Just posting here looking for some outside objectivity about my life and anything that would help me. I’m not sure what to do to help me manage better. Here is my context - if anyone has any thoughts I’d be grateful to hear them.
I am working from home most days and undertaking a course 1 day 1 week. On WFH days I have various roles and responsibilities for my different jobs (portfolio teaching type career), plus course homework. Within my work / jobs I have tasks I must complete (such as planning workshops) plus tasks I ought to do (market my workshops, connect with people, bid writing, bookkeeping etc) but which have no deadline other than what I impose on myself. Around this I have personal goals such as fitness, wellbeing (meditation and walking time) which I want to ringfence time for. I have parenting responsibilities. My 5 year old is struggling going to school and so I have spent a lot of this morning thinking about that and whether to introduce new strategies in our mornings. I also feel I need to prepare for school pick up (5pm) a bit earlier so that I have snacks / activities ready for her and it will go more smoothly.
I am the main parent to do bathtime / bedtime each night during the week as my husband works late. I also cook the dinner / meal plan, order groceries and manage household cleaning, laundry and chores, plus communication with the school etc. husband earns a lot more than I ever could and we reply on his income massively, hence the trade-off. I also occasionally volunteer at my son's school and manage the class whatsapp, plus contribute to a community campaign mainly on whatsapp. I do want to do this as I feel it is helpful to be connected with the school as we are a small family of 3 without any other family support or grandparents etc so the school is my network.
So that’s a bit of context. I am struggling to focus and frequently feeling overwhelmed. I have recently lost my mojo for exercising, although I have still been doing a 45 minute walk in nature each morning as without that I really feel unable to start my day. I want to get back into exercise as I’m peri and need to strength train, and worry about aging badly and not being able to run around after DD.
I feel my home is cluttered (tiny home) and I have tried decluttering but it gets cluttered again. I am spending much of my time at home and want it to feel calm but it’s overwhelming sometimes. I am struggling to find motivation to clean and tidy up. It takes ages.
when I WFH I flit from different tasks to different task and struggle to focus on a good chunk of thoughtful work. I had set aside today to complete my course homework but have instead been worrying about my child, reading articles about parenting, and planning my next declutter and charity shop collection (but not actually doing it) - and of course writing this. On my way back from my walk I picked up a healthy ready meal (Cook) so that I can take one thing off my to-do list and have one less thing to think about today as I just couldn't face cooking a meal. We can’t afford to eat Cook every day though!
I realise as I’m writing this that there’s not much slave here for fun us there. But unless I stopped work how could I?
Any general or specific advice welcome.