James Eaton

March 26, 2021

Daily Blogging Challenge - Day 26 - just do it

I have a busy week coming up. If you are reading this in somewhat real-time then we are about a week away from Easter. I am the Messaging Director at a church so Easter week is… kind of busy and important. 

Today is my day off and the start of my weekend. I have been so tired lately that I have not had a productive Friday in a while. Between winter breaks, virtual school, work, etc there are have plenty of things in the way of resting on Fridays. But today, I had a spark of imagination and decided to take a few hours and see what all I could get done that is hard to do on other days of the week. 

I cleaned out my car, I got my oil changed, I got my car washed, I got my haircut, I returned some packages to Amazon (via Kohl’s), I redeemed my free drink from Starbucks, I sorted all my email, I recored a video for TikTok, and STILL made it to school pickup on time. It was incredible. 

None of those tasks were that difficult, but I know that I am not going to have time to get my oil changed next week or have a chance to clean out my car. So, I just did the thing; I took a block of time and just said, “let’s see how far I can get.” Are there other things today? Yes. Do I still need to clean the house? Also, yes. BUT, I can do that tonight or tomorrow when everyone is home. I took some time when I was free to complete some tasks that were stuck in my brain. I would remember some of these tasks at moments when I could not do anything about them (10:00 PM is not the time for an oil change…), so it was incredible to just get all that out of my system. 

I am feeling refreshed and ready to tackle other weekend duties without those thoughts looming in my head. I am great at procrastinating these little jobs. If there were awards for putting things off, I could win. How would I ever know that I won? You just keep putting off even getting the trophy… But, in all seriousness, it felt so good to free up some of my mental capacity and check off some tasks. 

If you are feeling stuck and need to break free, sit down and make a list of things you want or need to do but don’t have time for it. Then, when you have a few hours take out that list and see how much you can knock out. I don’t say this as an expert, but rather as someone who has instantly seen the benefits of this exercise. Just try it! Just do those nagging things on your list and you will feel better.