As a Millennial Child, I take for granted my very hectic
daily life having been born and raised in the age of technology. It’s only when I can get away from the city
and look out over the Lincolnshire fields (crucially with no phone reception),
can I stop and think about how busy my life is in that moment of peace. Being
hooked up to my phone like it’s a life-saving IV drip is where the problem
starts. I’m reading everywhere that you should implement a 7pm ban on all
technology (phones, TVs, laptops, tablets…anything with a blue light) to allow
the brain to switch off and to ensure a more restful and reenergising night’s
sleep. FAIL 1; it’s 19:57 as I glance at my screen and I’m still yet to catch
up on this weekend’s X Factor. FAIL
2; it’s the last thing I see at night and the first thing I see in the morning
thanks to the Alarm function.
‘No Signal’ and ‘No Service’ are signs that generally make
me panic – what will I do?? I generally make myself 100% contactable at all
times, keeping my finger on the pulse of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
and not to mention my two personal email accounts. Having recently switched
from iPhone 5 to the new (and very gorgeous rose gold) iPhone 6, I realised
that I must check my inboxes (at least) every hour for when I don’t, it ends up
looking like the M25 traffic has been redirected.
I am the Queen of to-do lists – creating a mountain of
tick-sheets and buzzing reminders of my phone – I get a real kick out of
feeling efficient and organised. But I’ve realised that in every aspect of my
life I’m trying to run such a tight ship that I’m in danger of losing myself to
constant mundane chores to the point of needing to schedule my own ‘down time’!
Every morning I wake up I see pop-ups and reminders that follow me around my
day; from the mountain of housework to do around the house, or DIY or
repainting the scuffed walls to walking past Tesco and mentally recalling what
shopping I need to do that week. On my way to work, I’m putting on make-up
(shameful but it gives me 10 extra minutes in bed and that’s worth the stares),
checking work emails, calling Estate Agents (house hunting is a joy) or booking
various appointments (hair / eye test / bank) to make the most of every minute
I have outside the office. When I sit down at my desk and aside from the stack
of papers beckoning the next 8 hours of my life away, I see a tray of vitamins
that I wish I would take every day, the Berocca I should wash it all down with,
the hand cream I should be applying morning and evening … the list is endless.
What I’m trying to fight now (by writing this post) is my inner
desire to be uber efficient at all times whilst feeling an overwhelming sense
of failure. So here I wish to test a theory – my own theory to help prove
myself wrong. I want to write a list of everything I wish I would do on a daily
basis and see how much time I would have left at the end of it all to actually
‘live’.
Respond to alarm and get up early > Drink
glass of room temperature water (Gwyneth’s advice) > Brush teeth > Floss
teeth > Mouthwash > Wash Face > Exfoliate twice a week > Shower
> Shave > Apply serum followed by moisturiser > Moisturise body with
oil followed by lotion > Style hair with GHDs or Babyliss Curling Wand > Apply
make-up > Weigh self and record in MyFitnessPal app > Have hearty, nutritional
breakfast at home (poached eggs or porridge) > Record Breakfast in
MyFitnessPal > Make home-made lunch (soup, salad, sandwich or pasta) >
Pack snacks for day > Pack gym stuff > Use FitnessFirst App to plan
workouts > Call Mother > Take vitamins > Drink Berocca > Drink 8
glasses of water throughout the day > Apply hand-cream twice a day > Survive
a day at work > Abstain from a Diet Coke crave at lunchtime > Log all
spending on MySpendingPlan > Record Lunch in MyFitnessPal > Exercise
after work > Have a break from computer screen every hour > Arrange
social diary with friends > Plan meals for rest of the week > Log in
FitnessFirst App > Read a book on tube home (Stylist if it’s a Wednesday) > Cook from scratch nutritional
meal (never happens!) > Watch something interesting on TV or catch a film
(my indulgence for the day) > Write something for me > Laugh > Snuggle
up to my beloved > Lights out at a reasonable hour.
Considering I put a limit on how many items one can have on
their task list at work – managing expectations is 70% of my job – in this
instance, it’s clear from the above, I am setting myself up to fail…
Have you guessed by now that one of my things to do
today was write a blog post?
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