Organizational Stress First, we’ll look at how we organize our lives. Organizational Problem – we are not realistic with what we can accomplish.We may think we can both work full-time and be at the top of our fields, have our children excel in cultural, spiritual, and athletic events, have our houses immaculately clean at all times, do volunteer work, and on and on and on. We think we can do it all. Not True!!! Your family needs to have periods of low stress to rejuvenate itself.Thoughts for the Unstructured PersonFor those of you who are beginning to twitch at the mention of the word organization, think of what you want to provide your spouse or your children. You want to provide a refuge, a place of peace and rest to your family. While it may be more of an adrenalin rush to be spontaneous, there are certain needs that must be met in order to provide security and safety for your spouse and children. If they don’t have the confidence that their needs are going to be consistently met, you will be robbing them of safety and security.
Practical Ideas about Organizing your Life 1. Evaluate your schedule to see if there are enough hours in the day or week to do what you are trying to do and leave time for adequate rest. We looked at how much was required in a house of four just to keep up the home, not including spending time with each other and the kids. Laundry 6 hrs That is 29-34 hours just for the basics of life maintenance, not including: reading time with children, carpooling, church and volunteer activities, homework help, dentist and doctor appointments, and of course, back to school night. Something about back to school night put Bob and I over the edge each fall J. We are easily talking about 40 to 50 hours of work after work per family per week. Wow the stress levels are going up all over the room. And a lot of times, these chores infringe upon family time, time with friends, and relaxing. No wonder we feel exhausted all the time!!! We have to come to a point of admitting that these things are in our lives, and we have to find space for all of these things. Obviously something has to give in order for us to find time to rest. Reduce the number of hours you work Pay someone to do some of the work Divide equitably among your family the household chores Lower your standards Simplify your life Swap chores with a neighbor
2. Build in periods of rest Thought Questions: (Take some time as a couple to talk about these.) What are some new thoughts you heard in this section? What is your response to them? What are some things we can take out of our schedule? What are some things we can do more efficiently? Are there some things we can get others to do, or things we can hire out? In what way can we be a better team to make life work in our home?
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