Marla the Blogger

It's well-known among my family and friends how much I look forward to Fridays. Even my almost 3 year-old son knows how much I love Fridays. Every Friday when I ask him, "hey, buddy, you know what today is?" he yells out excitedly, "it's Friday!" No surprise where he gets his Friday enthusiasm from.
I once had someone tell me, "You know, you shouldn't live for the weekends. You're missing out on part of your life always looking forward to Friday." I've thought about this a lot. Maybe I do focus too much on the weekends. Am I missing out on enjoying every day because I'm looking past it to Friday?
After some consideration, though, I think there's nothing wrong with getting excited about the weekend. It's not like I'm completely miserable Monday through Thursday and only experience happiness Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But for me, one of the best times of the week is Friday right after work. I know I'm done with work for the week and I have the whole weekend in front of me, with the potential for spending time with my family, relaxing, getting some things accomplished around the house. And the pace of the weekend is so much different than the rest of the week. Even though my weekends can get really busy, what I do and when I do it is much more up to me. And I know that having a weekend break is exactly what I need to recharge and get ready for Monday.  So happy Friday!  I hope you enjoy your weekend as much as I know I'll enjoy mine. 

Yesterday evening when I was supposed to be working on something, I started procrastinating. It started innocently enough; I needed to get some information online for a project I was working on. But instead of finding the data I needed and getting right to work on it, I found myself wandering around online. First I checked my email, then I caught up on a few blogs I like to read, and then I visited some top news sites for today's stories. After several minutes of this, I started to get frustrated with myself. Why couldn't I just hunker down and get to work?

It's been a little stressful for me lately. I've been really busy at work, in the evenings it seems like I barely have enough time to get everything at home done before bedtime, and this project was just one more thing that I "had" to do. I had forgotten why I originally agreed to work on it (I thought it would be fun) or how it could benefit me in the long run (more experience in something I'd like to continue to pursue). The only thing I could focus on was that I had one more task to accomplish at the end of a busy, tiring day.

Instead of adding to my stress by worrying about what I was supposed to be doing, I let myself procrastinate a little longer. I relaxed and enjoyed spending a little time reading what I wanted to just for fun and sending a few emails to catch up with friends. And while I was surfing around on the Internet, I actually found some articles would be useful for my project. After that, I felt better and was actually able to then sit down and tackle my project. And I probably finished it quicker than I would have if I had tried to force myself to start on it earlier when I was stressed out and grumpy about working on it.

Normally I wouldn't necessarily be touting something that can be considered a "bad" habit, but I think there is an upside to procrastinating. Like anything, too much of it can be negative if you let it interfere with things you need to accomplish, or use it as an excuse to avoid something indefinitely.  However, when used in moderation, procrastination could help relieve stress and even help you complete your task in the long run. So next time you're procrastinating and feeling guilty about it, give yourself a little break to enjoy it. Then get back to work!

I've been exhausted this week. As usual, the time change has thrown me off and I've found myself going to bed later than I should. In fact, my whole family has been going to bed too late this week, and we've all been suffering for it. Today on the way home, my son fell asleep in the car. He hasn't done that on the way home after daycare since he was a baby! When I saw that, I knew we had to make more of an effort to get to bed on time.

Here's another reason to make sure we're getting enough sleep: a new study indicating that not getting adequate sleep could increase your chances of getting diabetes. Apparently, the research demonstrates that people who regularly slept less than six hours a night were five times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who sleep six to eight hours.

Even when I'm not getting enough sleep, I usually get at least six hours or a little more. However, if I'm not getting seven or eight hours consistently, I definitely feel run down. And when I'm tired and run down, I tend to skip exercising and not eat as well as I should. The article didn't necessarily make the link between lack of sleep and bad exercise and nutrition habits in regards to diabetes risk, but it certainly could be possible. And even if that's not it, obviously taking care of myself and eating right will keep me healthy in the long run. And I know I'm better about making smart choices when I'm well rested.

So I'm making an effort to try to get more sleep and get to bed earlier. It helps that my husband is trying to do the same thing, so the last few nights we've been reminding each other when it's time to go to bed. Now, if we can just get our son to bed on time, we'll all be better rested and maybe even healthier in the long run.