have simple meals.
My home is clean but I don't worry if the washing sits in a heap while I watch TV.
I walk because I love it not because I have to.

I think it might be good to investigate why you are putting this pressure on.

.

Put your list on a visible chalkboard in the kitchen.

Make up large bottle of water and put in the fridge..empty it daily.

Do the dog walk as a jog..no need to gym. Do that early before anything else gets in the way.

Dishwasher can sit full and clean until you are next boiling the kettle..do it then instead of it taking over another task.

I'm not one for meal.planning as me and kids all eat differently and they never want what I plan. Mine are old enough I can leave them so probably three times a week after work I step.out for half an hour to get what we've decided on. Less waste and gives me headspace.

Cleaning..meh. My house is tidy but not up to my mum's standard of clean...but that I can live with. Surfaces are done, just not deep clean.

Hope some of that is helpful.

You're trying to make too many changes at once, that doesn't work. Pick one or two things to focus on improving while the rest is maintaining. If maintaining existing habits is hard in itself then go even slower with adding new ones.

When you pick one thing to prioritise you can really focus on trying different things and finding out what works and what doesn't, so if it's healthy eating for example you could try out different meal kits, diet plans, meal planning, recipe books etc. Find out what works and what doesn't and keep the bits you like, then prioritise those habits until they become more ingrained and you don't have to think about them any more (which takes some time!)

Then once you're at that stage you can pick a different area to optimise or improve.

Making small improvements one at a time is much more effective and long lasting than trying to make several different drastic changes all at once.

Let go of the idea of perfection, you're setting yourself up for failure.
Some good resources:
Organised Mum Method podcast and YouTube
Dana K White for decluttering on YouTube
Atomic Habits
Pomodoros - I love Sean Study and Study MD videos for these
For work I use the flags on Outlook to set up my to do list, this is magic

Also it's possible you could have adhd

Thank you

Baby steps. Do meal plan and shopping list together.
Then that's out the way for the week.
Make it your #1 habit and once its started to be embedded every Sunday or whatever then tackle another.
It's all about building habits.
In terms of daily work priorities matter. Once urgent things accomplished pick the next batch of tasks.
End your day with wins and accomplishments, you'll be amazed at how much you're getting done.

Thank you. Am still feeling totally overwhelmed. How do I meal plan with fussy teens, vegetarian DH and me who doesn't eat much carbs!