Chasing Spoons

When you spend as much time online as I do, you work to make your social media feeds places of positivity and encouragement. I have seen a few different posts talk about the importance of making your bed every morning. So I decided to give it a try. See momma? All that nagging finally paid off.

The reasoning is solid, you've already accomplished the first task for the day. But when your sleep is often less than restful and it takes you almost an hour to get out of bed, the last thing you want to do before coffee is wrestle with the comforter. There were a few mornings I forgot and ended up making the bed a few hours after I woke up; but as the weeks went on, it became more of a habit, even if I was tired. I was surprised to find that it did help me to be more productive throughout the day. I felt better when I could walk downstairs and have already successfully completed a task for the day. I was more motivated to knock items off my to-do list and didn't feel as down when I had to move some tasks to the next day.

Another tool I've seen many spoonies use is a "done list". Now here's something that was right up my alley. I am absolutely a list girl, I make daily to-do lists in my planner. I have list templates for moving, grocery shopping, travel, pretty much anything you can think of...hmm, that might be a whole post in itself. Like many with chronic illness, I found myself struggling when I couldn't finish my tasks for the day. I'm fortunate in that my depression and anxiety are limited to specific situations and since I've left my traditional job, they've improved. But I found that I would still feel worse on days I wasn't feeling well enough to tackle everything on my list, so I began looking for ways to ease this struggle.

The idea behind a "done list" is that instead of making a list of everything you need to do and checking it off as you go, you make a list of everything you've accomplished that day. I like the idea, but I found I still need a traditional to-do list. My daily to-do lists have made my life with chronic illness easier, they allow me to see what I need to accomplish each day. They help me fit household chores and projects (like organizing my entire house) into my busy weeks of appointments, they allow me to visualize tasks alongside the hours in the day, making it easier to adjust my lists on days I have a lot of appointments or when I just don't feel well enough to tackle everything.

While I have yet to adopt the "done list", I am working on ways to celebrate what I am able to accomplish each day.