I never get everything on my to-do list done. Join the club right?
I have learned to live with this reality for home repair projects and housework, but it truly irks me in regards to our homeschool. My beautiful schedule says that we have exactly 2.5 hours of spelling to accomplish each week, and we only got in 2 … ACK my child is going to be a failure in life!!!
Okay, I’m not quite that dramatic, but I really do have a hard time dealing with the reality that there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish what I want.
Keeping Priorities Straight Requires Effort
In the heat of the moment, it is easy to get caught up in a lesser priority. That science project may be lots of fun and demonstrate the concept well, but if it takes 14 hours to complete it, and a day of driving to collect all of the supplies, something else will have to be dropped. Time to make a decision. Is it worth it? If so, what am I not doing?
I have mentioned our backwards planning system for thinking through our daily schedule. It isn’t a new concept, but it works. Think of what needs to be done tomorrow, and set up today so that you are ready.
Choosing the Most Important Thing
With our school priorities, the backwards thinking needs to start with a bigger overview. Instead of thinking of just tomorrow, I very intentionally look at my entire to-do/priority list every-single-day and choose to focus on ONE important thing. In our house, dyslexia remediation is our most important consideration, so reading and spelling are almost always that one thing. Every day. Even if the science project is cool.
It sounds weird to say that I intentionally choose to do the same thing every day, but as said by author Robert Collier, “Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out.”
By the way , if you want a great book on this topic, check out Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success. It indicates that you need about 10,000 hours of practice to master anything. That is a lot of repetition.
Sometimes the Most Important Thing Isn’t on the List
Okay, so if repetition is the recipe for success, does that mean that we need to be slaves to our schedule/priorities? Absolutely not. Today is a great example of this.
It is Monday morning and my kids are currently out in the garage building wooden boats with their dad. Sure, I could technically call this “shop class” but in reality, it is just playing with Dad. Mondays are his day off, and enjoying one another is what I intentionally chose as today’s focus, so out they all went.
Phonics and reading are on the schedule for this afternoon, but for now our highest priority is building strong relationships. It is an intentional choice. I know exactly what we are NOT doing today, and what we will be doing next Saturday.
(Shh… It also gives me a chance to review that giant to-do list and plan a shopping trip to pick up the supplies for our science project – and no, it is not the 14 hour monstrosity mentioned before.)
To become good at anything requires focus, repetition, and perseverance – being intentional with your choices.
If you are stymied with the idea of even starting, I wrote “10 Tips for Learning Perseverance” for Impart Magazine a few months ago – take a look.
There is a lot of power in focused daily effort. What will you choose to be intentional about?
You are doing a fine job. I think, in fact, it is more important to teach our kids how to think and problem solve than just how to use things like spelling. :)
This is a great post. I agree that making boats with Dad is important, as is enjoying one’s time with others.
Thanks! It is funny how much fun they can have with wood, string, and old plastic bags.