​
​Accountability may sound scary, but it actually takes the burden off of your shoulders to keep yourself moving in the right direction.  When you find the right person or people to help steer you toward your goal, you will fell empowered and gain momentum - and what makes it even sweeter is when you can help others in your group achieve their goals at the same time!

I'm passionate about helping others achieve their goals, so about a year ago, I started leading the encouragement and accountability group called Achieve!  A small group of women meet for six weeks for an hour a week on video conference to discuss goals, strategies to meet them, progress, and challenges.  Each group has its own private Facebook group to stay connected and share resources.  I facilitate the sessions and document milestones and check in with members each week to help keep them on track.  It's exciting to see what amazing progress can be made and relationships built in just six weeks' time!  If you are interested in participating this session (January/February 2021) or a future session, please click below for more info or to register. 

Do you have a million ideas swirling around your head at any given time?  Do you tell yourself you'll remember that thing you need to do, but then forget before the day is even over?  Do you see that same little imperfection or incomplete project every time you walk into the room but never seem to find the time to get it taken care of?  If you answered yes to even one of these questions, I'm here with a simple idea to help!

​Track your home projects room by room.  It's so simple it's hard to believe it would work, but just give it a try. 

• Decide on Paper or Digital

The first step is to determine how you prefer to track your home projects.  If you are a paper person, you can have fun selecting a binder or notebook, dividers, and a nice pen or pencil.  But if you prefer digital, you can use a tool like Evernote to easily get organized with a new digital notebook and notes.  The benefit of a digital version is that it can be accessed on your phone and is more portable.

• Define your areas

Make a quick list of all the rooms or areas in your home.  Make sure to include garage, barn, deck, yard, basement, etc. Now, create a section in your notebook for each area.  You may want to group some together if it makes sense.  For example, I combined deck and yard into one section.  

If you go the Evernote route like I did, create a notebook titled Home Projects and then create a note for each room/area.  Insert a checklist so that when you are done, you can simply click to check the item off!

• Do a walk through, and write it all down

With your new notebook, take a walk through your home, and take a good look around each space.  Make a checklist of all the things you want to do in each room's notebook section.   Include little items like "replace the light bulb above the kitchen sink" or "get a new air freshener" to bigger projects like "clean out the refrigerator" or "wash the baseboards."  You can include ideas or daydreams, too, like "get new carpet in the living room" or "rearrange the bedroom furniture."    You should indicate if something is a  "now" project or a "future" project.  If you're using paper, you could highlight or star the future projects.  If you're using digital, you could change the font color or put an * in front of them.

Once you have all of the to do's out of your head and into your notebook, you will waste less of your time trying to remember what you wanted to do and can spend more time getting things done!  (Getting things out of your head is great for more than just home projects - read a Brain Dump How -To for more info!)

• Start a shopping list/wish list

This is where you are going to record what you need (or want) to purchase.  If it's as easy as a light bulb, you likely aren't going to have to do much research or shopping around, but if it's a new light fixture or paint color, you may want to keep track of some websites, photos, or paint swatches.  This is why I like digital - because it's easy to insert a link or a photo.  I prefer to keep my shopping list in the section for each room, but if you'd rather, you could make one master shopping list.

• Add to your lists

Now when you are in your bedroom and notice a scuff on the wall that you think would probably come off pretty easily with magic eraser, just add it to your bedroom list!  In the past you would have noticed it and thought to yourself that you should probably write that down somewhere, but when you left the room, you likely forgot and then never got around to it!

The analogy of the eye chart gives me a little comfort.  The standard of 20/20 is not perfect - it's average.  In our daily lives, we are pushed to perfection and it seems being average is not good enough.  All of us have been using the phrase 'hindsight is 20/20' to mean that when we look back we can see perfectly what we should have done.  I'm really happy to re-frame the expression to mean that when I look back, I'll have a better idea of what was actually happening or how things could have gone better, but I don't have to expect my view to be perfect - just better than it was when I was right in the middle of the experience.  

I want to appreciate the year 2020 for what it was, what it gave me,  and what it taught me.  But I think the most powerful part of 2020 was what it WASN'T.  Recognizing what we missed, what disappointed us, and what we regret can teach us so much about how to live in the future. 

An exercise I do every year is to ask myself some simple questions about the past year and then some similar questions about the upcoming year.  I then look at the themes I see through these answers to help narrow my focus for the next year.  Finally, I set goals around those areas of focus to help me be successful. ,

This year I tweaked the questions a little bit, and I also asked my kids these same questions and shared some of my answers with them (though this is a very personal exercise, and you should't feel the need to share your answers with anyone unless you want to!)   These questions led to a great discussion with my kids, and helped me solidify even more what I wanted to focus on in 2021.  Try it out!

About 2020
1. What made you feel proud or successful this year?
2. What made you happy this year?
3. What caused you stress this year?
4. What are you disappointed you did not do this year?
5. What did you do this year that you regret?

About 2021
1. What would your fantasy self accomplish next year?
2. If your wildest dreams came true next year, what would happen?
3. If money were no object, what would you do next year?
4. If you didn't care what others thought, what would you do next year?
5. What are some key things you want to avoid next year?

If you are looking for support in setting goals and achieving them in 2021, check out the accountability group I lead called Achieve!  The next session starts in mid-January.  Spots are limited, so if you are interested, please reach out for more information!

​Sometimes you need a quick win to get you in the organizing groove.  Organizing your bedside table gives you a lot of bang for your buck!  A clean and organized bedside table can do wonders for your mood because it's one of the last things you see before you go to sleep and one of the first things you see when you wake up.  This is also the reason, they have a tendency to get messy since we are usually tired when we are near them. ​

• Completely clear top and drawers and clean

Start by clearing everything off the top and all shelves and drawers.  I recommend putting everything on your bed because then you won't be able to go to sleep until the project is finished!  When the table is cleared, give it a good dusting and wipe down the inside of the drawers. 
​

• Refill drawers with purpose

Purchase or repurpose some sort of organizer in the drawer.  This can be anything from a silverware organizer, to any type of small open-top boxes.  Look through what you took out of the drawer and only put back in what is essential and trash or relocate the rest.  Thing I like to keep in my drawers are chapstick, pain reliever, lotion, headphones, a flashlight/book lamp, journal and pen, book, etc.  If you are low on dresser space, and have an extra drawer in a bedside table, you could consider it overflow and use it for something like your socks!  

• Keep the top simple

Now for the top.  The rule of thumb here is minimalism!  Place only what you need and use daily on the top of the table.  Mine has a lamp, my Google mini speaker, a coaster, a small bowl for jewelry that I may take off while I'm in bed, and tissues.  This gives clear space to put a book I'm reading and my glasses. 

• Maintain!

Now protect that bedside table and it's pristine condition!  Take a look at your end product and remember how it makes you feel to have things clean and organized and commit to a quick edit of this space weekly.  Take empty cups to the kitchen, throw away any trash that's accumulated, put away jewelry you may have removed before bed, and rearrange the drawer to put items back in their proper spot.  This process will take you less than 5 minutes but give you a big sense of order!   

It's easy to go down a rabbit hole of gloom, doom, and woe is me because of all that has happened in 2020. Never has there been a better time to learn to see the glass half full, find the silver lining, and look for the good in everything (no matter how small that may be!)

​In the midst of everything going on in our 2020 world, we need somewhere to escape.  Make your home that sanctuary!  The definition of sanctuary is "a place of refuge or safety."  Our homes can literally keep us safe from the pandemic, but more than that, they can provide us a sense of calm and control that it's hard to find out in the world. ​

​Rearrange and Repurpose
​We all had to adapt our homes to fit our new needs like working from home and housing virtual students while still keeping them comfortable for regular living. For a while, my husband used TV trays to hold his laptop in the living room, but soon we realized that was a frustration for everyone.  We set up a small table in our bedroom and moved a comfortable chair there.  This allowed him to have a workstation that he didn't have to tear down each evening and kept our living room for family time.  

Virtual school was another challenge many of us had to overcome.  I wrote about some ideas to get organized for e-learning without completely overtaking the house in a previous post.  There were times this year that we had the entire family working/learning at home, so that meant I had to get really creative about my workspace which used to be in the living room.  I was able to repurpose my craft area into an office.  I found a cable to connect the TV I watch while I do crafts to my laptop for a second monitor, I reused an old cart to store all my sewing supplies to make room for my computer on the counter, and I got a new power strip to I could leave my power cord plugged in so setting up each day was quick.  I now have a dedicated space to work that I can leave at the end of my work day.  This is one of the key parts of work from home productivity!

Removing frustrations and reducing the amount of time spent in set up and tear down mode were the things our family was able to accomplish by rearranging and repurposing items in our home.  Working from home is now seamless and, though our kids are back at school for now, if they need to learn from home again, it won't be a burden or impact our common living space.  What can you rearrange today to help make your home fit your current situation?  Do you have a space or an item you can repurpose to help remove a frustration?

Only today when I was thinking about the parallels between putting on your own oxygen mask first and the importance of self-care did it hit me that I need to make myself some masks!  I'm the one in the family that spends the most time away from the house due to my job, but yet, everyone else has more masks than me.   Once I have enough masks, I will feel more secure, less frustrated and spend less time laundering my small supply of masks.  

