I’m thinking of getting one of those step counters. Even if I don’t exercise, there is a chance I do 10,000 steps just walking in circles around my house.
Take today for instance (please, tell me you can relate)…
The hours stretched before me, no place to go. Finally!  It was dark and rainy, the perfect environment for doing all the fun stuff I planned.
Books to read, scrapbooking, writing projects, the list went on.
This was the day.
As soon as I did my Bible study, I planned to get started.
Then, before I knew it, my husband was on his way home from work. I should have grabbed a mirror, I’m sure I had a deer in headlights look. The Bible study lay unopened on the table.
The pictures lay unscrapped; no writing was done and nary was a book seam cracked. 10 minutes was spent doing an art project. That’s something.
What DIDI do? Good question. I can log 1,000 steps on my way around the house to put away a load of laundry.
My good intentions can take a whole day, once I mix in a little TV watching and countless small chores.
PUTZING: The Enemy Of Good Intentions
We stop to pick up shoes, and then while we bend over we realize there is a pile of chip crumbs under the couch, where we notice no one has vacuumed in quite some time.
We go get the vacuum and pick up the pens on the table to drop off at the desk, where we jot a quick note before we forget and check our email.
Which includes a reminder that we forgot someone’s birthday, so we grab a card and find the address, and notice that your phone has not synced up since you updated your phone book last winter.
While you plug it in, iTunes might pop up and it seems like a good time to make a playlist, since we are sitting here, and remember our library books are due so we log in to see if we can renew them.
Once logged in, it would be smart to reserve that book from the list in the magazine we tore out…now, where’d we put that list? Then we notice the bird feeders outside of the window are empty, again.
Better write seed on the list, while thinking about it…
The brain is always ticking away. No less than 57 new hobby/business/craft/writing/family/homeschool ideas were percolating while I putzed.
Why do I struggle to stay focused on a task?
My husband says I am a master Putzer. Is that a compliment? I’m not sure.
It isn’t that I don’t accomplish important things during all these distractions, I do. All the same, I am easily, oh so easily, distracted.
When my kids were small, I developed the habit of picking things up as I went by. To save my sanity…and my home. Now that I am having free time again? I can’t seem to stop.
Maybe there is a name for this. I’ll look it up next time have a plan to do something else.
If you wonder, I did get my Bible study in. Once I got back up and sharpened my pencil…
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Oh girl! I can SO relate to this! I think I putz {lose focus} when I’m overwhelmed. When I fall *behind* in the housework, the errands, the things on my to-do list, then the things I enjoy doing (photography, gardening, scrapbooking) get relegated to the bottom of the list.
I’m figuring out that I can’t do that. That I have to *take time* ~ be intentional ~ about making sure the things I enjoy get sprinkled in. Even if the other tasks aren’t completed. And then sometimes, it’s just ok to do “nothing”.
That makes so much sense Caryn! Next time I am putzing away (when I had other plans) it would be smart to stop and consider what the real issue is. Today? I still putzed a bit. After I kept my other deadlines. And it was glorious
I feel like the more creative you are the more you tend to trail off. I think that our strengths are our weaknesses-so, yes, you may be creative, and the dark side of that is that you like to putz around. It’s just another way of learning about ourselves, and being that that is how I am, too, seeing it this way has helped me have more grace with myself about something I perceived as negative. Also-the world talks about being productive, the Bible talks about taking time to rest. Sometimes when I intentionally rest, I am much more productive afterward. Maybe putzing is our way of resisting the need to always be productive?
Also, I LOVE that you say putz. I thought it was just me 🙂
Rebecca! Yes that is some deep wisdom there. Did you notice Caryn wrote about rest in the comment above? Your words inspire me today. I appreciate your perspective…
Oh girl! I can SO relate to this! I think I putz {lose focus} when I’m overwhelmed. When I fall *behind* in the housework, the errands, the things on my to-do list, then the things I enjoy doing (photography, gardening, scrapbooking) get relegated to the bottom of the list.
I’m figuring out that I can’t do that. That I have to *take time* ~ be intentional ~ about making sure the things I enjoy get sprinkled in. Even if the other tasks aren’t completed. And then sometimes, it’s just ok to do “nothing”.
That makes so much sense Caryn! Next time I am putzing away (when I had other plans) it would be smart to stop and consider what the real issue is. Today? I still putzed a bit. After I kept my other deadlines. And it was glorious
I feel like the more creative you are the more you tend to trail off. I think that our strengths are our weaknesses-so, yes, you may be creative, and the dark side of that is that you like to putz around. It’s just another way of learning about ourselves, and being that that is how I am, too, seeing it this way has helped me have more grace with myself about something I perceived as negative. Also-the world talks about being productive, the Bible talks about taking time to rest. Sometimes when I intentionally rest, I am much more productive afterward. Maybe putzing is our way of resisting the need to always be productive?
Also, I LOVE that you say putz. I thought it was just me 🙂
Rebecca! Yes that is some deep wisdom there. Did you notice Caryn wrote about rest in the comment above? Your words inspire me today. I appreciate your perspective…