We have to choose.
I don’t know about you, but I get super distracted by the to-do list. There are always dishes to do, bathrooms to clean, laundry to fold, and stuff to put away. That’s not even factoring in planning the calendar, sorting through (and getting rid of) clothing the kids have grown out of, social media, scheduling doctor appointments, or texting friends (or my hubby). Thousands of things demand our attention every day. How do we handle it all?
We don’t. We have to choose.
We have to choose to say no. We have to choose when we will work on certain tasks (hello time blocking). We have to choose the values we want to demonstrate in front of our kids. We have to choose our family with intentionality. If we don’t, we run the risk of living life on the hamster wheel of “to do” instead of choosing how to live. No one wants to look back on life and be disappointed or ashamed of the choices we made.
So, we start with simplicity. We start by purposefully choosing our family values. We choose to put our phones down (scheduling the dentist appointment can wait) in order to play legos with our kids. We choose to have a slightly more dirty home so that we can say yes to reading a book. We choose to go on a screen free walk outside (yes, even when it’s cold out!). We have to choose.
Here is the deal, the world doesn’t want us to be intentional. The algorithms want us to stay on our screens and keep scrolling to find the next best purchase on facebook marketplace. Apps are designed to keep us on them (that’s how they make money). There is nothing wrong with that. It makes good business sense to try to keep people coming back, but it’s not good for humankind.
So we have to choose.
Phones aren’t bad. Social media isn’t bad. Having a clean home isn’t bad. Texting a friend isn’t bad. None of the things I listed are bad. However, we need to be intentional in our choices. We decide how to spend our time. We decide what our values are and then choose how to live by them. We decide what we want to demonstrate to our kids. We need to decide how to spend our time rather than “it” (whatever it is).
So, how do we do it? We simplify. We time block when we will get the chores done. We batch dishes. We choose a place for our phone to go (out of our reach) while we are with our kids so we don’t accidentally pick it up to check the time or a text or a notification. We choose family values. We only say yes to things that fit within those values. We get outside (and leave our phones inside). We choose to connect with our kids.
So, what are you choosing today? I am choosing to get better at time blocking my work hours so that I can be the present parent I want to be. I am choosing to put my phone down and only pick it up at certain times of the day so that I’m not distracted and thinking about a million things. I am choosing to spend time outside for my own mental health.
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