There are selfish people in this world, but many of us think of others before ourselves.   It's time to begin looking at self-care as a way to help others.  Perimeter Health Care in Georgia explains on their website that, "Self-care encourages you to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself so that you can transmit the good feelings to others. You cannot give to others what you don't have yourself."

Consider these easy ways to care for yourself:

• Get enough sleep
• Take time to prepare healthy food
• Engage your mind through reading or taking a class
• Enrich your life through creative pursuits such as art or music
• Move your body to improve energy and health
• Connect with friends and develop relationships
• Participate in religious or spiritual services or activities
• Relax so you can recharge your batteries!

Even though the metaphor of oxygen masks meant actual masks in my life, it can mean anything in yours.  Choose at least one way to care for yourself this week because if you continue to give to others without caring for yourself, the less you are going to have to give.  Put your mask on first!

Over the past week, we have transformed my son's bedroom.  It has been a whirlwind process, but because we planned well, it's gone smoothly.  Read my previous post about 5 steps to a bedroom refresh .

The new room has much less storage than the previous layout.  We removed a large bookshelf, got a smaller dresser, relocated a cedar chest, and got rid of a 3 drawer plastic storage unit in the closet.  Less storage may sound counter intuitive, but it forced my son to have less stuff in his room.  Less stuff means less time cleaning his room, less arguments with me about clutter, less time spent looking for lost items, and more room to enjoy his private space.

When you have less storage, you must have less stuff.  This makes you consider each item that makes it way into your space carefully.  If you have a hard time getting rid of items or feel like everything is essential, try this trick.  Pack up your room as if you were moving, and when it's time to "move in,"  start by unpacking only the absolute essentials  like clothes, bedding, and maybe an alarm clock.  Then over a few days' time as you find a need for an item, go get it from your boxes and carefully place it in the location that you noticed you needed it.  In his book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, Joshua Fields Millburn says,  “Minimalism looks different for everyone because it’s about finding what is essential to you.”  ​

1. Review what you wear
I suggest you empty one drawer at a time and go through every item separating into piles of things you will wear and things you won't wear.  If it doesn't fit or you don't like it, don't let it take up space in your dresser or closet!  Put items that you will wear back in the space and relocate the items you won't wear (in our case, they will go in the basement in a tote for my younger son, but you could put them in a box for Goodwill.)  Repeat with each drawer and section of your closet.  Don't forget shoes, scarves, belts, bags, etc.

2. Curate your surfaces
Empty each shelf, dresser top, or drawer.  Similar to what you did with your clothes, review each item and decide to keep in place, keep but relocate, or get rid of.  Put the keep in place items back, the keep but relocation items in their new home, and box up other items for donation.

3. Clear the floor
Look closely at anything that touches the floor that isn't furniture.  If it's trash, throw it away.  If it's not trash, why is it on the floor?  Find a new home for it either within your room or elsewhere in your home, or donate it.

4. Measure and plan
Measure everything!   Write down the dimensions of your room and all of your furniture that you plan to keep.  Create a scale model of your room and all the furniture to help decide on a floor plan.  You can go old school and use grid paper to map out your room and then cut out pieces of furniture to scale or you could use a digital option like planyourroom.com.  Arranging and rearranging on paper or virtually will save you time, effort, and money!  It will help you clearly see how much space you have so when you buy new items, they are the correct size.  You can also determine where you want to position everything ahead of time to cut down on the muscle needed to move furniture!  

5. Move only once
Once you've decided what to keep and what you need to purchase, only move your furniture once.  For our project, we will be ordering the new items and they will stay in the garage until after the room has been painted.  On painting day, we will empty the old furniture and remove it from the room.  Remaining furniture will be moved to the middle of the room until the paint is dry. The existing furniture will be moved into the location we decided on in step 4, and the new furniture will be brought to the room and assembled in it's new home.

I'm excited for my son's bedroom refresh (and a little sad to cover the paint that has complemented several little boy themes over the years) and I'm hopeful this process will help him learn how to keep his space organized and make it his own.  Are you inspired to do a little refresh of your own??

So if there aren't very many hours left in the day to work with, what are my options?   I decided I have to be content with not doing a lot of extra things in this season of my life, and when there is time for extra, I want that time to be spent with my family.  Once I gave myself a pass on all of those things I thought I should be doing, I felt so much better!  I was the one putting most of the pressure on myself.  

I encourage you to give this exercise a try! 

1. You may want to start by tracking your time to really see how you are spending your hours.  Use this free time tracker worksheet for this step! 
2. Summarize your time tracker into categories with total time spent on each category  (example: work =8 hours, cooking = 2 hours, cleaning =1 hour, etc.)
3. Then mark the items that are non-negotiable and find out how much time you have left in your 24 hours after the necessary items are complete.
4. Fill in the blanks of your day with other tasks.
5. Give yourself permission to say no or to NOT do something if it will take away from something else you want or need to spend your time on.

If you're a bit of a spreadsheet geek like me, shoot me an email at info@mylifeinorder.com and ask me to send you the How to Spend 24 hours spreadsheet that does all the math for you! 

Check out all of the other time management posts on the blog to help you find ways to balance all that you want and need to do into the realistic framework of a 24 hour day!  

Last week was Labor Day which meant a day off of work for many of us.  Long weekends are exciting, but short weeks tend to overwhelm me.  There is just as much to do, with one less day to get it done.  When time is short, choosing the right thing to work on first is even more important.  

"There's so much to do that I don't even know where to start!"  How many times have you said that?  I'm here to help!  Not because I'm the expert, but because I've faltered and failed enough times to find a better way.  

Gary Keller suggests in his book The One Thing that we ask ourselves this question over and over, "What is the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”  In the past, I thought that checking several things off of my to do list was better than completing one task - even if that one task was more important or urgent. 

In fact, doing less, can help us accomplish more in the long run.  Keller says, “Until my ONE Thing is done — everything else is a distraction.”  Distractions are everywhere - email anyone??  Read the last post about the No Email Hour to help avoid that trap!  Once you figure out what that ONE thing is, focus on it, and accomplish it, you repeat the process over and over!  The hard part is determining what that ONE thing is.  

Experts often point to the Eisenhower Matrix of urgent and important tasks.  This matrix is named after the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was experienced at prioritizing while he was a general in the US Army and the Allied Forces Supreme Commander in World War II.   He suggested identifying the urgency and importance of a task to determine what to do first.  An urgent task is one that is compelling or requires immediate action or attention.  An important task is one that is of great significance or value.  If a task is both important and urgent, that puts it in the "do first" quadrant.  A task that is important, but not urgent should be scheduled for a later time while a task that is urgent but less important can be delegated to someone else.  Finally, if a task is not urgent and not important, this is something that likely not even do at all! 

The Eisenhower matrix is a great framework to help sort out your tasks, but I would suggest a little twist to increase productivity even more using this simple order.
​

1. Delegate - it's super easy to check something off your list when you don't even have to do it!
2. Automate -  do one or more steps of the process, and the rest happens automatically.
3. Remove Stress - a big, scary task looming over you will hinder your productivity the rest of the day - just do it!
4. Consider Dependencies - be aware of cause and effect and think downstream.

​A busy day at home is the perfect opportunity to apply these steps.  Let's say you have a sink full of dirty dishes, 2 loads of laundry to do, a doctor appointment to schedule, and uncomfortable email to send, cookies to bake for an event,  kids to take to and from sports practice, and a few things to pick up at the store.  Here's how the 4 steps above can help you be productive.

First you should look for an opportunity to delegate.  If you can completely delegate a task, that's an easy win, but even if you can delegate only a step in the process, that can free you up to work on something else at the same time.  If you have kids, there are plenty of ways they can help like unloading the clean dishes from the dishwasher, sorting laundry or even starting a load.   

​You have several automations already created for you in your day.  In our busy day example, your dishwasher and clothes washer and dryer automate some of your tasks.  Automations do require prep work.  You have to empty the dishwasher of clean dishes and load it with dirty dishes before you can start it.  You have to gather and sort your laundry, put a load in the washer with detergent before you can start the washer.   Once you get your machines working for you, you can complete other tasks while your dishes and clothes are getting clean - in this example, scheduling that doctor appointment.  

It is important to get automated tasks going before you do other tasks.  If you waited until late in the day to start the laundry, the automation doesn't buy you as much time as if you start it early in the day.  You may need to revisit your automated processes from time to time (like switching the clothes from the washer to the dryer in order to start a new load)

Now that you've got others working for you (delegation) and your machines working for you (automation), it's time to remove the stress.  There may be one task on your list that has been causing you anxiety or stress.  If you put it off, you may be focusing on it instead of other tasks throughout the day.  By getting it out of the way, you will better be able to focus later.  In our example, that uncomfortable email may be a source of stress.  While your machines are working for you, take the time to just do it!

