Read this on galpod.com.
The thing about coming back home after a long time away is that you have to let the process of settling back in time. It feels weird on the first few days. You have to get used to being back.
And then, once you're back, your routine life comes crashing back into you like a freight train. I spent my meditation time today thinking about the feedback I got for a short story I sent out to a couple of pre-readers before we left, and what I need to do for my current WIP. I'm not supposed to judge my meditation sessions, but this one was not good.
I'm trying my best to remind myself that the kids are still at home, which is basically a full-time job. Between organising play dates and going to see all the stuff we still want to go and see before the summer holidays end, I barely have time to tackle the extraordinary amount of laundry we seem to have created during these two weeks. Mostly, I try to get back to my routine and figure out how my schedule will look like once the kids go back to school. That way, I'll hit the ground running in September.
What helped me a lot was having a planning system set up before we left. I started using a weekly planner (in the picture) because it makes more sense to me than a monthly planner. Because I've got the long-term plans down, generally. I know what I want to do and which projects I'm working on. What I need is a way to plan my week so that I know what I still need to do. I use that to schedule my daily time.
Of course, as my grandmother used to say, "Man makes plans, and God laughs. It sounds better in Yiddish." I'm completely aware that all plans are the basis for changes and that I won't get all of it done. But, with my weekly plan, at least I know what I missed. And that's something.
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