In December 2018 I had decided to close my business and try to sell the assets that I had. I was sure this was the right decision for me due to health issues, and somehow, over the last 10 years I had lost a bit of my passion. Not the passion of working with clients. That was always my favourite part of what I did. I had however, become overwhelmed with all the other tasks that are associated with running your own business; managing social media, finances, on-line research, networking etc.
I also wanted to get some jobs done at home that had been put on the backburner for some time, and also the opportunity to spend more time with my Grandchildren. We also ran into some legal problems with one of our daughters and this took up an amazing amount of time, with a huge emotional toll attached.
Our youngest daughter had left to travel for approximately 18 months, and quite frankly this left a huge hole in our lives and constant worry for me.
By September 2019 I had been able to spend much more time with our eldest daughter and our three Grandchildren, the legal issues for our middle daughter had come to an end and a due date had been set for the return of our youngest.
With some kind of normalcy returning to our lives, I had really started to miss my working with clients and the joy that it gave me. Still not sure about the other areas of running a business I was lucky enough to pick up some work with another Professional Organiser who I had known for a number of years and who I also had a huge amount of respect for. I suddenly realized that my love had returned and I felt that completing all the other associated jobs would become manageable.
Looking back, the huge To Do List that I had set for myself was not achievable, taking into account my time and finances. I had the WHOLE picture in my mind of what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. My list included both small and larger tasks.
- Completely tidy and redo our front and back gardens
- Clear and reorganized our 2.5 garage
- Re-organise our bookshelf after having to empty it due to carpet repair
- Organise and set up rooms left by our other daughter who had recently left homeGet back to restoring small items of furniture that I had stored in the garage
- Move from room to room in our home and update the look after completing a large renovation prior to my time off
- De-clutter my filing cabinets and reorganize, as well as painting them to fit in with my new vision of how I wanted our home to look
- Get my sewing machine serviced because I was going to start sewing again
- Follow up finding a new solicitor to take over the management of our private affairs
- Paint our front door in a new colour and paint security door to match
- Get quotes for various jobs in our home that I would like to have done. E.g. installing a glass pool fence
- Spray all the paved areas around our home in Once a Year Weeding liquid
- Follow-up Private Health Funds
- Establish filing systems for my husband’s business. He has just started working for himself.
There were other items that I could list but already looking at the list of what I have not achieved in writing causes me to be upset with myself and extremely frustrated.
So, for the purpose of this blog this is what I, and maybe you, need to focus on:
- Even as a Professional Organiser I can let things get away from me and in turn, suffer from some anxiety
- Like physical clutter, this list gives me mental clutter
- Don’t beat yourself up for tasks that don’t get completed in your set time frame.
- Pick your battles. If you have other family members that don’t seem as interested in completing tasks as you are, let some of the tiny one’s slide. I am definitely not suggesting that you allow other members of the household to do nothing
- Celebrate the small achievements that we make!!!
- Maybe, break To Do List’s down into smaller tasks such as most important down to least important. As everyone has differing priorities list these in an order that suits you
- My priorities would be; look at other health funds for my husband and I, update my filing system so I can run my business smoothly, set up a filing system for my husband and find a solicitor.
The rest of the items I will get to as I can and try not to allow myself to become overwhelmed.
I think my favourite task that I completed was our bookshelf!