Finally consider dependencies in tasks.  You still need to take kids to and from sports practices, make cookies, and go to the store.  The kids' practice is dependent on a specific time.  It's scheduled, so you can't do it before the time it occurs.  Since you'll be away from home during the drive to and from practice, and you probably shouldn't leave the house with your oven on, you either have to get the cookies finished before you leave, have enough time to bake the batches while practice is in session, or not start until you return home from pickup.  You don't have any chocolate chips, so you can't make chocolate chip cookies until you've been to the store.  Now that you've thought through all of your to-do's, you can determine the best order to complete your tasks in.  

By using these 4 steps along with the principles of the Eisenhower matrix, you will be able to choose to put first things first and become the most productive version of yourself!

​Sources

Keller, Gary. The One Thing: the Surprisingly Simple Truth behind Extraordinary Results. John Murray Press, 2019.

“The Eisenhower Matrix: Introduction & 3-Minute Video Tutorial.” Eisenhower, 2017, www.eisenhower.me/eisenhower-matrix/. ​

When you are overwhelmed, it is all too easy to focus on busywork like reading and answering emails instead of the tasks that really matter.  You probably have your email program open all day long, and you may even have pop-ups or audible notifications set up to alert you when a new message comes in.  Email can contain important information, but it is likely the single biggest distraction of your workday! 

You may think you can check or compose emails while you are doing other things throughout the day, but Gary Keller says in his popular book, The One Thing, "Multi-tasking is a lie."  What he means is that we cannot truly do more than one thing at a time.  Productivity psychologist,  Dr. Melissa Gratias explains it well, "Our brain does not perform tasks simultaneously. It performs them in sequence, one after another.  So, when we are multitasking we are switching back and forth between the things we are doing."  The price we pay for attempting to multi-task is called switching cost.

"Switching cost is the disruption in performance that we experience when we switch our attention from one task to another," explains James Clear, author of the New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits.   Just think of how many times a day you check your email!  A study published in the International Journal of Information Management in 2003 reports that a typical employee checks email nearly every 5 minutes and it takes over a minute to get back to what they were doing before the email interruption.  Do the math - that's a waste of 10 minutes every hour which equates to an hour and 20 minutes out of an eight hour workday just getting our brains reset back to what we were concentrating on before we stopped to check email.

To combat this distraction, start by choosing one hour of your workday to NOT check email.  Trust me, I know this is hard!  I picked a hour in the morning because that allows me to get important tasks done without distraction early in the day.   Select an hour in the portion of your day where you feel the sharpest and most awake so that you can leverage that energy and get meaningful work done when you are at your best.   It would would be a shame to waste the best part of your day on your inbox!

To really make this hour productive, make sure you have a task list in order of priority handy so that you can jump right in doing the thing that matters the most.  Next week's post will be about how to do first things first (I'm pretty excited about this one!)

If you get really good at a "no email hour" in your workday, you may want to try increasing that time.  Depending on the type of work you do, it may be detrimental to be 'off the grid' for too long.  Some experts suggest only checking email a couple of times a day, but in my day job, that would just not be acceptable.  If I do need to be away from email longer than an hour or so, I sometimes set a temporary automated out of office message to set the expectation that my response will be delayed.  The message can be very simple like, "I'm working on a high priority project and will not be checking email until 2 p.m.  If you have an urgent need, please text me at ###-###-####."

One caveat that makes the "no email hour" tricky is that many tasks may require sending emails, so be careful not to get sucked in to your inbox when composing a new message.  To avoid the temptation, try these shortcuts to open just a blank message instead of your entire inbox. 

Outlook - When you want to send a message, simply right click on the Outlook icon on your taskbar, and choose new message.  You could also create a desktop shortcut to compose a new message (instructions here.)

Gmail - There is a handy dandy Chrome Extension called Quick Compose for Gmail that allows you to open up a blank message withOUT going to your inbox.  Once you've installed the extension, there's even a keyboard shortcut!

iPhone Mail App - Use 3D or haptic touch (which basically means that you tap and hold) on the mail icon until a menu appears, and then select new message.  This brings up a blank message without taking you into your inbox.  NOTE: if you have multiple email accounts set up on your phone, the message will be automatically from your default account, but you can easily change that by tapping on the from address and choosing the proper account.

These are the three mail apps I use most often, but if you use others, I'm sure a quick Google search of "how to compose a message without opening my (insert mail app) inbox" will bring up tips to help you.

Try the "no email hour" for a week and let me know how amazing it feels to get an entire hour's worth of work down without email interruptions!  

​Sources
Clear, James. ATOMIC HABITS: an Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones. RANDOM House BUSINESS, 2019.

Clear, James. “The Myth of Multitasking: Why Fewer Priorities Leads to Better Work.” James Clear, 4 Feb. 2020, jamesclear.com/multitasking-myth.

Hoyt, Alia. “How Multitasking Works.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 27 Jan. 2020, science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/multitasking.html.

Jackson, T., Dawson, R. and Wilson, D., 2003. Reducing the effect of email interuption on employees. International Journal of Information Management, 23(1), pp.55-65

Keller, Gary. The One Thing: the Surprisingly Simple Truth behind Extraordinary Results. John Murray Press, 2019.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

We woke up early on the first day of the 2020-2021 school year only to learn that our home internet was out!  Since we were all planning to spend the day learning and working online, we had a few moments of panic.  Luckily the internet  came back on before long and held steady the rest of the day! 

I had planned every detail of virtual learning at our house, but there was still something out of my control.  It's good to be reminded that no matter how well we plan, the unexpected still happens.   I think this school year may teach us all that lesson many times over!  Because there is so much in life that we cannot control, it is helpful to be organized because that gives us the capacity to handle the unexpected when it comes our way.   

Whether your kids are doing virtual learning at home full-time or their school has a hybrid approach where just part of the week is e-learning, being a parent of a school-aged child this school year is going to be a challenge!  I am trying to use organization to help make the experience as smooth as possible, and I thought I'd share some of my ideas with you.

Challenge # 1:  Not enough workspace
We are excited to have my older son's best friend and his younger sister joining us for virtual learning.  It gives our kids some socialization and makes their school day much more fun! But we had to get creative to fit everybody in our home and still keep distance between them.

We live in an 1800 square foot, nearly 150 year old house with no spare bedroom or office. ​  On days when I work from home to help supervise the school day, there are six people to fit into the space!  We decided that we wanted everyone on the same floor, so we are not using bedrooms as classrooms.   Because of that, not every kid has enough room to have all of their books and supplies next to them at all times.  We solved that problem with a set of plastic drawers labelled with each kid's name.  The drawers are on wheels so if I want to get rid of the school look, I can roll them into the laundry room!

We decided that since most of the school day will be spent on Google Meets with headphones on, it didn't really matter if kids were in the same room because they rarely have to talk out loud during live class. We set the two older kids up in the kitchen and the younger two in the living room in a configuration so no one gets in anyone else's videos!  

My husband works in our bedroom on a slim table that we set in front of a window, and when I'm working from home, I work in my craft area.   Even though it's a little crowded, I made everyone their own nameplate for their space to define it as theirs.  I got acrylic frames for photo booth pictures for less than a dollar, then used scrapbook paper and some markers to make every "desk" a little special.  At the end of the day, the kitchen kids have to put everything in their drawer so my family can eat dinner at the same table, but it works!

Challenge #2:  Confusing schedule
We have two different schedules with different break times for the elementary and the middle school, and then there are alternating days for certain classes - it gets confusing fast!  I got two white boards and two inexpensive easels (check the photo frame section for these) to display the schedule.  I used different colors to help the kids easily find their next class.  For the schedules that alternate, there is a magnet that indicates what day it is.  We have one white board in each room to keep kids on track.  

I also created a printable daily schedule that lists each class time, class, and code for the live video session as well as check boxes for other daily requirements.  These were great for the first week while everyone was getting used to their schedules.  After the second week, we probably won't need these anymore and can just maintain a list of codes for the videos.
​
One thing I love about virtual learning is how much extra physical activity the kids are getting because they can go outside and play, go on a bike ride, or just get some sunshine during breaks.  But it's important for them to stay on schedule, so setting timers is a great way to help kids manage their time and get back to their seats in time for the next session.

​
Challenge #3: Tech Issues 
I work in IT for my day job, so I am used to tech issues!  The biggest lesson here is to teach your child how to fix issues rather than fixing them all yourself.  It's amazing how even young children can learn to troubleshoot an issue when you take the time to show them how.  Before school starts, go through their device with them and explain the basics.  Don't assume they know how to open a new tab on a web browser or even turn down the volume.  Chances are you may have to show them a few times, but if you take the time at the beginning to teach them how to help themselves, you won't be needed as much later on.

We've already run into broken links, unknown passwords, and pictures and videos that wouldn't display.  Teachers have been very honest that this is all new to everyone, so don't feel bad about asking them for help or letting them know when something isn't going quite right - but be nice!!  Taking a photo of exactly what you are seeing on your kid's device may be more helpful than trying to explain it in words.  

