I’ve discovered that as my mental health deteriorates my ability to be productive goes the same way. Some days it’s just too much and it feels completely overwhelming.

This month’s theme is designed to give you a gentle nudge each day to help you to complete a little productive task along with everyone else who follows this little blog or my Instagram account @keepsmeoutofmischief. What’s slightly different this month is that I’m going to write a blogpost everyday to support you all and you can share what you’ve done and how it’s helped you.

I come in each evening after a long day at work with hands full of bags and two hungry children in my wake. The post lies on the doormat. On a good day, one of us picks it up and throws it onto the hall table. On a bad day we just step over it, desperately hoping that someone else will pick it up.

The pile of post mounts during the week (month…) and becomes more and more oppressive or becomes buried under the rubbish of our ‘drop zone’.

As you walk past the pile you feel overwhelmed at the thought of opening it and then berate yourself for not tackling it.

Let’s attack it together today.

Arm yourself with a rubbish bin, a cup of coffee and rush of determination.

Go through the post, recycle what you can and make some piles:

1. Things that need action – deal with these as soon as you finish sorting your post. Don’t leave them, otherwise they might as well have stayed in the envelope.

2. Things that need filing – after you’ve dealt with the things that need action, do your filing. I’ve taken to keeping a magazine file in the kitchen to put my filing in until I psych myself up to do all my filing.

3. Things that you don’t need – this one is your magic wand. This pile should contain all the addresses junk mail, the catalogues, the magazines that you don’t have time to read, etc. Each one will have a email address on them somewhere – email them and ask them to remove your details from their mailing list. That way you shouldn’t receive them again.

Now think about how you could stop the pile from building again. Perhaps you could set aside a particular evening each week to attack it? What would work for you?

For those of you who’ve been inspired to conquer the post pile, either today or in the past, how did it go? How do you feel now that you’ve done it? Add your comments below.

Come back tomorrow for your next nudge into productivity.

Picture credit: Freepik.