One of the first things you come to realize as a care giver is that the minutes go by much faster than before. It becomes very apparent very quickly that merely good intentions to get something done is not enough. This is never more true than when your own family and responsibilities seem to be coming a distant second to the care giver role. Without a sense of focus and a structure to organize all those extra activities you become your own hamster on the care giving wheel.
Care giving is at worst a bad job and a best a lovely project. Somewhere in between those two extremes you still have to find a way to get all the tasks done and not constantly be running to catch your own train late. Stepping back for a moment every now and then and asking a few really simple questions can make all the difference between you feeling hurried and scattered and calm in the endeavors. Here are some good things to ponder when overwhelmed:
What things will make the most difference to the one I am caring for?
What things have to be done once a week versus once a day?
Who can help me with the things I'm not good at or don't want to do?
What do I enjoy doing the most of all my care giving tasks?
What do I want to do more of? Less of?
What gives me the greatest energy in my care giving role? The least?
Procrastination is waiting for perfection in all of its forms to appear: the perfect moment, the perfect time, the perfect words, the perfect action, etc. There are no "perfects" for anything ... just things that work the way you expected and things that don't work the way you expected all on the path of a continuous requirement to do something.
You can spend your life getting ready to get ready or you can spend your life being ready and acting. One thing done is better than everything pondered.
