Is It Time To Tweak Your Routine?

I feel like I talk all the time about Routines. I think about them often and how to make mine work better for me. And I spend a lot of time during presentations and coaching calls discussing the importance and creation of Routines for others.

Maybe I do talk about them all the time, though – after a brief review – I don’t seem to bring it up here on my blog space very often.

I am tweaking my own Routines this week and this month, and I thought I would bring you all along for the ride.

What are our Routines? Our routines are the set of tasks we set about doing on a regular basis – daily, weekly, monthly, etc. – that help us handle the essentials of survival and maintenance in our life and / or our work.

Routines:

  • provide structure to our days, should we need it;
  • ensure that essential tasks are completed as often as necessary;
  • help us stay balanced and make sense of life and work;
  • save us time, help us be productive, eliminate stress;
  • are a great foundation for anything else that needs to happen daily or weekly.

We create routines through repetition. Our routines are attached to certain times of day – “I get out of bed at 6 and take a walk”; or certain events – “I take a shower and change my clothes when I get home from a client appointment”. And our routines are tools – tools to make our life run more smoothly. Or building blocks, providing a strong foundation.

Routines are habits, but they can also be changed or improved as changes in life requires them to change. And let’s face it, life has required many changes recently.

I tweaked my routines back in March as my state’s shelter-in-place orders began, and I usually tweak my routines for summer, as school and kid schedules change, so I know it is time! I can sense a change, a need to review and re-establish my routines when things start to feel a little out of sync, just a little wrong. As though I’m wearing the right shoes but on the wrong feet.

So, how to make changes? Or create a routine from the beginning?

Start with Needs.

I need to take a walk every day for optimal health, I need to take my supplements. I NEED to do these things, but the WHEN is more flexible.

During the school year or when my husband actually has to drive downtown, we walk at 5 am. Lately, it’s more like 6:15. Needs remain the same, WHEN can change.

List out your needs. You can list all your needs for the day, but I will start with morning. My morning (anything between waking up and starting my work day) Needs may include, in no particular order:

  • take a walk;
  • take my supplements;
  • make my bed;
  • make sure I have something planned for dinner (maybe even start something in the crock pot);
  • pray;
  • shower and get ready for my day;
  • start a load of laundry;
  • water my garden;
  • You get the picture.

Your list may be longer or shorter, and may contain tasks my list does not. And that’s just how it should be.

Next, assign any specific times to your needs and then put them in a logical order. Looking at the example above, I might order them like this…

  • 6:15 am Take a walk;
  • water my garden (when I get home from my walk, since I’m outside);
  • shower and get ready for my day (because it’s hot and I’m sweaty after my walk);
  • make my bed;
  • start a load of laundry;
  • take my supplements (coupled with the dinner planning, since I’m in the kitchen);
  • make sure I have something planned for dinner (maybe even start something in the crock pot);
  • pray (I do this at my desk, usually when I sit down to start working);
  • 8 am Start my work day.

Perhaps you have different routines for different times of day. I have personal or house specific routines around dinner time and bed time, and they are created the same way – start with needs, move on to times and convenient bundling.

And perhaps a routine for your work day would help you be more productive? Same process!

I suggest both a daily and weekly routine for work place productivity. My day-to-day schedule can change – today was not a typical Tuesday (I started with a 1.5 hour coaching call and then sang for a funeral), but the first few tasks I complete every day when I sit down at my computer – check email, check business social media accounts, confirm tomorrow’s clients – are the same whether I start at 8 am or noon.

When it comes to a weekly routine, I find it helpful to assign tasks to each day, for example:

  • Monday – strategic planning, client care
  • Tuesday – write article and publish newsletter
  • Wednesday – update website and social media
  • Thursday – check in around presentations
  • Friday – billing and invoices

If this idea works for you, great! Fill in your own essential tasks instead of mine. Just like a daily routine, having a weekly routine around NEEDS, in this case the NEEDS of my business, ensures the continued health and productivity of my business.

