In honor of Labor Day, I’m posting a rerun and am taking a quick break from writing. This post was first written on December 3, 2008, and I thought it was a good topic for today. Enjoy the holiday!

While I was waiting for a prescription to be filled at my local pharmacy today, I read this quote on a greeting card from Lin Yutang: “If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.”

I love this. I write about productivity and about the importance of making the most of your time, but the idea of quality “nothing” time is just as crucial as productive time. In fact, I think the two go together. When you work hard, relaxing is all the more enjoyable.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to appreciate truly quality down time. I don’t do this perfectly, but I’ve learned it really is so important to STOP. To just relax. To just be. To not always produce.

Moms especially have a hard time with this, because the to-do list never ends. As soon as you fold the last bit of laundry, another t-shirt gets thrown into the hamper. After breakfast, it’s only a few hours until lunch. If you sit down for a few minute’s rest, your preschooler comes to you crying with a new owie.

But of all people, we need to go out of our way for some quality down time. If we don’t, we burn out, plain and simple. And if we burn out, anything from the trivial to the serious could happen — the house could really go by the wayside, making it that much harder to clean in the end. Or much worse, we could end up risking our health. At the very least, our home stops being a haven, both for us and for everyone who lives with us.

The key is, our downtime needs to be quality – and by that, I mean unproductive. I mean, it needs to be truly downtime. Sure, you can happen to get something done when you’re resting. But the goal of your downtime shouldn’t be productivity, because your wheels will continue to spin when they should be getting serviced.

It takes effort to make your down time worth the time it takes. Here are a few ways to make it more purposeful.

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This post was first published on June 15, 2009.  I thought it a good one to republish for newer Simple Mom readers, though it’s ironically for the opposite reason I mention in the post — I’m incredibly busy getting ready for the baby to arrive and making other life decisions this week.  Nonetheless, I hope it’s a good reminder for us all…

I‘ve got several emails with a “to be answered in a post” tag that all ask this question–“How do I find the motivation to work at home when I just don’t feel like it?”

I’m responding to this question today because it’s a good one to address in my own life. It’s getting hot, life isn’t quite as hectic as last month, and there’s not much on the calendar for the next few weeks. It’s easy to get lazy at home.

Here are a few ideas to fight off the apathy, the lack of interest, or the plain ol’ annoyance at the cyclical nature of your job as home manager.

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Since our life has been crazy the past few months, I haven’t had much of a routine.  But starting this week, our family is getting back at it.  There’s still a lot to do as we move in to our home, but we’re ready to get back to normal life, with some form of routine, predictability, and liturgy to our day.

One of the parts I look forward to most?  Waking up early.

I prefer mornings by nature, but even if I were a night owl, I’d still make a point to rise early.  There are so many things I’ve missed the past few months as we’ve gone through jet lag, time changes, and moving — the valuable benefits to rising early.

Here are my favorites.
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This post was first published on March 23, 2009.

Reader Marilyn asks:

“I am struggling to set some kind of schedule for my family. I’m new to the SAHM thing (I went back to work after my son was five months) and have a five-month-old and a three-year-old who is now at home with me. I’ve been kind of going with the flow, but that is losing its effectiveness, and I have to take a bit more of a proactive approach. I’d love any tips on balancing the bedtimes, eating, naps and various activities of two different-aged kids.”

I had a five-month-old and a three-year-old at this time a year ago, but no matter the ages, I think it’s always a struggle to juggle multiple kids throughout the day.

The key is to just plan something. As the COO of your home, it makes complete sense to have a work schedule to your day.
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