A Focus for the Day

In the book "Little House in the Big Woods", the author Laura Ingalls Wilder describes her life as a little girl. She talks about the "schedule" her mother kept to help her get to all of her responsibilities and chores that she needed to in order to raise a family in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin.
Ma's list:

This schedule is simple, consistent, and easy to remember. Ma, having a set day of the week to focus on a certain chore, is not locked in. Instead, this schedule gives her the freedom to get things done, raise her family, and still be flexible when others need her or company just shows up at her house.

Having her schedule frees her to do what is most important to her, and while it may not seem like that big of a deal, it is a HUGE step away from this way of looking at our lives that we have done over the past few generations. Instead of the day having a purpose and a focus, many of our days are instead crammed with anything and everything that we feel like doing in the moment or that has now become a "have to" disaster that we must attend to right now. If we do not feel like doing something, we do not reschedule to get that chore done, but instead try to just forget about it.
But, the truth is our brains don't really forget about it. Our brains hold onto those things that we know we need to do and the little reminder will continue to come back to your memory over and over again until we either do something about it or we find something more exciting to take it's place.

So, decide today on the main focus that each day will have. Decide now to arrange in your schedule the things you must get to, and include those things you have been neglecting because they are actually things you enjoy. Make a plan and live that plan, over and over, week after week. You too will find there is order and simplicity in having a focus to each day.