So, how can you tweak your routines this week? Determine your needs for your self and your home and your work. Make sure the Needs that need to be met daily are added to your routines, and the same for weekly.

Choose the best time for your routine tasks to be completed. Are you a morning person? A night owl? Maybe you hit your stride late in the day?

Look around – is there anyone in your house or office better equipped to do a certain task? Maybe there are tasks you can delegate!

Put your tasks in an order that saves time or makes sense. Try it out for a week or two and make sure it’s working for you! And expect you will need to review your routines every few months to make adjustments accordingly!

I will be working on my own daily and weekly routines this week, too! I know we will all be better off after spending a little time figuring out the best way to spend our time! Cheers!

Let’s Decide Now How the Next Few Months Will Go

Setting goals is a great way to make progress in life. Personal, professional, spiritual, wellness, you name it. The process lends clarity to our efforts, and provides deadlines and motivational boosts.

Today we are half way through 2020. Wow – July begins tomorrow! This should be a great day and time to set goals in your focus areas, move forward, do big things, etc…. But that feels heavy right now, doesn’t it?

Is it safe to say – the last few months weren’t what you expected? Personally, I know that to be the truth. If you set goals for 2020 back in January, perhaps you have made progress, or perhaps you barely recognize your reality today.

In business, we often look at the year by quarters. So, 2nd Quarter (Q2) of 2020 was April / May / June. And I can say with certainty that Q2 2020 was incomparable to any other quarter before. Ever. In business and in life. We saw it coming, back in Q1 2020. But let’s face it, we didn’t know really know what was coming.

2 Quarters completed, 2 Quarters to go

I’ve had two coaching conversations in the last 2 days about 3rd Quarter Goal Setting, 2020. And what both conversations had in common was that all parties involved – me and my two coaching partners – agreed that setting Q3 goals feels WAY TOO BIG for right now.

There are still unknowns. A LOT of unknowns. We’re still feeling our way through Phase 4 reopening here in Illinois. We’re carefully placing our feet for the next step on the path.

Goal!

Despite the unknowns, I still want to set goals for Q3 and Q4 2020 and I suggest you do the same. However, here are some things to think about as you set them!

What are your focus areas? I can’t answer this one for you, but as an example, mine are:
Wellness, Family, Home, Personal, Business, Educate Me and Service.
I set goals regularly in each of these focus areas. The “Focus” in focus areas works both ways – I only set goals that fit into one of these focus areas, AND I set goals in each of these areas. In theory, that means nothing gets neglected AND I make progress in the areas of my life I’ve decided are important.

For July, instead a few large goals, I am setting more incremental goals for smaller time frames. I am more likely to succeed on those smaller but more plentiful goals, and I will feel the motivation boost that comes from DONE! more often. (Today, a client and I deemed that boost ‘a happy dance’!)

Because I cannot control the world or others, I am setting goals that I actually can influence. For example, I’ll look at my own wellness, habits and internal growth. A goal for July may be schedule 10 Presentations for the second half of 2020, but perhaps those will be presentations I host myself. I won’t set a goal to “make new coaching clients call me”, but I can set a July goal to update my website and social media to include language about coaching.

Smaller goals allow for more flexibility, too, for mid-journey course corrections or adding new goals into the mix as life or circumstances dictate. Unfortunately, there is still uncertainty looking ahead at Quarter 3. But we can choose to make progress on our own goals in our own way at our own pace.

So, my friends, what will your next month look like? Your next quarter or half a year? Setting goals will help you determine your own future despite the “unknowns” we still face! So let’s get to it!

The Post-Deadline Lies We Tell Ourselves

Have you ever had these thoughts before:

“I can’t wait to finish this project… life will be so much easier when it is done.”

“I’ll have so much free time when this semester is over.”

“Wow, whatever will I do with all my free time after this project / deadline, etc.?”

