A Year In Focus: February

It is time for my monthly update on a Year in Focus.  Just like many, I started out January full of inspiration, motivation and ambition.  I would grab my life by the reigns, blog with tenacity and focus my life with detailed precision.

The reality?

I am finding focus, but it is not in the way that I originally intended.  You see, I actually spent time praying about my focus.  In reality, the purpose of my prayers was that in some mysterious way I would find a way to juggle “it all” and even more.  Over the past year, I didn’t feel like I was juggling anything, so the intention of wanting to juggle it all was laughable.

I discovered that it was not time for me to focus on specifics.  Instead, I needed to get a few large areas of my life under control first.

Blogging: I needed to take a step back from blogging.  No, not giving up blogging.  Not even blog less.  I needed to step back once again and refocus on blogging with my original intention.  My original intention was simply to communicate and encourage to those in my local community.  The Frugal Flamingo has grown beyond that and I am really excited.  However, I am not going to focus on growing to impact the cyber world.   Whenever that becomes my focus, I don’t do what I do well.  I am not against growing.  It is just not my focus at this time.

I do not want my blog to suffocate me.  Ever.  I don’t want it to become a drudgery.  I want to focus on serving YOU.  The YOU that are here right now.  So, thank YOU for being here.  I also found clarification in that my husband has encouraged me to refocus and blog more.  He knows that I am passionate about communicating.  Yes.  He is incredible. And I am a bit funky without it.

Time Management:  You know Bill Gates and I have the exact same amount of time in our days.  It doesn’t seem possible, but we do.  I suspect that Bill does not  waste his time away like I can some days.  I decided to take my own advice and focus on the weak link.  For me, it is being online.  Which is sort of a tough thing when you are a blogger. I am working through setting up a safety net that keeps me in check.

1. I am no longer reading many blogs.  Oh yes, I still do, but I have pulled back significantly.  I have discovered that in order for me to blog, I can’t become saturated with others or I become overloaded and can’t write
2. I am turning off the computer by 10pm.  Extremely difficult for me to do.  The television has no strong hold over me, but electronic words do.  So, I am reading or watching tv every night now and I feel much more relaxed.
3. I try to write first and play later.
4. I am trying to keep the computer off from 8:30-1:30 during school hours.  During this time, I focus on educating and household chores.  Each day looks a little different, but school hours are my rule of thumb.

Sleep:  I am working very hard to be in bed by 11pm every night.  I know 11pm is late for some folks, but I can easily still be partying at 2am.  I am amazed how refreshed I am starting to feel by sleeping 7-8 hours each and every night.  I am also amazed how much more focused I am during the day.  I have been accomplishing a lot more.

I would love to know where you are at with your Year in Focus.

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…I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. Philippians 3:13b