Slow or overloaded internet will surely be a problem at some point.  If that happens, try limiting video to only when it's needed.  Most teachers have a recording if something goes wrong and you can't participate live.  You may have to roll with it!
​

Challenge #4: I have to work!
Many of us are working parents, and work doesn't just stop when school starts.  We are in unprecedented times, and employers are trying to make accommodations but still stay in business.  There are some who can't work from home because of the nature of their job.  This is where we have to stick together and help each other out!  I'm fortunate because my husband works from home, but I am trying to be very aware that he has a full time job and as willing as he is to be a teacher as well,  I need to pitch in where I can.  I occasionally work from home to give him a break, and I also review schedules for the next day and make lists, monitor homework assignments, etc. the night before so the days are smoother.

No matter what kind of job you have or how high up you are in an organization, all employees are just people and many of them are parents dealing with virtual school.  Even those who don't have kids themselves, have a child or teacher in their lives and can understand the challenges of juggling work and school responsibilities.  Several times a week on conference calls, I hear someone's child in the background or someone on the call has to excuse themselves to help with a school issue.  It doesn't bother me a bit - I get it!  We are all trying to do our best, and no one can deny that our kids' education is important.  

To help stay focused at work when you are at home with school-aged kids, set them up with everything they need before you start your workday.  Designate your own workspace and clearly communicate when kids are allowed to enter that space and at what times they need to be quiet.  You may consider a sign or visual reminder of these things for younger children.  Schedule your breaks around the kids' breaks so you can check homework, answer questions, and enjoy seeing their faces in the middle of they day.  You may need to talk to your boss about working an alternate schedule.  If there are hours that you need to dedicate to school, is it possible you could work some in the early morning or late evening to make up for that time?  

None of us know how long we will be dealing with virtual school, so I encourage you to identify your top challenges and come up with strategies to address them. Organize yourself in other areas of your life to give you more room in your day to deal with the challenges at hand.

Have a great school year!

I am not a morning person!  I like to BE up early, but I don't particularly like to GET up early!  Because of that, my mornings go much more smoothly when everything is ready the night before.  Getting into a habit of preparing for the next day the night before was one of the single biggest boosts to my productivity! 

When I was primarily working from home this spring, evening prep was pretty simple - a list of my most important tasks for the next day and sometimes I laid out a letter that needed to go to the mailbox.  Since it didn't really matter what I wore and I didn't need to pack a lunch, there really wasn't that much to it.  Don't get me wrong, doing that little bit of prep for the next day still went a long way, but it wasn't as critical as I knew it would be when I was back to working in my office most of the time.  To set myself up for a successful transition, I really embraced evening prep - almost too much because soon it felt like my evenings were focused around tomorrow.  

That first week back to the office exhausted me.  Between working the same full day, commuting,  wearing office appropriate attire, showering EVERY DAY, fixing my hair and makeup,  packing up my breakfast, snacks and lunch,  preparing my work supplies, not to mention trying to spend quality time with my family - it was exhausting!  I was trying extra hard to make everything run smoothly, so I was spending 30-60 minutes preparing every detail of my morning the night before. I felt robbed of my evenings and the time with my family, so I decided something had to change!

There were two key areas I identified as time suckers, and I made a plan to fix them!

Food
I am on a mission to get healthier and slimmer by the time I turn 40, so I take my breakfast, snacks and lunch with me everyday.  For breakfast I make a protein shake, snacks are usually fruit, nuts, cheese, and lunch may be leftovers or a salad.  Previously, I was spending a good 30 minutes an evening preparing food.  I analyzed my evening food prep routing, and found the areas that were taking the longest and came up with ideas to streamline the process:

• Cleaning and cutting fruits and veggies

Now I clean and cut up enough fruits and veggies for the entire week on Sunday.  Batching the task saves time overall! 

• Putting food into smaller containers

On Sundays, I put snacks in smaller containers all at the same time.  This could include a baggie of veggie chips, small containers of ranch dip or peanut butter, or a serving of fresh cherries in a plastic container.  I store all the pre-divided portions together in the refrigerator in a clear plastic bin so it's easy to grab and go.

• Avoiding using and cleaning the blender

This was by far my biggest win!  I make a breakfast protein shake every morning (get the recipe and directions at the end of this post!)  I used to put all the ingredients in and then use the immersion blender to mix it up.  I would then have to wash it right away to avoid it getting really gross and sticky.  I realized this blending and cleaning was what was taking the longest, so I did an experiment to see if I could puree all the fruit ahead of time and simply use a shaker bottle to mix up the ingredients.  I was skeptical because that protein powder tends to clump up, but to my delight and surprise - it worked!  I found that 1 cup of clean, sliced fresh fruit equals about 2/3 cup of fruit puree.  Now each morning I just add that to my almond milk, protein powder and chia seeds, put in the shaker ball and shake!  That's it - no muss no fuss, and SO much faster!

• ​Not wasting time washing dishes

​I also used to waste time washing the containers I wanted to take food in the next day.  I only had one shaker cup, so I had to wash it every day.  I only had one container of the right size for my salad that fit in my lunchbox, so I also washed it every evening.  I solved these things very simply: I bought a second shaker cup so one can be washing in the dishwasher while the other is in use.  I started washing out my salad container at work after lunch.   Since I also prepack all my smaller snacks, there is no time wasted on dishes in my daily routine!

I now pack my lunchbox immediately after I empty it.  I make my shake the night before as well and just shake it up before I drink it the next day.  I've gone from 30 minute lunch prep to less than 10

Try It!
Your pain points may not be the same as mine, but take some time to think through your routine and identify what is taking you the longest or what frustrates you about your morning or evening routine.  Think about the problem and how you would tell someone else to solve it.  Track your time savings and celebrate the extra time in your evening - and spend it well!

I don't want you to feel discouraged though, because I have a few suggestions for you!  
​

• Lower your own expectations

I've written about this one before, so I'm just going to link you to that post.  Give yourself the grace you'd give anyone else!

• Don't keep to do's in your head

You're a busy person so don't waste any of the energy you have to spend on remembering things.  Keep a master to do list.  Use paper or digital, it doesn't matter.  Just develop your own system of capturing all the things in your head so you can use your brain for doing the stuff and not just remembering it!

• Recognize seasons of your life and move your focus to where it needs to be during that time.

As I said above, my kids are still young, and it's going too fast.  I want to freeze time sometimes.  This is the season of my life that going to kids' activities is more important to me than going to a work event and rubbing shoulders with important people, and I'm done feeling guilty about that!

• Prune out some of the unnecessary from your life.

​We all do a lot, and there's bound to be a few things that you can either stop doing all together or delegate to someone else.  I encourage you to check out this roles and responsibilities worksheet to help identify all the roles and responsibilities you have in your life and how you can cut back to give yourself some breathing room.

• Add something to your life that is just for you.

This one seems counter-intuitive, but I highly recommend it.  When I was the busiest and most overwhelmed in my life is when I started this blog.  I needed an outlet that wasn't about my family or my work.  It was something that I could put on the back burner if I needed to without a lot of impact, but it was also something I could escape to if I wanted.  Find a hobby or develop a new skill.  It doesn't have to take lots of your time, but it can life changing!

To be truly productive, it is almost imperative to have a master to-do list where you record everything you need to do and use it to prioritize your actions as you work toward completing tasks that will ultimately help you accomplish your goals.  Though I believe this is true, today I want to introduce a different concept that I think is almost as important to your personal productivity - a done list!  

A done list is just what it sounds like, a list of things you’ve completed.  There are a couple of options on how to create a done list, but before I tell you HOW, let me tell you WHY.  ​

1.  Develops Positive Emotions
Sometimes in the midst of all the items left undone on our to do list, it’s easy to forget all that was accomplished in a day.  At the end of the work day, the emotions we feel are directly related to the progress we made (or didn’t make.)

Dr. Teresa Amabile, a Harvard Business School professor and co-author of The Progress Principle found that when people recognized their small accomplishments, they experienced more positive emotions which in turn, encouraged future accomplishment.  In a Harvard Business Review article, she explained a study which analyzed 12,000 employees on a daily basis. ”On days when they made progress, our participants reported more positive emotions. They not only were in a more upbeat mood in general but also expressed more joy, warmth, and pride.” 

2. Creates Momentum
We tend to focus more on our failures than our successes, so keeping track of what we’ve accomplished can remind us of what we are capable of.  Organizational psychologist, Karl Weick says “Once a small win has been accomplished, forces are set in motion that favor another small win. When a solution is put in place, the next solvable problem often becomes more visible.”

Completing a task feels so much better than starting 10 tasks and not quite finishing any of them!  Every time you record something you’ve finished, you get a little hit of dopamine, a type of neurotransmitter in your body’s nervous system that plays a role in feeling pleasure.  It actually helps us focus and improves motivation.  So completing one item literally can increase our chances of completing the next one.

1.  As you go
This is the method I most prefer.  I have a master task list for EVERYTHING I need to do, but on a daily basis, I choose the one thing I’m going to work on first, and I write the item down on a handwritten list.  When I’m done, I put a line through it and choose the next thing to begin.  I also use this list to record to-do’s that come to mind as I’m working on a task.  This helps me stay focused on what I’m doing and not spend mental energy remembering something for later.  As those items are completed, I mark a line through them.  At the end of the day, if there’s anything left that I didn’t get completed, I add it to my master to-to list. Then I review all the items that were marked off and revel in the sense of accomplishment!

