Life is too fast....or is it me?

Katek - my life is a bit like yours. I seem to be on the go all day, almost everyday. Life was certainly simpler when I was in the office 8-4 but I wouldn't change it. Make the most of the lighter days. About once a month, if I'm lucky, I find I have nothing in the diary and I have a Pajama Day. I shower but don't put on makeup and don't leave the house. I also deliberately avoid making arrangements for Sunday evenings if I can. I suppose it's a leftover from when I had to go to work on Monday mornings but I do like Sunday evening in front of the tv.

i understand completely the things you are describing.

It seems that we are all rushing around to keep busy as we are warned constantly that inactivity plays havoc with our health both physically and mentally and that isolation is a huge no no!!!

Sometime i would love just to 'stand and stare' or sit as the case may be. But the powers that be have got into my head and said no you mustn't,i even find myself getting up and running round my sitting room during the adverts now as it is bad for us to sit for too long!!!! lol

I feel guilty if i am not doing anything and cant sit down until everything is done and all is spick and span.

Currently i am lucky in the fact i have no health issues so i guess all this activity is paying off but like Katek i would be happy with my books, knitting, tv and my bed!!! lol

Why not put a 'do nothing' day firmly in your diary and treat that as being as fixed as any other appointment? "What's is this life if full of care there is no time to stand and stare?" etc...

I agree with Jane 10 that's what I do not often but I used to do it at work 'Keep free' then I choose is anything can go in that day. Its very refreshing every now and then to have a day off.

What I do find is that other people fill my diary for me. I love sewing and don't seem to get a chance to spend a whole day getting something finished. Today DH booked the car in for its mot even though the week before he had booked it in for a service. For some reason I had to take it in and go back with him and I have to wait for the phone call and do the return journey. My hairdresser has told me he can't do my hair at the time I want. He is trying to get me to have my hair done at a time that suits him not me. The garden spray people tell me when they are coming and get iffy when I say the GC are coming so I want the moss killer on when they've left.and so it goes on .

Stop feeling guilty and do as you like.You have earned this time.Frankly I think this is a female isue, always having to be on the go.Put less things in the diary and don't be a slave to them, unless it's a medical appointment or something you really want to do.

I hate it when people fill my diary for me and every now and then I have a melt down and say no to everything !

I'm a great 'yes' person without thinking do I really want to do that.

I've found that whilst I was forceful and actually quite demanding when I was working now I do have this inner guilt that my time is not as important as all those working people. Its the same as my DD's - they assume I sit around waiting at their beck and call now I'm retired.

Maybe you've got to take back control. If the garden people cant come when you want them, tell them simply you'll go elsewhere then. If your hairdresser cant do your hair at the time you want say you'll leave it for now then. Its a pain but he wont want to lose your custom.

I agree also I would make appointments in my diary that are as immovable and important as everything else for some 'me time'

I craft so I totally get what you're saying about a day to sew.

Revolt !! That's what I say take back your diary !!

My life's not fast.

Mind you, I have got a chocolate cake to make today. And some beds to make up.

And we might have lunch at the garden centre.

Oh yes. Rush, Rush, Rush.

Maybe it would be worse if we had nothing to do? I remember reading about ladies in Victorian times always leaving some embroidery out so as to look as if they were busy. The posh ones must have been bored stiff the whole time. Unlike the ones below stairs who must have worked desperately hard. Maybe we're the happy medium?

I am a 'Yes ' person too and have been used to working a 70+ hours week for years, including volunteering to run clubs and attend weekend events when I didn't need to. For a variety of reasons, including very poor management from others my work / life balance was wrong and I have suffered ill health as a result. I am now coming to the end of a three month spell off work and have felt really better for the past month, hurrah!

I am now determined to pause more before committing myself to extras in the work place in the future. I am relieved to be going to a new job where things seem better run and there is more managerial support and order, but even so, I know I must be careful.

During the past three months, I have had to 'stop' and then gradually get back to full health. In that time, I have learned that it is ok to still be in my dressing gown at midday - have even had whole pyjama days - never allowed myself to before, but how great they are! The idea of booking a 'free day' in the same way that you would book an appointment really does appeal. I have simply loved the time to stop and be still and it has done me the power of good. I hope I hold on to all the lessons I have learned and get things right for myself in the future. I think it will start with me 'holding back' where before I would have jumped in.

