new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Overwhelmed, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 5 of 5
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Overwhelmed in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
I am beginning this blog post in the solarium of a lovely lodge that would make a great place for a writers' retreat. Unfortunately, last night I was so into this place and its wonderful writer retreat possibilities, that I totally forgot about writing this Time Management Tuesday post. And, thus, I am a day late.
Okay, reading Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has The Time by Brigid Schulte was a fascinating experience because of the very different ways she and I look at the time issue. She is interested in support. I am interested in skills. At the end of her book, Schulte briefly covers some of the things she's doing differently now to help her manage time. She talks about "pulses," for instance, which are similar to the units that many time management people recommend. She describes the Pomodoro Technique in a footnote.
What About John Robinson And Leisure Time?
Another fascinating part of reading this book is that it didn't cover what I was looking for. What grabbed my interest in the articles I read about this book was Schulte's coverage of
John Robinson's contention that we have far more leisure time than we think we do. Schulte's response to that was that the time he claimed was her leisure time didn't feel like leisure time.
Here is a Gail life experience that I think illustrates her point:
When my children were young, I, like so many other mothers in my town, took them to the local beach in the summer for a couple of weeks of swimming lessons. For at least one year when they were in grade school, we'd hang out at the beach for hours, eating lunch, reading magazines (in my case), catching minnows with nets, digging in the sand, and planting all kinds of plastic tubing brought from home.
I saw the swimming lesson hangout as being the closest I'd ever come to owning a lake house. It was like going away. After reading Schulte's book, I realize that many woman would have perceived those days as childcare, since, technically, I was supposed to be taking care of my kids. For those women, it would have just been more work.
Why does how that time was perceived matter? Because the parent who sees hauling two boys, lunch, towels, sunscreen, magazines, shovels, buckets, and leftover construction pipes to the lake as a glorious summer getaway is going to go home feeling as if she's been on vacation for the afternoon. That will have an impact on how she's able to use the rest of her day. The parent who sees hauling two boys, lunch, towels, sunscreen, magazines, shovels, buckets, and leftover construction pipes to the lake as childcare/work is going to go home feeling overwhelmed. And that will have an impact on how she's able to use the rest of
her day.
And The Writing Connection, Gail?
I'm not sure. But if I've got 30+ hours of leisure time that I don't realize is leisure time, I'd sure like to be able to repurpose some of it for work. I suspect many other writers would, too.
I'm thinking that I want to try to find more on
John Robinson, who has been taking a bashing over
his spin on women and time. And when I get back from vacation, I may try to keep a time journal. If I have the time.
Speaking of vacation, I am finishing this blog post while looking out at the mighty Monongahela River outside of Pittsburgh. Yes. That's leisure time. I own it.
What's With The Danes And Time?
I think
Brigid Schulte's big interest in
Overwhelmed: Work, Love, And Play When o One Has The Time is seeking support for her struggles with time, which means support for others like her. She contacts a number of groups of women who are doing things like trying to simplify their lives or managing to function comfortably as high achievers.
I'm more interested in going right for the skills. When Schulte wrote about Denmark, seeking out a culture where time studies show that women workers have more leisure time than in other countries, I wanted to hear more about how they did it.
The Minimalist Thing
Schulte says, "I am struck for the first but certainly not the last time as I began to visit more Danes' homes that there is no junk...I was assured again and again that Danes simply do not buy, produce, or save as much stuff." She only gave one paragraph to the issue of material possessions' impact on our use of time, which just happens to be one that
I'm interested in. Does lack of stuff really have an impact on the Danes' overall use of time? If they really aren't into acquiring and keeping, why not?
How Do They Stay On Task At Work?
Schulte is assured by the couple that is the main focus of her Denmark chapter that Danes "work in a very focused way. Lunch is usually no more than half an hour...In Denmark, there isn't a whole lot of joking around the watercooler or Facebook checking in the office, they explain. You do your work and you go home." That's how Danes are able to stick to a 9 to 4:24 schedule and get home without bringing work with them.
How, how, how? How are they able to deal with interruptions from clients and supervisors with surprise assignments? What about chatty co-workers? Do Danes not get chatty at the office?
Gail's Needs
I'm not questioning whether or not these people are doing these things. I just want to know how so I can do it, too.
I've been reading Overwhelmed: Work, Love, And Play When No One Has The Time by Brigid Schulte and began blogging about it last week. This week I bring you up to speed with my reading.
What is Overwhelmed Actually About?
Overwhelmed is not a time management book. The "overwhelm" is Schulte's term for that feeling of being buried with things to do. Her book, so far at least, is not about how to deal with the overwhelm but how it comes about, particularly for women. How does the workplace contribute to this? How do perceptions of what mothers should be contribute to it? Are there workplaces/countries where things are different?
Writers Have Some Experience With Working At Home
Schulte writes of companies that put performance and production before "face time," having to be in the office where managers and co-workers can see you. These particular employers allow their employees to work from home, where parents can
Many writers work in that way. What many of them find, though, is that without the external structure of an office and "traditional" hierarchy, "the boundary between professional and personal time is very thin and very wobbly. It is all too easy for personal time to bleed into work time." What I'm talking about ends up being a lot like the overwhelm, it's just that now you're working at home.
That's not to say there isn't a way of dealing with this situation--bringing some kind of childcare into the home where parents are working might be a huge help, for instance. But if writers' experience is any indicator, just shifting work from an office building to a home isn't necessarily going to solve the overwhelm problem.