2. After you’re done
When you complete a task, write it down (and put a big check mark by it if that makes you feel good!)  If you prefer paper, I would suggest a small notebook where you can keep these lists so you can look back and see all that you’ve accomplished.  If you use digital solutions, a simple spreadsheet or document can be an easy way to capture your completed tasks.

3. Within Your To Do List
If you don’t want the extra work of creating a separate done list, you could mark completed tasks with the date on your paper to-do list  If you use a digital task management system like Nozbe, completed tasks stay visible for the day they are completed so you can view your progress.  With either method, you have the benefit of being able to review the tasks you’ve completed on a certain day to give you satisfaction and a boost of momentum!

Sources 
Higgs, Micaela Marini. “How to Accept a Compliment - Even If It's From Yourself.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/smarter-living/how-to-accept-a-compliment.html.

Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, Teresa, and Steven J. Kramer. “The Power of Small Wins.” Harvard Business Review, 6 May 2020, hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins.

"Do vs. Done Lists: Jot Down Your Small Wins." Evernote, 12 April 2017, https://evernote.com/blog/do-vs-done-lists-jot-down-your-small-wins
​
"What is Dopamine?" WebMD 19 June 2019, .https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-dopamine#1

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

We are living in a historic time, and many of us are battling conflicting emotions that change multiple times a day.  We are in a situation we’ve never been in before nor has anyone ever been!  It’s a struggle to sort out the truth from the rhetoric, and a true balancing act between staying informed and becoming obsessed.  Our physical and our mental health seem like they are somethings being pitted against each other, and it's been difficult to lead a "regular" life over the past several months.
 
For me, part of my "regular" life for the past 3 years has been this blog, but I soon realized that it had been months since my last blog post.  When stay-at-home orders first hit, I was just busy with my day job in IT, so I skipped a couple of weeks.  Then I became envious of those I saw posting on social media about how they were embracing the “pause” in daily life.   My work life had not paused, and in fact I was working more hours with more stress than ever, and I still had to be a good boss, a supportive wife, an attentive parent, and even a teacher!  The only thing I felt that I could allow myself to “pause” was my blog - so I stopped writing.

About a month after my last blog post, I realized that not ONE person had noticed I hadn’t written or posted on social media, so I became discouraged wondering why I should even start up again.  I began to use any pockets of time that I could find to do other things I enjoyed like reading, working in the yard, learning to sew, going on walks with my husband, and spending bonus time with my kids.  ​

What's Next?
I’m launching the next session of Achieve!, the group goal setting and accountability group for women, in mid-September with a 6 week session.  If you have a goal you need help achieving or even need help determining what your goal is, this small group, virtual program may be just what you need.  Learn more about the program here.  ​​ If you decide to sign up, use coupon code: EARLYBIRD  by 8/15/20 for your first week free!

Many of you may have begun working from home in the past couple of weeks and may be doing so for the foreseeable future.  If you've never worked at home before, it can be a big change and a big challenge!  I've heard from some of you that you are struggling in various ways — from staying focused on your work to not letting your working hours bleed into your personal time.  I have worked from home on and off for years, so I wanted to share with you some tips that may help you be more productive at work, more comfortable when you are working, and give you the ability to separate work and home life.

You may think working from home means you get to roll out of bed and go straight to your laptop in pajamas and bedhead, but I suggest you actually get ready for work similar to how you would if you were going into the office.  Depending if you are required to video chat or not may determine how much time you spend on your appearance, but at least do the following:

• Shower - Sometimes I prefer to do this at night to allow me to sleep in a little bit more.
• Get dressed - Though you probably won't be meeting dress code and should wear something comfortable, at least change into something clean and presentable in case you do need to get on a video chat!  
• Fix your hair - You don't have to look like you just left the salon, but at least run a brush through it!
• Put on some makeup - If you don't normally wear makeup, you get to skip this step.  For me, if I don't put on some eyebrow color and eyeliner, I look like I'm sleepy or sick, so a tiny bit of makeup actually helps me feel more alert.
• Brush your teeth - I feel like this should go without saying, but I know my kids feel like this is optional when they don't leave the house!
• Eat breakfast - You don't need to cook a gourmet meal, but at least eat the same thing you would before or on your way to work.  This will prevent you from taking extra snack breaks later that could impact your productivity

Get up early enough to get these things done before you're supposed to be logged on and ready to work.  Over the past couple of weeks, circumstances were extraordinary and there were days that I got woken up with issues at my day job that continued all day so that I never had the time to do these basic things.  I felt out of sorts and out of control all day long!  I'm a true believer that how you look impacts how you feel (so much that I wrote an entire post about it!)  Set yourself up for success by being awake and ready to face the workday — even if you're just walking to another room in your house!

You are likely sharing your house with at least one other work-from-home employee and maybe a couple of e-learners, so having your own work space is very important. In the past when I've worked from home, I've been alone all day while my husband was at his job and my kids were at school which allowed me to camp out wherever I wanted.  No matter which room I was in, I was alone and able to avoid distractions, but now there are people everywhere in my house!

Depending on the size and layout of your house, it may be tricky to find your own space, but get creative.  You can work at a desk, a kitchen or dining table, a counter, a card table, or even a few TV trays.   If you are using a portable table, you can set it up anywhere — in the back of the living room, a bedroom, a walk-in closet, basement rec room, mud room, etc.  Try to find somewhere quiet, preferably where you can shut a door, or at least create some separation between you and the other members of your family when needed.  Try to avoid working from your couch or in your bed — you may be laughing, but it can be tempting! 

If at all possible set up your work space and leave it set up until your work-from-home days are over.  The less time you have to spend hooking up equipment, finding your work files, and clearing off a space the better.  I have my work space set up in our mudroom/craft room.  I've got my extra monitor and my laptop all hooked up and plugged in, my headset nearby, a clear surface for a notepad, and a cup of writing utensils within arm's reach.   When I'm done for the day, I just shut down my laptop and close the lid.  When it's time to work again, it only takes a few seconds to get up and running again.
​

Some find it difficult to stay on task at home because there are so many other things you could be (or want to be) doing like laundry, dishes....or watching TV!  Make sure you have all the tools you need to be productive in your work space so you can more easily keep work and home separate and avoid getting distracted.  For example, keep a notebook specifically for work near your computer so that aren't making work notes on your grocery list.  

Be diligent about daily task lists, but keep work and home lists separate.  I've suggested various task management and to-do list options in past posts, so pick your favorite and stick to it! (Trello, Nozbe, Evernote are all options you may want to look into) Try keeping a running list of "home" tasks that come to mind while you are "at work."  Give yourself permission to jot the idea or task that comes to mind down when you think of it on a special notepad or add it to an electronic list so you don't waste any of your energy on trying to remember it later.  When you know you won't forget, you're less likely to actually get up and do the household task right then.

Make sure you have a comfortable chair, a keyboard and mouse that work well, and have your monitor(s) set up in a way that doesn't cause you to strain your neck or eyes.  The more comfortable you are, the more productive you will be.  Invest in a headset — even an inexpensive pair of ear buds with a microphone will make talking on the phone while working remotely much easier!   Finally, don't forget to drink plenty of water!  I'm great about having water with me at work, but I've found at home, it's something I tend to forget.  Staying hydrated can prevent headaches and help you stay focused.
​

When you go into the office, you have certain times that you typically work.  Do your best to stick to those same hours at home.  At work you likely take a few breaks and a lunch break every day, so do the same at home, and try to take those breaks away from your work space.  Some of the great benefits of working at home is that you can take breaks with your family, get some housework done, or even take a nap in your own bed!  Remember that just because your fridge and pantry are a room away doesn't mean that you should snack more than you do on a typical workday.

Many who have never worked at home fear that the lack of boundaries between work and home will cause them to feel like they never stop working. In my day job, I'm always on call, so I have learned the hard way some strategies to try to keep work and personal time separate.   A few things that help me draw that line when I work from home are:

• Let your work team know when you are on a break or unavailable.  Set an expectation when you will be on and offline.
• In the same way, let your home "team" know when you are working and need privacy, and when they can expect you to be done for the day.
• If your home work space allows, close the door when you are working to signal to your family that you should not be bothered.  
• Give your family a heads up on what times of the day you need extra quiet for phone or video conferences.
• Most corporate phone systems allow you to change your status for phone calls and instant messages so people receive a message when you have marked yourself out of office or busy.  Be diligent to use this feature so your status can be trusted.
• If you are using a laptop, physically close the lid when you are on a break.
• Clear your desk of notes, papers and clutter and shut your computer down at the end of your work day.  This is a signal to yourself that work is done, and makes it inconvenient to start working again until the next day.

​I wish you well as you are navigating these unprecedented times of remote work.  I suspect there will be an increase in productivity for some when they get the opportunity to try working from home.  I think it will be very interesting what happens to remote work once the current situation has passed and some employers realize how well workers fared working off site.   I'd love to hear tips you've come up with to remain productive while you've been working from home.  

Many around the world are hunkered down at home to help slow the spread of COIVD-19.  I think this is the perfect time to get some projects done at home!  During times of uncertainty, it's easy to become anxious and overwhelmed about the things we can't control.  Small, achievable projects can give us a way to keep our minds off of the sometimes scary reality and also regain some control in our lives.  Many of you may be off work or working from home for the next 14 days, so read on for 14 organizing projects you can get done in one day or less!

