To All You Women Out There:

Time is short, but I HAD to post this! I get a weekly e-mail from my favorite organizational queen, Marie Ricks, who gives great tips that make my life run a little bit smoother. This one really made me think of what we "Home Executives" need to prevent ourselves from getting run ragged while trying to maintain a semblance of order in our homes.

Stop Before You’re Tired

Today I would like to share some insights about fatigue, weariness and the general tiredness I see day after day, week after week as I work with women.

I rarely meet a woman that is really very lazy. On the other hand, I meet many, many women that push themselves way past reasonable limits. When we do this, it takes longer for us to accomplish our tasks and responsiblities. We respond by becoming cranky, we oversleep the next day or sometimes if the demands of life make it impossible for us to stop before we are weary, we really do have long days.

It seems that somewhere along the line we have decided that weariness, fatigue, and the other sleep challenges shouldn't exist in “our” life and we can push ourselves to stay up too late, to work at a project past weariness, to keep up a hectic pace day after day, week after week while at the same time hoping it will not affect our general well-being and our health. It is very, very important to understand that weariness is a great enemy to having an orderly life.

I would like to talk about some reality checks that each of us needs to take for a minute. Probably no one is going to give you a “rest period” for the rest of your life. It is up to you and I to take the rests that we need. This means taking a moment to sit down and play with the baby, or take five minutes and sit on the back steps and drink your afternoon soda, or even taking a half-hour after the baby has gone to sleep, if you're a new mother, and sit down to read.

Also, take notice of when you have your slumps of weariness periods during the day. For myself, I'm pretty good till about 11:30 in the morning and then I have a little slump. In the afternoon, I have a great big drop-off slump right around 4 p.m. It is important during these “weariness” periods each day to stop before you're too tired. Take a short breather, maybe change our activity from up to down, from vigorous to boring, or from stimulating to routine so your body can last through the slum (with or without that much needed nap). This will give you strength and energy to go on. Please know it is up to us to go a little bit slower (i.e. rest for a minute or two) so that we can go a little bit longer. It is up to us to stop and rest.

I have been experimenting and have found that even a five-minute change of routine, yes just a five-minute switch, makes a tremendous difference. You may want to try it yourself. The few minutes, time spent on the back doorstep looking at the mountains, the sky, and the roses, a moment with my nose in a book, a change of routine to slow me down, helps me get past my weariness so I can continue with the projects and people for which I'm responsible.

Take good care now and look at your weariness periods this next week to see what you can do about them. Remember, take charge so you can rest before you're too tired to go on. It is the better way to a more orderly life!

Marie