I know that I am often the biggest contributor to my daily stress because I, being a person who likes to make lists and keep schedules, more often than not over-schedule my day without giving any room for mishaps, interruptions or other life events. I've tried not to schedule my day this way, but I found that it bothered me immensely to see big chunks of time with nothing in them. Since I have so many activities, hobbies, business tasks, etc. that I am simultaneously working on in a weeks' time, I decided it was less stressful for me to block the time off with things I wanted to work on than to leave the blocks empty.
Then the difficulty arises when something messes with that schedule and I do not get something done or even started when I had it blocked. It is one of the reasons that I love using Google calendars because it is very easy to have multiple calendars color coded, and it is very easy to move tasks around. Sometimes I move a task week to week to week. I tend to find that if a task doesn't get done after a few such moves, it probably isn't something I really want to to or that isn't vital to what I'm working on, so I can delete it. I can always add it back in later.
I used to get very worked up if I didn't get all 50 things on my calendar done. Okay, so I might be slightly exaggerating. I don't normally have 50 scheduled items, but I do pack my days. Over time, I have come to be more philosophical about it and look at my schedules in a similar way to the Pirates of the Caribbeans Pirate Rules--they're really more of a guideline.
I am pretty fortunate that I have created a life where I have a ton of flexibility about what I do each day. If I do not get something done, I don't beat myself up mentally. I just go to the calendar and figure out where I can plug it back into the schedule to give it another try.
It is important to have flexibility to not be hard and fast about a schedule, or life either for that matter. While I like writing my goals down, I also have learned to be more easy going and fly by the seat of my pants. If the urge comes for me to write, instead of clean house, or vice versa, I will check to see if I'm avoiding a task that really needs to be done. If it isn't an urgent task, I'm okay just doing what it is that I feel so moved to do next.
We can find so many ways in our days, beyond the idea of calendar and schedules, where we can cut ourselves some more slack. If slack can be defined as additional freedom then we need to allow ourselves to make mistakes. We need to give ourselves the opportunity to try something new and either like it or not. We need to be more able to get to know people before making any judgments. We can cut ourselves some slack when it comes to a strict diet, a strict exercise regimen, a strict savings program, a strict anything. In fact, we might want to be cautious about anything that we make "strict." Stricture causes stress and fraying. Restrictions can also be a founding factor in rebellion. They cause heart failure.
We can and must be more gentle with ourselves and with others. Kinder. Gentler. More loving. Just cut yourself some slack. If it is work or tasks, they'll be there tomorrow for you to do--or they won't/you won't, in which case, they don't matter. We must temper our schedules and plans with flexibility to love and be present when needed. Try it for a week--allow yourself to change your schedule around and not sweat it when you do.
(c) 2021, SZing, Spiritual Creator. All Rights Reserved. Photographs courtesy of Pixabay public domain images.
