It occurred to me this morning as I dropped my daughter off for the first day of school (the school year starts in January in Australia) that perhaps the reason I don’t indulge in New Years resolutions is because NYE is in the middle of the summer holidays and I am too damn frazzled looking after my daughter all day to think about myself.

Perhaps my new year starts on the first day that school goes back? When I get a chance to think about myself for two seconds and ponder the year ahead and make plans.

I work freelance so it is pretty much impossible for me to get into a routine. I don’t know if I’m going to be working from one day to the next. It is stressful to not have a routine, but I don’t want to work full-time until my daughter is a bit older. So the best I can do is look for strategies to mitigate the stress.

Some of my strategies include:

• Still scheduling my non-working days. I schedule in all my tasks from the to do list that I intend to do that day (cleaning, grocery shopping), plus free time (exercise, headspace session). I don’t find unstructured time relaxing.
• Exercise. A walk or a swim helps calm the monkey mind.
• Achievement and Pleasure. I try to schedule one activity that will give me a sense of achievement (like clearing all the junk from my daughters room) and one activity that will give me pleasure (like updating my blog).

The big problem for me is setting long term goals. I just don’t have any. Well, I have some, but I couldn’t care less about achieving them which means they just aren’t happening. We are meant to be renovating the house. I kinda want to lose some weight. I kinda want to do some educational courses related to work. I kinda want to improve my swim stroke.

Meh. Not happening. Not today.