224 | What Happens When I Don’t Feel Like Doing What Needs to Be Done

[00:00:00] We are at a time of year we’re more and more and more, and even more is constantly piled onto our already full plates. Sometimes we just don’t want to do something we want to do what needs to be done. And here’s the truth about what happens when I feel that way and what makes the most different to get those tasks done, even when I’d rather be doing a million other things.

Are you dreaming of an orderly and organized home with little to no clutter? A home that functions for the needs of your family, a schedule that feels manageable, and routines that reduce stress and overwhelm while making daily tasks easier? You are in the right place. Welcome to the Intentional Edit Podcast, where you will discover the tools you need to bring order to your home, simplify daily struggles, reduce clutter, and finally get organized.

I’m Lauren. I’m here to assist you on the journey to simplicity. So you can go from feeling like you’re barely surviving to finally thriving. My passion is helping busy families, eliminate clutter, get organized, and create intentional routines. streamline everything so they can be free from the never ending cycle of overwhelm and have more time to spend together doing what they truly enjoy.

Get ready for solutions to conquer the clutter, claim control with intentional systems and routines that simplify daily tasks and chores, get dinner on the table with meal planning strategies, stop feeling like you will never be caught up, and remove the overwhelming, unorganized parts of life to bring simplicity to your life and home.

It’s time to reduce the mess and stress less, say goodbye to the clutter and hello to an orderly and organized home. It’s Tuesday. And on Tuesdays, I use this episode to answer your questions or comments or concerns or anything that you are struggling with, that you submit and send to me. I will use those questions and answer those on a Tuesday episodes. If you have something that you want me to talk [00:02:00] about on a future episode, all you have to do is go to intentional, edit.com. A record now button will pop up either on the bottom or side of your screen.

You click on that record now button and leave a message. You can ask your question, can tell you what you’re struggling with. Tell me what problems you are trying to solve in the home with organization or whatever that might be. And I will use what you submit to answer and focus on the entire subject for an episode, a Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast. question that came in, that I am answering today is a one that I really can relate with because I’ve had a lot of these days where I don’t want to do the thing is that needs to be done.

That. Doesn’t happen all the time for me, but the last couple of days, That is how I have felt. So answering this is not only going to be helpful to you. It’s also relevant to what is happening in my real life right now. message that I received with the question that I’m going to answer or address is this, it said. This, isn’t a question about organizing, but probably something like you could help. There is always so much I have to do with my job and kids constantly needing me. I don’t have the time to do everything.

I’m always behind the house. Always needs to be cleaned. And I’m at the point where I don’t want to do anything because I know there are still everything else that needs to be done. Do you ever have days where you don’t want to do what you need to do? How do I handle this? Great question. Thank you for submitting this.

And of course I can relate to this. I have had a lot of things that need to be done with home, with holidays, with a work, with everything in life. The last couple of weeks, it has really seen like a lot. And not necessarily today, but the last [00:04:00] couple of days, I really haven’t wanted to do what I need to do.

I just, I didn’t want to do it not because these aren’t good things or these aren’t things that are going to make progress or important most of these things were important things, but. I just simply didn’t feel like doing them. I’m going to do those things anyway. often people get the idea that once your house is organized and you share the pretty pictures of the organization, think your house was always look perfect and everything in the house always looks like a model home. And once it’s done it is done forever. It’s always going to be perfect. Nothing is ever out of place. You don’t have to put any effort into the future because you already did it. the most part organization keeps things in order. And routines make it so I can put less effort, and still accomplish thing is. But you still have to clean.

You still have to pick up, you still have to do things. It’s just, everything is simplified. I have projects and work and household chores that need to be done. day, course when it’s cloudy out or I’m just not feeling it, I would rather snuggle up on the couch with a cozy blanket, have the fire going. Maybe watching a good movie or something mindless or purely entertaining, like real Housewives or something like that.

And the truth is I would love to spend a couple hours like that. A lot of things we have to do are not fun. And that’s the simple truth of, I guess, being a grownup and having a home and kind of being the CEO and running. Your family and keeping things orderly and knowing what’s going on. But completing the things that aren’t fun, whether or not I want to do them or not, that leads to feeling better. It leads.

It gets you to the result of having less stress and having [00:06:00] more time to get to do those things that I actually want to be doing. Those things that I actually enjoy doing those things that are fun. Those making memories moments. With my family to have the time to go out with friends or socialize or see people, or watch a movie that I want to watch or do something that I like to do. I have the time to do those things. When the houses organized when things are picked up.

When I have done the things that need to be done. There are a lot of tasks that need to be checked off the to-do list. There are constantly things that need my attention. Just like there’s constantly things that need your attention and I’m going to do them because I know that it feels better to have them done. Then to have the stress and anxiety hanging over my head. If they’re not done. I know how good it feels to have them cross off the list and to be living with the results of not having all of these thing is looming over me.

