Why I'm a Terrible Housewife

I can't focus. I have a lot to do but everytime I clean, do laundry, or whatever my mind wonders and I start thinking about other things. Once I start thinking about other things I stop what I'm doing and do something else. I forget to go back to the original task or I miss a lot. I won't see the dirt or I'll clean the fridge but forget about cleaning the door of the fridge. I'll wash socks but forget to put them into the dryer.

Menial household tasks do not engage my mind enough for me to stay focused or on task. Multi tasking has become an excuse for not completing everything I start.

Tasks that engage my mind keep me focused and engaged until I'm finished but there are few household duties that do. When I don't use my mind regularly I get lazy and can't seem to get it together. When this happens I don't know where to start or what to do, I put off things over and over because they bore me.

The times I am productive are the days I start out creating a list of tasks that need to get done and then stay focused on doing them. I fill my day with things to do and goals to meet. However after days of being home alone doing boring thoughtless tasks I loose my focus, my lists, and my goals. I need to feel productive and that what I am doing has a purpose, somehow I haven't found that in cleaning toilets over and over again.

I want to be able to have a showhome type attitude to my daily cleaning and tidying up but I get to a certain point and can't get any further. "That's good enough" has become a mantra that I don't like to have. When I'm at work outside the house I always go above and beyond with little or no effort but at home it takes lots of effort just to get to good enough.

If my brain would stop while I worked and I could stay on task while tidying up the kids rooms for the umpteenth time I could do it. I wouldn't miss the big blob of dried on jam on the bottom shelf of the fridge. I'd be able to get at all the dust in every corner of every room without a problem. If my brain would just stop thinking for an hour I'd get so much more done.