At least the timing is about right for putting away winter clothes and getting out your Spring/Summer wardrobe.    Make sure to donate winter items you didn't wear this year and try on the Spring/Summer items to make sure they fit.  Don't waste space with things that no longer fit or you no longer love!  For more ideas read, The Seasonal Switch post!

This is a great time to think about what medicines in your cabinet may be out of date and determine which ones you are out of.  Make sure to clean the shelves and any organizing containers thoroughly.   You may be able to use items from around the house to combine like items.  Find some low-cost organizing ideas in the post, 5 Dollar Store Ideas for Your Medicine Cabinet.

Everybody has one and without occasional attention, the junk drawer can get out of control!  You may store some essentials in this drawer like batteries, flashlights, and hand sanitizer, so make sure you add any items you need to replenish to your shopping list.  Read more in 7 Steps to the Junk Drawer of Your Dreams.

You probably have a pile of papers to go through "when I have time."  Well, you've got some time now!  Separate into things you will do; things you will defer; things you can shred, recycle or trash; and things to file.  From there it's pretty simple, do the do pile, file the file pile, trash the trash pile, and find a home for what you deferred (though think about just doing everything you possibly can instead of keeping a pile for later!)  If you already have a good system in place, read 6 Steps to Get Caught Up on Paperwork  but if you need some help knowing where to start, check out The First Big Win: Wrangling the Paper or TheBinder System.

We all have a hobby of some sort, and those of us with kids likely have supplies for all sorts of crafts and hobbies!  The first step is to PURGE!  Get input from everyone who has used the supplies in the past about what they'd like to see done with them.  Choices are keep it all, keep some, donate, or trash.  Set up a few boxes - one for keep, one for donate, and one for trash.  Go through everything first and then begin determining where items will go and how you will store them.  I'll be doing a whole post soon on craft/hobby room organization!  In the meantime, you can read Can Creativity Be Orderly.

Having a clear surface next to my bed gives me a sense of calm!  It's very easy to let your bedside table get cluttered because you are usually tired when you are near it.  Go through everything in and on the table and relocate anything you don't need within arms' reach at night.  Don't forget to add items that would be handy to have close by like hand lotion, chap stick, pain reliever, headphones, a book, a flashlight, etc.  In my E-book, Get Organized Head First, I share a how to get your entire bedroom cleaned and organized.  Having an orderly bedroom creates a sense of calm and control that translates to other areas in your life.  Get a copy of Get Organized Head First for only $2 when you use code: ORGANIZE at checkout!

Pick a closet, any closet! This could be a coat closet, a linen closet, or your clothes closet.   Use the steps of purge, sort and store.  Purge what you no longer need or want, sort so like items are kept together, and then store in logical and accessible ways.  Read for more ideas in these posts The Seasonal Switch and Personalized Organizing

Spring soccer is just beginning.  Though practice schedules are up in the air for the time being, we will eventually get back to the days of cleats, shin guards, and soccer socks all over the place!  Consider setting up a zone in your home or garage where all the sports equipment and supplies go.  Items that we only use for a couple of months at a time don't tend to have a "home" like items we use all of the time.  This makes it more likely that they get left in a pile or create clutter.  Read How to Create an Organized Sports Zone for more ideas.

What a great opportunity to catch up on laundry (see how I'm trying to look on the bright side!)  It feels like laundry never ends, but I'm hopeful with less outings will come less laundry!  Take a day to assess what the problem areas are in your laundry room — it may be the lack of folding space, a cluttered shelf for cleaning supplies, or a hamper that is too small.  Read A Laundry Experiment Part 1 and A Laundry Experiment Part 2 for more ideas!

My family loves games!  We play family games at least a couple of times a week and are planning on a lot more while the kids are off school for the next few weeks.  Some of our favorites are Llama Drama, Exploding Kittens,  One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Unstable Unicorns,Yahtzee, Boggle, Bananagrams, Catch Phrase, and  Hearts.  This is a great time  pull out some games you haven't played in a while to determine if they are keepers or not.  Go through each box and assure you have all the pieces.  Keep all extra or random pieces in a small container so that they are easy to find later.

If you have kids who are going to be home from school for a few weeks, you are likely already dreading hearing them whine, "I'm bored!"  Going through their toys is a great way for them to rediscover fun things they may have forgotten about.  Use the same system as you did with the closet — purge, sort, store.  One of my favorite toy organizing projects was in this blog post, Lego Storage Under the Stairs

The Coronavirus outbreak has caused many of us to think about what and who is really important to us.   Think of this as an opportunity you've been given to reconsider your priorities and set new boundaries and goals for your life.   I encourage you to physically write down your goals and find someone to share them with so you have the accountability you need to achieve them.  Read about S.M.A.R.T. goals here and get a free, printable goal setting worksheet.  Learn about how to set and achieve a goal in as little as 6 weeks in this free, 10 minute webinar.  And if you are interested in some structured accountability, consider the upcoming Achieve! session - learn more here!

Being stuck at home will force many of us to get creative about what we cook.  It's a great time to look in the depths of your refrigerator and freezer for food you didn't even know you had!  You may start to realize that maybe if your fridge was a little more organized you would have known what was in there!  Get some quick ideas by reading Organize Your Fridge for Healthy Eating  and if this inspires you to do the WHOLE kitchen - check out the free 7 day video series, 7 Days to an Orderly Kitchen.

Being stuck at home will likely mean lots of electronics being used over the next couple of weeks. You probably have cords and chargers all over the place.  Gather them all together, and use the same method we've talked about before - purge, sort and store.   There are likely cords and chargers from items you no longer own as well as multiples of the same type.   Don't keep more than you need. Even if you throw or give away several cords and chargers, you will save money in the long run because you won't be buying new ones every time you can't find one — now you'll know right where they are!

​Sources
​
Photo by jordi pujadas on Unsplash

Are you overwhelmed?  It seems like almost everyone I know feels like there is too much on their plate or there just isn't enough time to get everything done — at least not done well.  I used to think that if I could just be more productive, I could handle it all,  but what I've learned is that is just not true.  We all have a limit —there is a finite amount of time in the day and I only have a finite amount of energy.  If there is truly too much, something has to give.

You may feel like nothing on your to-do list can be delayed, delegated or deleted, but I think that most of us don't even know what all is on our list.  The general feeling of overwhelm follows us around because of the sheer amount of things we need to do but also because of the things we fear we have forgotten or are spending energy trying to remember.    If you could free your mind of trying to keep track of your to-dos, you would have more bandwidth to "do the stuff."  This is where a brain dump comes into play.  You can get it all out of your head and then organize it into a trusted system.  Here's an easy brain dump how-to that you can use for personal or professional purposes or feel free to do both at once.

The supplies you need for this step are blank, lined notepad and a writing utensil.  Set a timer for no more than 15 minutes and then begin writing anything you can think of that you need to do, want to do, or even ideas that have been floating around in your head.   Write one thing on each line.  Some of what you write down will be projects or categories and others will be actual tasks, don't worry about differentiating, just write everything you can think of. The timer is just to give you a sense of urgency and create focus, it's not to limit you on getting everything out of your head and onto paper.  So if the timer goes off and you have more to write, keep at it!

If you're like me, you take notes in meetings, while on the phone, and when you randomly think of something.  These notes could be in a journal or notebook, on a scrap of paper or sticky note, or even in a note taking app on your phone or computer.    It's likely that you have notes in multiple places which makes it hard to know what all you really need to do!  

In this step you are going to gather all your notes and transfer any tasks onto your master "dump" list.   Try to quickly scan each note rather than re-reading everything.  If after you've transferred the to-do, you don't feel like you need to keep that note, draw a big X on the page so when you are all done, you know that it's ok to throw away.  

If you've never done this process before you could have a lot of notes to go through!  I suggest making a judgement call here that anything older than a certain time frame is either no longer relevant or probably has cropped up again in more recent notes.  This means you simply choose not to look through those older notes, but since you actively chose to do that, you can release that from the things in the back of your mind to worry about.  If you feel it's necessary you could archive those old notes "just in case."

As you are working through this, a note may job your memory for another project or task you hadn't written down.  That's a good thing, you are truly emptying your head!  Just add anything else that comes to mind to your master list.

​Depending on the amount of notes you have, you may want to use the Pomodoro technique in this step so you don't get burnt out.  Work for a set amount of time and then take a small break where you get up and move around, and then go back to work.  

By now, you should be feeling much lighter because everything is out of your head and onto one giant list.  Don't feel overwhelmed by the size of your list because now you're going to make it manageable.

Review each item on your "dump" list, and if it's a project or category mark it with a star.  A project is something that requires multiple tasks to complete and a category is a way to group like tasks together.  An example of a project is "Plan Spring Break trip" and an example of a category is "Phonecalls."  

After you've gotten through the whole list, you can continue in one of two ways — 1) Continue using a notepad or 2) Use blank sticky notes.  I'm going to explain how to do this using both methods, so read through both options before you decide what works best for you.

