And then you can go out and play

I like to get things accomplished in the morning. It becomes so overwhelming that I often don't get it all done.

I like to clean in the morning.
I like to take a walk in the morning.
I like to exercise in the morning.
I like to do laundry in the morning.
I like to take a leisure breakfast in the morning.
I like to meditate in the morning.
I like to shower in the morning.

There are not enough hours in the morning.

So I was thinking about this and wondering why I am so obsessed with the morning tasks. Why can't I do some in the afternoon or the evening?

At first I thought it was because I am a Type A personality. Gotta move, gotta get it done.

Then my second thought is that I haven't adjusted yet to a retirement schedule and I think I'm on a summer schedule. Because in the summer I would want to get all my "stuff" done so I could have a concentrated afternoon and evening to myself. To be free and unencumbered.

And then my last thought is that it goes back to my childhood when on weekends or in the summer my mom would have a list of chores for me to do and she would say, "When you get these things done, then you can go out and play."

So I've always liked to get things done so I can go out and play. Or stay in and play. Or just not be obsessed with the 'have to's'.

Now that I think I have analyzed the heck out of that I'm thinking I can start to reassess and give myself permission to NOT do all those things in the morning, but space them out throughout the day.

The hardest part is to not let it slide so that I don't do it. And that leads me back to making a list, which I've posted about before. If I don't have it on a list, it slips quietly away and before you know it I have gone days without accomplishing a task. Cleaning, laundry, those things can slip away, but at my age I know that exercise and anything associated with good health cannot.

Maybe part of my new mindset needs to be that the exercise and the laundry and the meditation are not "work" but they are my new "play". Because I don't have to go to a 9 to 5 job every day and deal with the stresses that that entails I need to create a different work schedule. A healthy living work. Getting accomplished all the things I dreamed I would do IF I was only home.

We'll see. Right now it is 11:00 in the morning and I've meditated. Had the leisure breakfast. Made muffins. Taken a walk. Pulled some weeds. Done some laundry. And next on my list is an hour of yoga. Then I go to my volunteer "job".

My Mom would be proud and I'm sure be happy to let me go play.