Leaving those lists behind.

I was one of those people. The one who had unrealistic expectations about getting things done whilst on maternity leave. Its not that I thought that I would have all this free time, its more that I didn’t think about it. I kept saying to myself “I will do that on maternity leave” and I added to the list. Jobs around the house, things with Inspired by Paper, day trips around Melbourne. However I never stopped to think about the time these tasks will take and where I would be able to fit them into my day with a baby now added to my life.

I am very much a list person. Everything goes on the list to be done. The daily tasks, the shopping lists. Being able to tick things off them is always a good feeling.

So tomorrow I head back to work. I go with many uncompleted tasks on the list. Whilst I will be only working two days a week, juggling that with Inspired by Paper and motherhood will be a new challenge for me. When it hit me recently that the time on maternity leave was coming to a end I thought there is no way I will get things done now if they haven’t been done already.

But the last few weeks I have learnt not to set unrealistic goals in a day or week. It really has been one of my biggest challenges whilst on leave. The to do list was so long and instead of trying to tackle a few things at once, all it took was me taking a step back and focusing on one thing at a time. Last week I realised I still hadn’t created/written/sent my baby thank you cards. A quick photo of the little man was taken, it was emailed to the printers and picked up a couple hours later. Such a simple process that I have delayed for so long. The daily writing of a few cards have seen them nearly all completed. It has been so hard not to try and start on other things and keep that as my focus until it is done. It will be a great feeling to cross that off the list in the coming days.

So whilst I sit back and think of what I didn’t achieve on these lists over the last 6 months, I am here looking at my biggest achievement. One happy and healthy baby has been created and cared for and loved. He didn’t care if his nursery wasn’t finished, if the garden was overgrown and the bar hadn’t been repainted. He just wanted to be fed and looked after and to explore this new world that he has entered into.

So tomorrow I should screw up the lists and walk out the nursery door as a mum who hopefully is making her son proud by getting back in the workforce and will be excited to see me walk in the door at the end of the day.