by Jess Connell · April 27, 2015

First I asked myself, What is the most essential thing for me to be doing right now?

Then I reminded myself of the reasons why I want to DO those essential things.

I’m not under the illusions that mere DOING is going to change my heart, my home, or my family. So I wanted to remind myself of the big picture before diving in to do the daily things.

Today, it was a morning of living according to our priorities. Here’s a rundown of how my morning went, as best I can recall:

  1. First, I nursed the baby. Bleary-eyed, I pulled the travel pillow around my neck and caught a few more minutes of delightful snoozy haziness as he nursed and I tried to wake up.
  2. Then I got dressed and came downstairs, and started reading my Bible, starting in the last place I’d stopped.
  3. That was interrupted by a child who needed to use my Bible (since it’s an ESV & I ask them to do copywork from the ESV but she doesn’t yet own her own ESV) to do her copywork for school.
  4. I read aloud to our 4 year old while I waited for the 8 year old to be done with my Bible.
  5. I got some coffee and tickled and giggled with the 2 year old on the stairs on my way back to the living room.
  6. My mom called at 8am to start our new Monday-morning-weekly-call-routine because my life has gotten so busy that otherwise weeks can go by and I haven’t talked to my mom… so I talked to her for something more like 45 minutes. While doing that, I tidied up the bookshelves in our library which were in a sad state. By the time our conversation was over, the bookshelves looked neat. (We picked this time b/c Mondays are typically my husband’s day off since he’s a pastor and counsels with people on Saturdays and serves and teaches and holds meetings, etc., on Sundays).
  7. The kids did school and I ran interference (answering questions, etc.) and studied a little more in the Bible. It felt really great to do this at the FIRST available opportunity. It had been getting sidelined to “whenever I got around to it” (which, sadly, was sometimes never).
  8. After we finished school, the kids finished chores while I nursed the baby and got dinner in the crockpot.
  9. We ate lunch and headed out for a lengthy bike ride around town. (Have you ogled and gawked at my new bike yet? I’m loving it!!)
  10. We came home for naps and quiet afternoon time, which allowed me enough time to write this.

This is a short post, but it’s based on the MAIN QUESTION, and the 12 PRINCIPLES we thought about first.

  • In each moment, I was trying to do the essential things. First, my growth as a disciple, then the things my husband and I have prioritized for our home, for this season.
  • I didn’t try to “do it all.” I just focused on doing the next thing.

OR, put simply, I followed this basic idea:

I wasn’t trying to “do it all.”

I wasn’t trying to do it all in one moment.

But over the course of the day, our priorities, for the most part, got accomplished. 

And the things that didn’t? Well, we’ll talk about that next. 

IN THE COMMENTS, SHARE: 

How can you implement this idea of “doing the next essential thing” in your home & daily routines?

Subscribe to my newsletter, and I’ll send monthly encouragement — full of truth and grace for moms. SIGN UP, SO WE CAN KEEP IN TOUCH:

Tags: About JessDo the Next Thingessentialismhome managementpriorities

⋅