1) Continue using a notepad.
​Write each item you starred on the top of a separate piece of paper.  Spread the papers out on a clear surface.  Then go through your list and add each task to the appropriate project or category.  If you get to a task that doesn't have a project or category, either create a new sheet with a new heading or if it's a standalone task, add it to a sheet titled "miscellaneous."  As you add tasks to project sheets, mark them off the original list.  If you run across a duplicate, just mark it off as well.  Continue until every task has been transferred.

OR

2) Use blank sticky notes
Write each item you starred on a separate sticky note and stick to a large empty table or counter, or better yet, a blank wall.  Then go through your list and write each task on it's own sticky note and stick under the appropriate category.  If you get to a task that doesn't have a project or category, either create a new sticky note for that project, or if it's a standalone task, add it to a  "miscellaneous" category.  As you add tasks to project sheets, mark them off the original list.  If you run across a duplicate, just mark it off as well.  Continue until every task has been transferred.  The beauty of using sticky notes is that it's easy to move a task from one project to another if you change your mind about how you'd like to categorize.

Now that you can physically see all the projects, and tasks that you have on your plate, it's time to get rid of, or delete, some of them!  Scan each project/category for items that are no longer needed or relevant, and mark them out (notepad method) or wad up and throw away (sticky note method.)

​Review remaining tasks for things that someone else can do. You may have taken on a task because you felt obligated or thought you were being helpful, but if you continue to add to your responsibilities you won't be able to complete even your required tasks.  If YOU don't have to be the one to complete a task, consider who could help you, or even do it better than you.  Once you have successfully delegated a task to someone else, mark it off your list!

Finally, look through what's left and select the projects and tasks that can be pushed to the back burner.  I have a "someday/maybe" category that I store these deferred tasks in.  I review these periodically to determine if any should become active again.

Now that you have a somewhat more manageable list to work with, you should enter what you've chosen to keep on your list into a trusted system.  If you already have a task management system, make sure to review what's already included, and mark off the ones that are completed or no longer relevant before you begin adding new projects and tasks.  If you haven't chosen your preferred task management system, you have a lot of options!  You can use a simple notebook, a color coded binder,  or you can go with an electronic option.  In past posts I've talked about a few of my favorite digital options including Nozbe and Trello. 

Regardless what you choose, make sure you can easily prioritize and assign due dates to tasks if needed.  Once you've gotten to this step, maintaining your system is critical.  Make sure to add ALL tasks to your system so you don't have to go through this entire process again!  You should review your system daily so that you are always in tune with what your next action should be on each project.

Over the years, I’ve broken many New Year’s Resolutions by mid-February. There are also many resolutions I've kept, and most of those have all had something in common - they weren’t centered on me, but instead were focused on others. Once I began to make some of my annual resolutions externally focused, I was able to create habits rather than just a temporary routine. ​

An example of an externally focused goal was the resolution to stop thinking so hard about if I should help someone. I decided that if the opportunity presented itself, and I had the ability or means to help someone, I would just do it instead of mulling it over and delaying a decision. Though this was initially focused on others, the benefit to me was great as well - I wasted less time overthinking and learned to confident in my decision making skills.

I’ve also made goals about investing in relationships, and though that benefits me as well, I’m more likely to keep up with it because I feel like I’m letting someone else down if I don’t follow through. Sometimes it’s easier to keep promises to others than it is yourself.

In Gretchen Rubin's book, The Four Tendencies, she explains that everyone responds to expectations differently. She identified four main personality types based on how they respond to inner and outer expectations. Upholders can easily meet outer and inner expectations; Obligers have trouble meeting inner expectations but thrive with outer expectation; Questioners need to ask questions to help make sense out of outer expectations, thus turning them into inner expectations; and Rebels don’t respond to inner or outer expectation - they kind of do what they want when they want. Take the quiz to see what your primary tendency is.

Even if your goal is 100% about you, outward expectations can still help you be successful if you find an accountability partner or join an accountability group. Research shows an increased chance for success when you announce your goal and report on progress regularly. It’s a little harder to let others down than it is to let yourself down - that’s unfortunate, but often true.

But what about a goal that is so private that you don’t want to share it with anyone? Try thinking about your “future self.” This allows you to look from the outside in and think of your future self as almost a different person. You can make a promise to her that you don’t want to break. I love the concept of the future self for goal setting but also for short term motivation. For example we all know it makes sense to prepare the night before to make your mornings go more smoothly, but yet many of us don’t do the prep work regularly. Try thinking about what you owe your future self and how she will feel when you make preparations that will benefit her. This can be for things as insignificant as peeling your orange at home instead of putting whole orange in your lunch bag. Think, “Future me will be so happy she doesn’t have to make a mess peeling this orange at her desk tomorrow when she’s hungry for a snack, and it will help her eat healthier too!”

  ​​
The future self concept gets really, really interesting even beyond the ways we can motivate ourselves in the short term. Harvard psychologist, Dan Gilbert, explains in his TED talk the difference between the ease of remembering and the difficulty of imagining. Most of us can remember who we were but it’s harder to imagine who we are going to be in the future. Gilbert says, “Then we mistakenly think that because it’s hard to imagine, it’s not likely to happen.” You’ve heard the phrase, ‘I can’t imagine that’ and usually this is because of the poor imagination of the person saying it, not the unlikelihood that it will actually happen. That excites me - my future truly can be beyond my imagination!

Whether you become accountable to your future self, to your best friend, or to a group of strangers, that accountability will help you create a long term promise that will form your behavior and decisions in the present and the future - and the beauty is the past doesn’t have to be a limiting factor.   Goals could be in the form of an educational or professional pursuit, a healthy lifestyle, learning a new skill or hobby, or even focusing on developing or improving a relationship. It might be time to rethink this year's resolutions and determine how to make them outwardly focused - even if that focus is yourself in the future! 

Sources

Photo by Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash

Rubin, Gretchen. The Four Tendencies. Random House USA, 2018.

Wissman, Barrett. “An Accountability Partner Makes You Vastly More Likely to Succeed.” Entrepreneur, 20 Mar. 2018, www.entrepreneur.com/article/310062.

​Photo by Taylor Smith on Unsplash

Gilbert, Dan. “The Psychology of Your Future Self.” TED, Mar. 2014, www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_the_psychology_of_your_future_self.

The dictionary definition of productivity is “the effectiveness of effort as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.”  Basically, it means getting the most done in the least amount of time possible. It is tempting to rush to get things done so we can appear productive, but if you do things fast, you may not do them well.

In my eyes, true productivity is getting as much of the right things done — and done well — in the right amount of time while giving yourself grace and time to enjoy your life!  “Right” is a subjective word that varies from person to person.  The “right” things should be tasks that move you forward toward your goal, and the “right” amount of time is the minimum amount of time that it should take to plan, complete prerequisites, and complete the task.

Many times busywork takes most of our time, but doesn’t move the needle.  Email is something that many of us who work in an office setting spend WAY too much time on, but it doesn’t propel us forward.  Unfortunately, tasks like email still need to be done, but they need to be seen as secondary to our true objectives. Developing a system for secondary tasks is crucial so they don’t pile up and impede our progress toward our end goal.  For ideas on how to control your email, read my previous posts on Email Organization and How to Clear Your Inbox After Vacation.

Even when you’ve created a system to handle your secondary tasks, there is still another key to becoming truly productive — planning!   Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, says, “Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent Return on Energy!”  I’ve recently noticed a metaphor in my life that shows how a lack of planning can make a task take longer and have a lower quality outcome.  

I like to bake, but I don’t like to wait for the oven to preheat, so usually, I just turn on the oven when I think of it and as soon as I’m ready, shove the cookies or cake in the oven.  It’s not until several minutes AFTER I’ve put the food into the oven that I hear the beep indicating that it is up to temperature. Chef David James Robinson from Learn How to Cook (and Eat Your Mistakes) explains the importance of preheating, “It’s like stretching before a run, or warming up the car, or letting the water get hot before you shower.  Food cooks unevenly in a cold oven. Your poor dish starts in a cold oven, then it has to deal with a warm oven, then finally a hot oven, it doesn’t know what to do!”

After I’ve put food into a only partially preheated oven, I wait for my food to bake. At the end of the cooking time from the recipe, I check if my food is done.  It’s usually not, so I then have to check on it every couple of minutes until it’s finally firm in the center. The total baking time is longer than the recipe called for because it wasn’t baking at the proper temperature from the beginning. 

A Cook’s Illustrated article told of an experiment comparing preheated and non-preheated ovens.  Cookies that were added to non-preheated oven spread out much more than ones in preheated oven because they were inserted before the oven was at the proper temperature for the dough to set.  Cakes put in too soon came out with crispy or even burnt on the edges by the time the center was cooked through.  

Think about how this applies in your own life.  If you just start without any planning, the total project can end up taking longer because you may have to start over or change course in the middle.  You may not realize all of the supplies or resources you need to be successful so that causes you to pause in the middle and possibly lose your place or your momentum.  In addition to taking longer, the quality of your outcome may suffer because you were unprepared or trying to complete a project without the correct tools.  

