I thought this “vlog” would take 2 hours out of my day. Now, 6 hours later, I’m still at my computer.
That is my hamartia.
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a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
You’re welcome for the vocabulary lesson. But in all seriousness, underestimating how long chores or tasks will take is my daily and weekly downfall.
You should see my “to do” list. It’s always pretty ambitious and barely half of it gets done. Then I feel like a stressed out failure wishing there were 25 hours in the day and 8 days a week.
I always blamed time. There’s not enough of it.
But it turns out, it’s not time … it’s me.
My girlfriends and I were talking about how we never have enough time and we feel like we are short changing ourselves. Since I’ve made it my mission to seek out answers to our work-life balance issues, I started emailing with Peter Turla, the National Management Institute President. He’s also known as the “Time Man.”
He explained to me that it’s not a time issue, it’s a behavior issue for most of us. And the worst behaviors are as listed:
- overcommitment
- inability to say no
- trying to do everything yourself
- excessive perfectionism
- underestimating how long it takes to do something (ME!)
- setting the wrong priorities
- procrastination
His advice is to identify which of these behaviors is causing you to fall behind. Maybe it’s a few of them. Once the behavior is identified, you can make changes in your life to allow yourself more time.
Also, he stressed that planning is a necessity. If you don’t plan out your week or day, you won’t be able to effectively manage your time and tasks.
As busy moms, my friends and I also agreed we feel guilty scheduling time for ourselves if there are 3 piles of laundry sitting on the bedroom floor. But Turla says taking time for yourself (without the parent guilt) is just as important – if not more important – than all of the other tasks on your to-do list.
If you watch the video, you can see where each of my friends say they fall short and what they plan to do about it.
We gave ourselves some homework. We identified where we need to improve our behavior and then put goals into action.
Please follow along and let me know if you make changes to your behavior and schedule!
We are going to check back in a week and see how easy or difficult it was to stop blaming time and hold ourselves more accountable.
HAMARTIA?! I haven’t heard that word since Magnifi-Brit-Lit or whatever class it was we studied the Greek tragedies… right?! Thanks for the Vlog, MK… it’s so relevant for so many.
Hamartia was my FAVORITE word from any Magnifi-lesson! I’m so glad I’m not the only one who remembers!!! ❤️
Start with two vital questions: What REALLY matters in my life and family? What’s the most important task/project I choose to get done TODAY? Getting that one thing done encourages and empowers for tomorrow.