12/20/2022

Find what works and hang on to it for dear life.

Motivation can be hard to come by. Like me. Haven’t done a journal since September. I am very much a creature of habit. I need to have my schedule the same.

Wake up, coffee, kids off to school, chores for like 2 hours, and then (if any) chores outside the house and then free time until the house is filled with people again.

Being thrown off from a routine can do critical damage to your day to day. And it is crazy that your habits can get broken in just one day. One mix-up, or something that you did not mentally prepare for, can waiver you from your path.

Getting back on track should be the next goal. I would not say go search for what has thrown you off. If you know what it was, then great! You can just tweak the concern until back to normal. But if you do not know, then you can spend days wondering, “What happened?”

I see as I get older, the way my brain works is changing. I get hyper-focused on house chores more than I did even a year ago. If they do not get done and I get tired, I think about it for the rest of the day and nothing still gets done.

HEY! There are always going to be dishes, there is always going to be laundry, and there are always going to be toys on the floor. To fix me not having enough hours in my day to do everything possible imaginable with cleaning, I now need to set a timer.

1 hour. 10 minutes in the kitchen (mostly dishes), 30 minutes picking up the floor and finding all the clothes and vacuuming/mopping, 20 minutes writing what I need at the store (this includes getting laundry in the wash, only one load at a time, and inspecting for things to do next time). And try to keep outing chores at 1-2 hours.

You should always have a backup just in case you are still not quite there. What gets your gears going? We found what kills our motivation. How do we use it when we get it? Mine is exercise. Running, Beat Saber, just walking down the block. This is so I can get all my anxious wiggles out and get my brain back into focus.

I also like writing exercises. These journals, and writing prompt books I used to answer like my characters. I also have a writing exercise book that talks about different authors and how to write like them.

I can not give specific advice on how to help all your motivation needs. All I can say is find what works and hang on to it for dear life.