Several months ago, I stumbled upon an article about
Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has The Time by
Brigid Schulte. Then I stumbled upon another. Of course, I was attracted by those words "No One Has The Time." But I also was interested because both the articles included information about
John Robinson, a sociologist who has studied how people use time through "time diaries." Robinson told Schulte that people have an average of 30 hours a week of leisure time, far more than most of us believe we do. This made me wonder if how we
perceive what we're doing comes into play here, and, if so, can we writers use that somehow.
So I'm reading
Overwhelmed.
So far, the book reminds me of
Welcome to the Lizard Motel and
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. All three books take a memoirish angle to nonfiction. And all three authors have a personal issue that they're trying to support with their books. (I am not the only reader to get the introverts/good, extroverts/not so good feeling from
Quiet.) In my early reading of
Overwhelmed, for instance, Schulte really isn't having any of Robinson's contention that she has so much leisure time. She seems determined to prove him wrong.
The portion of the book I've completed has a lot of information about the traditional work world. A lot of it will sound familiar to anyone who has been reading about women and work for the last few decades in terms of women's treatment in the workplace. The new information is that this is still going on and that men, too, are now negatively impacted by what Schulte calls our culture's commitment to a retro "Ideal Worker," one who can live at the office.
Her point is that work life has an impact on how we spend our personal time, which I certainly
agree with. I still have to see if Schulte will give some advice on what to do about it.
Check out blogger
Becky Levine's response to Overwhelmed.
Yes, I'm a day late with
Time Management Tuesday. I was having
problems last night.
by Sally Matheny
What area of your house do you wish was different, more functional? We have a small room at the top of the stairs. We call it the study/schoolroom. Right now, it looks like a Tasmanian Devil’s living quarters.
I could say I don’t know what happened—but I do. I could easily place the blame on others (and some of it does belong to them) but ultimately it lies heavily on me.
Standing in the middle of the room, I’m overwhelmed. Certain this is not a one-day project; I don’t even want to begin cleaning. I don’t know whereto begin. We need this room because our homeschool gears back up soon. I long for this room to be beautiful, organized, and functional. I’m overwhelmed but thankfully, I have three options.
Most of you probably have at least one area at home that needs improvement. Please say I'm not the only one! What about areas in our lives? Is there an area that frustrates you and you wish it were different? Are you overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin? Ignoring the area will lead to further chaos. Will the same three options for cleaning the room apply here as well?
Enlist good help.
Notice the word good. Friends may be helpful, but some only hinder progress. They enjoy lingering over the things we're trying to throw away. They tell us everything looks great when it is still a mess. Even those with the best of intentions, their enthusiasm wanes. Their "help" is no longer productive. Considering the problem areas in our lives, how often have we turned to friends for assistance? Some get distracted, want to wallow in the mess with us, or offer superficial advice. A few actually make the problem worse.
When enlisting help, seek out the best if you want a job well done. That may come from someone more objective and outside your circle of family and friends. Whatever issues you’re struggling with, you need to hear the Truth. Whom do you know consistently arms themselves with God’s Word and tries to follow it? They shine like stars in this dark world. Those are the kind of friends you need.
Give back.
It sounds generous, doesn’t it? Give back to your community. However, I’m thinking more along the lines of giving back to people what is rightfully theirs and holding people responsible for their actions.
My kids drag out board games from the shelves in the study. Sometimes the games make it back to the shelves but usually they are parked on the stairs, or near the doorway, or on the floor just inches away from where they belong. The fastest thing is to pick up the items myself and put them back where they belong. But if I do that, my kids will continue expecting me to pick up after them. I plan to stop the cycle and give back the responsibility to whom it belongs. Yes, it takes a bit more time to hold them accountable but eventually they’ll learn freedom comes with boundaries.
Same goes with our lives. Perhaps the thing you struggle with resulted because you did not set boundaries. What stress do you endure because you have taken on issues that belong to someone else? Initially, what appeared to be a quick solution has produced a long, torturous undercurrent of frustration. What steps do you need to take to put boundaries back in place and return responsibilities to their rightful owner?
Make a clean sweep.
Several years ago, The Learning Channel aired a show titled Clean Sweep.Participants cleared their cluttered rooms and separated stuff into three piles: trash, sell, or keep. Totally cleared out, the room was then transformed into something beautiful by designers and carpenters.
Wow. I wish they would renovate my schoolroom and it be so amazing they feature it as the viewers’ favorite episode. Alas, TLC cancelled the show and I don’t foresee a carpenter or a designer knocking at my door. However, a clean sweep is in progress and it’s the only solution to the problem.
Just as homeowners on the T.V. show had difficulty parting with their stuff; sometimes we have a hard time getting rid of sin in our lives. The good news is, no matter how limited you or your resources are you have access to the Master Carpenter and Designer. He offers his services free of charge. You don’t have to clean up before you call him. In fact, there’s no way you’d ever get it completely and satisfactorily done without his help. All you have to do is ask Him and He’ll come.
When you allow Him to make a clean sweep in your life, you can expect times of discomfort. Don’t panic or hoard things. Do what He asks of you, even when it’s difficult. Remember how you wanted a better life. Breathe deeply and trust the Master. He is the best there is and he offers an eternal guarantee. Prepare to be overwhelmed—with amazement at His handiwork!
If you are going through a tough time right now, I’d love to pray for you. Leave a comment or send me a private message and let’s approach the Master together.
