I love to-do lists. I tend to work on several projects at a time, and to-do lists for me are a must. Otherwise, I get lost in the sea of tasks that need to be done. The lists give me structure and ease, allowing me to free my memory of the day’s tasks, and letting a sheet of paper do the heavy lifting. When life felt normal, I would start my morning by reading my to-do list, and by the end of the day, half of the items would be done.
The last month and a half have been anything but the usual. My to-do lists went missing, along with the sense of normalcy I had taken for granted. I found my notebook two weeks ago, tucked away in my computer bag. Reading through my pre-virus goals and duties, I was reminded of the changes me and my family, along with the world, had gone through. The tasks I’d set before seemed trivial and unimportant.
I pushed myself to make a new list. By the end of the week, I forgot about it. Almost nothing got done. Although my inner perfectionist was screaming, I decided to give myself a break. Getting used to living in the “new normal”, adjusting to the drastic changes in my life takes its toll. Sometimes, resting and delaying projects and chores is important.
Our energy goes where our focus is. Getting things done takes concentration, as we need to calmly direct our attention to the given problem. Those actions require will, a commodity that is not always available for us humans when emotions are raging. Today, almost everybody on the planet is feeling some type of negative emotions daily. This negative energy spills out into our news, into our information space, in our physical environment, even when we are distancing from other people. It is in the air. This negativity puts an additional burden on all of us, draining our energy. Being in a mental-emotional balance is very important in order to keep the immune system functioning well.
In order to save our energy and direct it on creative things, I decided to temporarily disconnect from all sources of negativity. My new focus is on my own well-being, allowing other, less important tasks to take a backseat. My new to-do list for this week is as follows:
- Limit my exposure to news; have a pre-set time of the day when I read the latest updates, or just ignore the news and ask my partner to give me a digest of the most recent information.
- Limit my social media time and temporarily disconnect from all groups that tend to amplify negative emotions.
- Do some gardening chores every day.
- Take an online class.
- Hike every day with my partner.
- Play with my cats.
- Get 20 minutes of sunshine in the middle of the day.
- Clean and declutter my closet and kitchen cabinets.
- Catch negative emotions and process them, in order to return to a positive mindset.
- Spend every day some time to JUST BE.