We try to keep a moderate schedule. My oldest son is typically in one or two extracurricular activities that never require more than a couple of hours one or two evenings each week. This spring, however, we agreed to let my son play soccer.
It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but my son also takes Taekwondo and participates in Cub Scouts. Now, in addition to three days a week for soccer practices and games, he has one Taekwondo session and many weeks he has a Cub Scout commitment as well. Throw in a random evening school concert, art show or skit and my son has an overpacked schedule.
It doesn’t take a minimalist to see that my son has way too much on his plate.
My son made it all school year without getting sick. He typically eats healthy, gets plenty of rest and exercises regularly.
We’re about one month into the overcrowded schedule he is juggling. Two nights ago, after his soccer game, my son was complaining about a sore throat and headache. A quick wrist to the forehead revealed a fever brewing. He was up throughout the night with a 102+ degree fever.
The next morning I took him to a MinuteClinic at our local CVS. I was shocked when he tested positive for Influenza A. Not only is it an odd time of year to contract the flu, but my son usually avoids the bugs going around.
I’m positive that being overscheduled lowered my son’s defenses and caused him to come down with the flu.
Ridding your life of excess includes commitments.
I let my son sign up for “one more thing,” but now I’m regretting it. He’s been eating more processed foods lately. He’s been getting to bed late most nights. He’s having a hard time getting his school work completed in the evenings. He’s overscheduled.
Are you overcommitted in your life? The answer may be yes if you answer positive to one or more of the below questions:
- Do you say “yes” more often than “no thank you.”
- Do you feel exhausted by dinner time, but still push yourself to participate in evening commitments?
- Are you getting sick too often? Is your body sending you a message to slow down?
- Do you make time to get plenty of rest, eat healthy and exercise?
This week I challenge you to review your commitments and decide which of them can be scaled back or eliminated. We can only do so much before the stress of being overcommitted forces us to slow down or stop. Be gentle with yourself and your children. Look for signs of overscheduling in yourself and your family.
If you notice signs of overscheduling, make a change!
Lesson Learned
There are only two weeks left in my son’s soccer season. Next year, he’ll need to drop an activity if he wants to take on something new. We learned our lesson the hard way. Hopefully you can learn from our experience and avoid the pitfalls — and sickness — an overscheduled life can bring.
P.S. Thank you to everyone that took the time to share your favorite tips for cutting monthly expenses in last week’s post. Due to all of the great advice you had, I’ve decided to change the article to YOUR favorite ways to save money. Look for it soon! And thank you again for participating!
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I’ve been learning so much from each and every minimalist-type blog I read. Though this one seemed, at first, NOT one that I’d relate to, I thought twice and quickly realised that a large part of the success I am having in my own Life, the improvement in my sleep, moods, and most of all my mobility, I saw straightaway are due to cutting out so many “filler-uppers” in my Now even-quietER Life!!
I am glad you were able to see the dots and connect them. It is hard with young children, their “eyes so much bigger than their tummies” way of seeing all the bright and shiny possibilities…
I appreciate your post, and am glad I have BEgun to follow you. Thank you for such a dot-connector.
You’re most welcome for the dot-connector Currie. Thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts here!
I’ve noticed the same thing too. It’s easy to feel “super productive” when burning the candle at both ends, but it affects my mental and physical health. I’ve concluded that actively scheduling “down time” to enjoy time with my family, sleep enough hours, and do activities unrelated to work/home does wonders for my mood. I produce more in less time than when fighting through tiredness to log in hours.
-Rich
So very true !
So true Jenny. I’ve had to slow down this week because I’m literally falling down weak with the flu. And guess what, the world is still spinning on its axis!
Oh no Christine! I hope you’re feeling better!
Sometimes it’s such a relief to slow down — even when it’s due to sickness. It helps us gain perspective, I think.
This is definitely true! Sometimes, too many things to do is just very stressful and sometimes it makes us sick..
I agree with you on limiting the number of extracurricular activities. My problem is that with five kids (each only aloud 1 activity) I am running myself into the ground everyday of the week. They are fine, I’m the one sick.
Hi Chrissy! With five kids, I can only imagine how exhausting it would be to manage one activity for each child. Wow!
Is there any way to get help? If you could take responsibility for getting three out of five kids to their activities, maybe it would give you a little bit of a breather.
If not, maybe you could institute a no activities over the summer rule.
We should not be afraid about commitments and sickness. These are the parts of life and without these our life becomes dull. So, we should be brave about sickness and respectful about our commitments.
That is very true Bryson. Commitments are the ones that drives our every day life, as in you have to committed for instance to your work to be sure that you will have food on the table. Sickness just comes in as bad luck, but it something that can be dealt with.