Taking the time to “preheat” can help you to recognize potential obstacles and make a plan to overcome them before they become barriers.  You can also avoid mistakes that could require you to start over or repeat work. Additionally it can allow you to work at a steady pace instead of a frenzy at the end when you realize that a lack of planning caused a delay that threatens your ability to meet the deadline.
​
Next time I bake cookies, I am going to preheat that oven just like next time I have a project, I’m going to take the time to plan to save myself time and headaches in the end!  What about you?

Sources
​Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

Robinson, David James. “Do I Really Have to Preheat the Oven?” Learn How To Cook (and Eat Your Mistakes), 2 Feb. 2011, eatyourmistakes.com/in-the-kitchen/do-i-really-have-to-preheat-the-oven.
​
“Why You Should Fully Preheat Before Baking.” Cook's Illustrated, www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/10431-why-you-should-fully-preheat-before-baking.

It's that time of year when most of us are trying to stick to our New Year's resolutions.  Chances are that if you're a woman and you made a resolution, it had something to do with eating healthy or losing weight.  According to an article on inc.com 71% of people who made a New Year's resolution focused on diet or eating healthy. 

Only about 8% of people who vow to make a change in their habits for the New Year are actually successful, so how can you be one of those who meet your goal?  There are many factors in meeting a goal including setting a S.M.A.R.T. goal, creating milestones, monitoring progress, developing new habits, finding someone or a group to encourage you and keep you accountable, and avoiding obstacles.

Today I'm going to focus on two of these factors - developing new habits and avoiding obstacles - and how organizing your refrigerator can help you accomplish your resolution to eat healthier!  ​

Avoiding Obstacles
One way to avoid obstacles is to remove temptation.  When you give into temptation, you might say you have no willpower.  Give yourself a little more credit - it's not that you have NO willpower, it's that willpower is a limited resource.  An American Psychological Association article suggests that willpower is similar to a muscle that can get fatigued from overuse.  We use willpower all day every day whether it's forcing ourselves not to daydream when we should be paying attention in a meeting, not blurting out what we are really thinking when it would be inappropriate, or choosing an apple over a chocolate chip cookie.  All of these instances take energy, and the more we can remove temptation, the less work it is to make good choices throughout our days.

In your refrigerator, you can easily remove temptation by cleaning out the items that are unhealthy or not on your eating plan.  Well....this is easy if you live alone and no one else has to eat out of your fridge!  But even if you have a family not on the healthy eating train, you can still make this work (especially if you are the one who buys the groceries!)  First, eliminate the items that no one needs.  Examples could be sugary drinks, desserts, condiments high in sugar, etc.  Then designate a few areas of the fridge that you are "allowed" to eat from.  Guard these areas and only allow foods that you should eat to go in them.  In my fridge, I eat mostly out of the crisper drawers and the bottom shelf.  This concept applies to your pantry as well.

The second way to avoid obstacles is to make it more convenient to make good choices.  Rearrange your fridge so good foods are easy to access.  Consider a small lazy susan to help you get to items in the back of the shelves more easily.  Remove packaging and prewash and cut fruits and veggies.  Having clean, cut strawberries makes it much easier to choose them over a packaged treat when you don't have to spend extra time cleaning and cutting them when you are hungry!

Group foods that you use to together.  For example if you make smoothies for breakfast like I do, put all of your refrigerated ingredients together.  Use bins to make it even easier on yourself so you can simply pull out one bin, put it on the counter, and have everything you need for your breakfast.  I prefer clear bins so you can stack items, but still see what is in the bottom.   If you make a lot of salads, you could use one crisper drawer for all of your cleaned, cut up veggies and proteins.

Developing New Habits
Another critical component to achieving a goal is developing new habits.  Don't think of a habit as something big like "eating healthy," but rather the tiny things you do that lead to milestones along your journey toward your goal.  When it comes to a healthy lifestyle, little habits related to your refrigerator can be very helpful.
​
Some of these habits do double duty and also help you avoid obstacles - win, win!  

• Go through leftovers and produce at least weekly and throw out the old BEFORE you go to the grocery store so you know what you need and have room for.
• Meal plan BEFORE going to the grocery store by planning around what you already have in your refrigerator or freezer.
• Clean fruits and veggies (and cut up if necessary) before putting them away.  Add a paper towel to the container you store them in to absorb the moisture from washing.  You can change the paper towel every few days to help your food stay fresher longer.  I even do this in bags of pre-washed salads.  Don't be afraid to store fruits in the plastic, clam-shell containers they come in.  Just wash them well, put a paper towel on the bottom, and add clean fruit.  I like to write CLEAN in sharpie on the top to remind myself these are good to go!
• Cut produce to make it fit in your space.  For example, I often cut the tops off of celery if it is too long to fit in my crisper drawer.  It's annoying to fight with the drawer, and if it's not easy to access, you may avoid eating the good food it contains!
• Remove packaging from foods before putting them in fridge.  If items are more convenient when they stay in a box, tear off the flaps for easy access.  Recycle any cardboard packaging.
• FIFO - first in first out.  When you are down to your last yogurt and buy a new package, make sure to put the oldest one at the front so you don't let it spoil.  Using all that you buy keeps your grocery bill down and removes the obstacle of "healthy eating is too expensive."  I also use this concept for eggs if I have more than one carton, newest ones go under the oldest ones.  You can stack several egg cartons and use vertical space on your shelf!

• Keep like items in bins (preferably clear ones) so it's easy to put away and find items.  When you use bins, you can better use all the space in the back of your fridge because you can just pull out the front bin to access what's in back instead of having to juggle items while you try to access the back.
• Add items to a grocery list when you notice them getting low.  If you wait until you're completely out of something, it's very easy to revert to unhealthy eating when you don't have a good option in front of you.  I use a Google Home speaker so it's really easy to just say aloud what needs added, and then I can access the list on my phone at the store.
• Keep clips near the fridge so it's easy to securely fasten partially used items.  This helps food stay fresher longer.  I use freebie chip clips and even cheap wooden clothes pins to secure bags of pre-washed salads.
• Use stackable containers for leftovers.  I love my stackable Rubbermaid containers with lids that fit multiple sizes of containers and stack securely.  They are also clear so I can see what's in them.  Stacking items uses the vertical space on your shelves and allows you to fit more healthy food in your fridge.
• Label foods that are in solid colored containers or ones you want to make sure you know how old they are.  I like a label maker, but a piece of masking tape and a sharpie work just as well!

 
If you can get into these refrigerator related habits, you will have a better chance of being successful with your healthy eating plan!

If you would like to increase your chances of meeting your goals by joining other women for encouragement and accountability, consider joining the Achieve! program.  Registrations for the February/March 2020 session are still open! 

Sources
Economy, Peter. “10 Top New Year's Resolutions for Success and Happiness in 2019.” Inc.com, Inc., 1 Jan. 2019, www.inc.com/peter-economy/10-top-new-years-resolutions-for-success-happiness-in-2019.html
Weir, Kirsten. “What You Need to Know about Willpower: The Psychological Science of Self-Control.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, 2012, www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower.

It's the first full week of the new year, and I'm on-fire motivated to meet my goals.  I'm so darn excited about what I want to achieve this year that I want it all to happen right now!  I was reminded yesterday that just because I haven't seen immediate progress on my first goal of the year, doesn't mean I'm a failure or that I'm not going to achieve it.  Thank goodness for good friends who can see things from the outside looking in and remind me of that!  This got me thinking about what strategies I could employ this year to not only be successful at achieving my goals, but also to give myself grace along the way.  Here's what I've come up with:

Give Yourself Time
​The T in a SMART goal stands for time bound, and I need to remember that even though I may be able to complete each of my individual goals in 6 weeks, I can't do them all in the SAME 6 weeks.  I want to keep that fire in my belly, so I need to be careful not to let it burn to quickly and extinguish that flame.

Recognize All Achievements
Even small victories are worth celebrating.  Though I may not have gotten 100 people to attend my webinar on the first day it was launched, I did have one person who watched!  That's something to be proud of, learn from, and build upon.

​Keeping a "done" list is a great way to remind yourself of how far you've come and how much you've accomplished.  A done list is the to-do list's counterpart.  You can still keep your traditional to-do list, but start a list of everything you've completed.  This will give you a sense of accomplishment, and it tends to create momentum.

Walk Away
Sometimes when you get head-down into a goal, you become so focused on a certain outcome that you don' take time for your other responsibilities or relationships.  Laser-focus is a great thing, but not at the expense of what matters most to us.  Walking away from your goal even for an hour or two and spending that time doing something productive or interacting with your family or friends will provide you a better perspective and a refreshed sense of purpose when you get back to it.

Another option is to set certain time frames that you dedicate to your goal so that during other parts of the day or week you don't feel like you're losing precious time. This can also set expectations with your family and friend so they aren't upset when you are busy working toward your goal.

Tell Someone
This is the best (and easiest) tip by far — get a mentor, a sounding board, or better yet join a group of them!  Achieving your goals increases by 95% when you check in regularly with someone about your goal.  This person or group can keep you accountable no only for working toward your goal, but for being realistic with your own expectations.  If you're looking for a group like this to encourage you and keep you accountable, check out the Achieve! program that launches in February.
​