December 4, Afternoon and Bedtime

I don't really know how to give myself points for today. I wasn't even home at 3 pm to get the place clean or dirty. I was in the city from 10 am until 5 pm, so there's no 3 pm picture.
Before I left in the morning, the table was cleaned, as were the counters and floors, and the beds were made, and there were exactly 4 dishes in the sink, which were subsequently washed when I came home at 5 pm.
I think, even though there were those 4 dishes in the sink, the fact that I made the effort to tidy the place before I left at 10 (when I usually am leaving in such a rush that I leave a place a royal mess) will give me full points for the afternoon challenge for today.

Then tonight, I definitely deserve kudos. I was at a marriage workshop this evening and I came back really late (ok, not even so late, but I was tired enough that it felt really late) and wanted nothing more than to conk out the second I walked in the door.
Instead, I stayed up and got the place cleaned up, the counters cleaned, the table cleaned and the food put away, the floor cleaned, and I even mopped the floor!!! When I would have preferred to be sleeping!!!

I'll be honest. This is the part where it becomes hard for me. Its easy for me to get excited at the beginning of a challenge, go all gung ho about a project... and then a short while into it, I kind of give up, and there go my plans.

Its a regular thing for me. In fact, the fact that I've had my Penniless Parenting blog for so long is quite an accomplishment for me, because its the project I've stuck with for the longest time.

I'm having a harder time staying motivated to clean now. The past few day's posts kind of show that I've been slacking a bit. But I don't WANT to slack. I am enjoying the tidiness. I am just also feeling very very very tired lately (no matter how much extra sleep I seem to be getting) which makes it harder for me to motivate myself to clean...

I need extra encouragement to not give up this challenge.

Even though its making my life better and is doing wonders for my marriage, my relationship with my husband and kids, and even is just making me feel better... I still have this little voice in my head saying "Just give up, don't bother, you'll always be messy, you're just trying to kid yourself..."

Anyhow, so in terms of how I scored so far, I got the place to the proscribed standards 11.5 out of 15 possible times, and 11.5 out of 60 total times. I get two bonus points today, one for beds in the master bedroom made, and one for the floors mopped, for a grand total of 24 bonus points.

So, how do you work when it comes to motivation? Do you start a project all enthusiastic, and then the enthusiasm wanes and the project peters out? How do you learn to stick with a project or task?