embracing change

[Geomom]

Hey flowmom, I can relate ... I'm also self-employed and this past week-and-a-half has been murder on my work routine. Everything is just so emotionally chaotic, it's hard to concentrate, especially if your children are home with you at the time (I get most of my work done when son is at school, though I've had real trouble focusing since the H situation exploded.) And, like you, I'm facing serious pressure to step up the work even more if we're to keep living where we are.

H has completely separated himself from anything at home (outside of occasional times with our son): stopped grooming the dog, hasn't mowed the lawn once this year, left months, even years, worth of mail unsorted or unopened on the countertop, etc.

I finally worked my way through that mess yesterday and found not only unopened, unpaid bills (car insurance overdue) but bank statements from four years ago. Looks like I haven't been the only one responsible for the disorganized state of the household.

As far as getting work done, what I've found has helped me this past week is writing down a numbered to-do list early in the day and checking off each item as it gets done. When I find myself getting overly distracted -- as in checking in here multiple times a day -- I try and go back to the list and pick up again with another task. Seems to help.