Methods to manage morning madness

In my post ‘When your plans are derailed,’ I share my MO when the best laid intentions don’t quite reach fruition. Yesterday was one of those mornings. After a fitful night’s sleep, I started out five minutes late and it went downhill from there. I attempted to cram too much into too little time, couldn’t settle on an outfit until I’d tried on a half dozen combinations, managed only to skim through my devotions and shirked on my quick-clean routine. An obvious glitch in my ‘simple morning’ plans. Sunday night would’ve been the perfect time to jump start my Monday morning, but I putzed around with a puzzle and a movie instead. After a full weekend, it was okay to indulge in down time; however, I could have made better choices that would’ve added to, rather than taken away from, my workday morning practice. Thankfully, I don’t have to wait until Sunday night to try, try again.

What is one tactic you employ to keep workday mornings simple(r)?

Image courtesy of phanlop88 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

No use crying over spilt milk

[Image credit: Idea go]

Before I left on vacation, I was making my lists and checking them twice and I don’t know how it happened, but something fell through the cracks.  Apparently I had recorded a couple of tasks on the wrong days, which almost affected a deadline.  Thankfully, someone else noticed the oversight in time and things quickly got back on track.  Tasks we perform can become second nature to the point where we rarely give them a further thought.  But this situation reminded me that as together as I may look on the outside, I’m still human. Just like the next person, I find myself distracted, derailed or flustered and say or do things I can only shake my head at after the fact.  Instead of obsessing about or beating myself up over my blunders, however, I’m working on wiping up each mess as I go and moving on.   I’ve got too much to do to get hung up over spilt milk.

Do you obsess over your mistakes, or can you easily shake them off?

Maneuvering around the detours

[Image credit: dan]

I’ve never been an athletic person.  Always the last kid picked in gym class, I was relieved when wearing a back brace kept me from participating in contact sports for three years.  During the annual President’s Award challenge, I barely performed the minimum requirements.  Over three decades later I’m leg pressing more than my body weight at the gym, executing “real” push-ups and training for a sprint triathlon with my first race in April.  Unfortunately, last night when I was less than a quarter-mile from home after a 3 1/2 mile run, after checking for traffic, I lost my balance and propelled myself off the curb and into the street — my phone and ear buds flying, ankle twisting and both knee and hand making contact with the pavement.  Although I’m hoping the on-and-off icing and Ibuprofen nipped the worst in the bud, I may need to mentally prepare myself to postpone my plans, whether the race or the triathlon, or even my dreams for Someday.  Because it just might be the healing time I need rather than manipulating the outcome I desire.  And wherever I end up, I’d rather arrive limp-free.

How patient are you when your plans are sidetracked or derailed?