This may sound a little extreme, but really, there is so much to do, I barely notice! Meals and playtimes with Baby J keep me busy during his awake hours and usually during naps I knock off the tasks I have planned for myself in my (slightly overly compulsive) schedule as mentioned in Rule #1.
This does not, by any means, mean that I don't take breaks or allow myself to relax a little throughout the day. I'm just more likely to grab my Kindle and read a few chapters, do a quick design project for the house, or spend some time writing here or elsewhere.
I think people would be (pleasantly) surprised at what a difference "black out" periods make in their daily lives. Mr. J and I have even discussed infringing on sacred weekends with a no TV policy on Sunday mornings before he returns to work that evening. There are tons of things we can do as a family that don't involve the magic black box: puzzles, games, story telling, and dogpiles on the living room floor to name just a few!
I love this rule! I have only recently begun implementing it in my own life and I can really see a difference. I used to have CNN on all day long as I did my housework because I thought I was killing two birds with one stone....but really I was missing both the birds. Now that I have started DVRing PBS NewsHour and listening to music during the day I get more done and can actually focus on the news at night before bed!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mrs. D! I know what you mean, before we had Baby J (and in the barely remembered days when we had cable TV!) I would leave HGTV or something on while I cooked, cleaned, etc. and I would always end up stopping what I was doing to sit and stare for a few minutes here, few minutes there. It always ended up taking me about three times as long to complete something and I'd really only caught snippets of whatever was on! Nowadays, we live off of Hulu Plus and Netflix, so I have the convenience of catching up on "my shows" after Baby J goes off to dream land and I can really relax and enjoy them!
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