January 2023 Challenges

The last day of January is cold, cloudy, icy with more freezing ice to come. January has brought more challenges than just cold weather. I started working away from the sheep farm this month. I have not worked away from the farm for fourteen years. The process of finding employment has evolved in the last two decades. No more filling in paper applications and handing a resume to the manager of the business. Everything is processed electronically. I managed to write a resume and become employed. What an accomplishment for a person of my years.

I took work outside the sheep farm as my husband was not employed having been dismissed from his employment. January brought a job for me and later a job for him. The job offers me a place for personal growth. I have things I need to face and overcome from my past. This is the time for me to reckon with the past. I enjoy the work and those I work with most of the time. The people are where I need to overcome.

I have had to tighten the discipline of time management. The past fourteen years, I set my own pace on when things were done. I did not rush through chores, and spent time watching the sheep when I could have been doing other things. With a job, I rush through the chores. I still watch the sheep in order to see they are ok, but there is not much daydreaming while I am watching. It does not help that the days are shorter. I am doing chores in the dark, a little hard to see everything about the sheep. I do most of my observing in the afternoon after working a job.

In my area, most farmers also have an outside job. Time management to getting the animals cared for and being to a job on time is important. Learning to prioritize the tasks of the day is vital in time management. It is hard to help others by saying do this first, then this task as each of us has a different time schedule. Finding a rhythm in doing chores and managing our time helps to relieve the stress of life.

Others may not understand your method of time management. Your situation is unique to you. Each person has found a rhythm to getting things done, what works for one person may not work for another. There may be some slivers of advice that might help you to better manage your time in what others say or do. But when the end of the day arrives, you are the one who has to find the rhythm of caring for your sheep and doing what you need to have done. I have had to adjust my rhythm of time management when I accepted the job and started working.

Find the rhythm that works for you.

Granny