That's no 1 ticked off the list-more antibiotics from doc! Joiner is working very quickly so will be finished earlier than expected. I def feel guilty if I'm not doing something productive/useful. Must learn to disabuse myself of that feeling. I love the idea of a do nothing day in my diary, will def start doing that. Jings-can I have some of your chocolate cake please? Would help me to relax with a cuppa......

That is how my life is - but I prefer it on balance to not having lots of activities. But, like you, there are days when I think "Why am I doing all this? - why don't I just sit down and read?" It's all about balance really and there are some days when I think I do too much, and others when I think I do too little. I have to say, that for someone who has been unwell, your schedule for today does seem a bit manic Katek! - but that is how it happens sometimes. Everything comes at once all of a sudden.

I am sure that your friends would understand that you need to rest sometimes. Take care.

Jings will your chocolate cake share between us please ?? I do love my do nothing days and to be honest have had more than my fair share of them since the dreaded injury nothing better than putting the answer phone on and screening calls and switching the mobile to silent then absorb yourself in your secret pleasures for the day.

I find busy people dont want to stop.

I think you need to ask yourself Katek what are you afraid of if you do stop?
What someone will think if you? What you will think of yourself? Is it your upbringing? Or whatever.

I have noticed some of our friends doing more and more ( a bit frantic) and wonder if it's the thought of 'time running out' that spurs them on?
However, if that is so, why not value your time as a time to relax, think, read etc?

Today's the day I really must get off my a**e and start sorting out the mobile home.

When DD moved into our bungalow the weather was terrible so we just left it but hopefully we'll soon be able to use it for visitors.

DD has done a clean up but I have to sort out bedding, crockery etc.

I'd love a 'do nothing' day but that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

My life is pretty hectic most of the time Luckygirl. I just tend to push on through things. And yes obieone, it's upbringing-no quarter given in our house, we just got on with things.

Not sure about day to day but year to year is whizzing past. Been retired 10 years now and it feels like 2. Stop!!!!!!

Katek I was like that once and then one day everything stopped. Now while my head is laying on my pillow my inner voice says 'this is what will get done today and if there is enough time x, y and z' - and then I try to get up and my body says 'who are you trying to kid?'.

I think we have our priorities so skewed in our culture. We take our health for granted and expect to live long, healthy lives and just take a pill or potion when illness comes instead of looking after the health we have.

People really need to factor in rest time so that the body can recuperate and it needs to be thought of in the same essential way as food. Perhaps a time use ratio might be a good idea as in 1/3 work, 1/3 rest and 1/3 play with a good night's sleep thrown in for good measure. There should not be any guilt in looking after ourselves and if we have the luxury of retirement we have no excuses for neglecting our health.
The more we rush about doing then the more we are withdrawing from our 'well being account' and if we are not careful enough we overdraw so much that we end up bankrupt healthwise.
I know as I have done it! & with myself!

I know it's just me being odd, so sorry in advance, but what's the difference between doing something that you clearly need done (hairdressers appointment, new flooring, etc) and doing nothing ie sitting watching TV and spending time on the iPad? Is it that one lot are scheduled and the other lot are drifting? What's a free day? Isn't doing things you like still doing but with the emphasis on free choice?

I hear this a lot in the minimalist blog world - cut down your busyness and be free to do more of the things you long to do. There they mean going off hiking, setting up some community-based project, or writing a block buster for example. Still seems to be doing to my way of thinking. Not doing is sitting and watching the clouds go by or leaning on a fence watching the sheep in my book.

Glamma I'fe still got to make the flippin' thing. In fact, the only bit of my to-do list that's been done so far is lunch at the garden centre.

#lazyarsedsoandso

It's funny,but you're full of very chocolatey chocolate sponge pudding and custard, you don't somehow feel like setting to and baking chocolate cake.

Like Synonymous I have come to sudden halt and am so miserable. We never think it will happen to us but it does. Those of you on a Merry go round just take a little time out to smell the coffee. If you do this enough, when you are charging round, you can think"I have earned a break and I know I can take one". Just get a balance in your life, I would love the chance.