That. I’m dreading doing. It’s like a domino effects because getting the things done opens up other opportunities that are more aligned with what I want to be doing or how I want to be living or how I would rather be spending my time. To be honest, it feels good to get the things done and stick to the routine because the result of that behavior. Is what we want. We want the clean house.

We want the presence for holiday gift giving done and in the mail or wrapped and ready to go under the tree. We want the baking finished. We want to have the workout already completed. We want all of these things. To have already happened. We know that the end result when we [00:08:00] do those, it feels good. Being disciplined with anything feels good.

Having success feels good. When you say. I’m going to do something and you follow through and you actually do it. You get it done. You do the work, you check it off the to-do list and you reap the benefits. That feels good. That gives you the results you want. That’s how we get from where we are to what we want to, to finally have those things that we’re thinking of, that we desire. When this is happening and I’m in a, this phone guy, I guess you could say. and I don’t want to do things. Sometimes I have to dig deep and it’s like, okay, okay.

You need to, you need to get these things done. I know I can rely on myself. The result is what I’m looking for. Do I always love to do the work? No, not at all. Like to be perfectly honest, not at all. I don’t. I’m just like you, I don’t want to do everything that has to be done all of the time. But do I love how it feels to have a clean and picked up house? Do I love how it feels too. I already have gone to the grocery store to have the refrigerator stocked. To have a plan for the next few days for the next week coming up. To have the boxes checked.

Yes. The answer is, yes. I know. I feel better. My family does better. When we have the things done that needed to be done instead of letting them. over our heads, knowing these things have to be done. Do I love the opportunity to say yes to Impromptu playdates or having friends over, or whether that’s be a kid, friends or adult friends or something spontaneous comes up.

And I want to be able to say yes to more of those things then no, because I [00:10:00] procrastinated and put things off to the very last minute. Of course, I want to be able to say yes to all these things. Do I know that I have more energy and I get more done on days when I wake up to a clean house in a clutter-free home.

And. A kitchen that looks good and doesn’t have clutter everywhere. Absolutely. I know that that is. When I feel better and I have more energy. I have seen it over and over and over and over again with friends and clients and family members. When you make the changes and you take the time to put in the work. The results benefit you they’d benefit your family. they are much bigger than just having a clean house or having things picked up or having things be an order or finding something I need when I need it. They trickle over into your entire life because you have more opportunities to do other things that you want to do.

You allow yourself time. You finally have this time where you can go do something fun. You can hang out with friends. You can. opportunities finally, because you’re not putting all of these things off and procrastinating because you didn’t want to do them when you had a few minutes here or there to do them.

it feels good to get the things done, to have those accomplished, to check them off the list. Sometimes you have to do stuff even when you don’t want to do it. Now, I’m not saying there’s never a time to be lazy or give yourself a break from doing something you really want to do. I do this too. Sometimes it’s important to take a little downtime and put things off, but we can’t do that all the time. I have episodes on the things we’re talking about that go into way more detail.

And one in particular is on routines because I have routine set up for just about [00:12:00] everything in my home, weekly routines, daily routines resets. At the end of the night, we have flexibility in our home. And that was created intentionally by setting up those routines. So we have that flute flexibility and not doing something from time to time. Because the routines are going to get us back on track easily, the routines and those resets, whether it’s a nightly reset or a weekly reset, they get us back on track within a few minutes of extra effort.

So I know if one night. I don’t. the dishwasher loaded and the sink and counter clear and everything put away in my kitchen. If I skip that one night, I know that I can easily get back on track because I don’t have days and days of buildup. And we have practices in those routines and our habits and our daily life, get us back to a baseline and our home.

That feels good. So the routines that we have, the, the routines that I created intentionally to simplify. Everything and make it easier. They do make it easy, even with those practices. Of course, I am a normal human being. I still have times where I don’t feel like doing something. I simply just don’t want to do it.

I really don’t want to do it. I want to be doing something else. Maybe I just want to be lazy. Maybe I want to stay in my pajamas and have the fireplace going and. like I said, watch real Housewives or something like that. The majority of the time that I feel like that I push myself and I do it anyway, and I always feel better once it’s done.

I feel better once I have that sense of accomplishment, because I don’t have the thing hanging over my head anymore. I can cross it off the list and I can move on. So the answer to this question. Sometimes you just have to do these things and you have to keep going and you [00:14:00] have to push through. Even when you don’t want to do it. Setting up. Systems and routines in your home and removing the clutter. Taking the time to purge the things that you don’t need, that you don’t use, that you don’t want. That should be a long-term goal. That you can spend a few months creating these things and purging the things in your home that you don’t need it so that you do have more margin in your day that you do have these routines that carry you through that take minutes at a time in different chunks of your day to reset things and get you back to that baseline you want.

So then you don’t have the guilt being lazy when you maybe take those few minutes or those few hours from time to time when you don’t want to do something. routines will get you back to where you needed to be. But for the most part,

through, do what needs to be done.

keep going.

Usually you just need to do what needs to be done.