Or, “After the holidays, things will finally settle down.”

A friend and client brought this up to me years ago – the game she plays when she is in the middle of a semester (she is a teacher) or writing an article: the “when I finish this, I will finally be able to slow down / take a break / relax for a while / few days / few months” game. But that break never seems to happen.

We work and work towards a deadline, and think fondly though fleetingly about how nice and relaxing it will be once that deadline is met and the project is complete. And then we complete the project and meet the deadline, yeah! Great, Way to Go!!

However…then the basic survival and maintenance tasks we have neglected while we hustled to meet our deadline clamor for our attention. The house is sort of a mess, the cabinets are a little bare, the desk top or work space is strewn with project remnants and papers, the laundry has piled up and your in-box is atrocious.

Plus, the other projects that have been neglected while we finish come rushing forward for our attention and we end up right back into overwhelm. There – can you see it? – the next deadline / project is already looming on the horizon! Agh!

So, what could we do instead?

When the deadline is successfully met, article submitted, we can revel for a bit in the glow of “Done”, “Finished”, “Accomplished”, before jumping into the next big project.

We can take some time to take care of those survival and maintenance tasks. Grab some lunch, some water, a break outside in the sunlight. Take a shower and start that load of laundry!

We can factor in recovery time (I am saying this to you and to my self). I am slowly and with resistance learning that we need to factor in recovery time after major efforts. Talking with a friend, they spent an entire weekend day tackling yard tasks and were sore. So the next day, they laid low and took it easy. Recovery.

We can find some closure around the project or semester or article or whatever that big THING was that you’ve been working on. Clean up your work space, file your papers or info, leave yourself a few notes for follow-up, send a few thank you’s to folks who lent a hand. Take a few deep breaths and smile.

We can clean out our brain with a 30- minute cranial cleanse of non-project related tasks and ideas, or collect any notes-for-someday you may have written yourself while in the throes of that project. For next time, keep a bullet journal or make notes in an Evernote or Google doc as random thoughts occur to you and save them for later so as not to distract from your deadline!

And during your next brief down-time, look ahead and schedule some of these catch-up tasks for yourself post-deadline. We can leave ourselves a plan, maybe a check list of self-care, recovery and clean up tasks, to give our tired post-deadline brain and body a break!

The Payton Jersey or the Sunrise Picture? (Organize you and your space for virtual meetings)

We should probably get good at Zoom calls. Even when social distancing is relaxed, many groups and businesses may still use virtual meetings and webinars to connect participants and members. I miss meeting with people in person, but I also recognize the benefits of virtual meetings and webinars, so I imagine some combination of in-person and on-line as we all go forward.

And, of course, as I offer suggestions about getting better at virtual calls, I’m not talking just about Zoom. These suggestions could work for Google Meet, Skype, FaceTime, etc.!

Load your virtual meeting app(s) on all your devices. Because sometimes tech fails or hits a snag. Or your device isn’t fully charged and you don’t realize that until 2 seconds before this week’s virtual staff meeting. It is good to have options.

Look around you, and look through your camera’s lens:

  • Early on in this social distancing time, I considered what I want people to see around me as I attend webinars. (A friend shared on FB how her parents were attending family Zoom calls but the camera was always pointed at the ceiling fan.)
  • While you ARE NOT ON A CALL, try out different spaces in your home for the best vantage point of what is behind you. Turn the camera on your laptop / iPad on and take a tour to find a nice backdrop. Perhaps you like the framed Chicago sports pictures on the wall behind your couch, or a warm and cozy bookshelf look in your office, or the nondescript sunset picture on your bedroom wall (just so long as it doesn’t look like a bedroom wall – awkward!).
  • Make sure you choose a backdrop that won’t change – like if your backdrop is near a door where people might wander through during your call!
  • Check your devices for the best camera. After some research (read “trial and error”), we determined my Ipad camera is better than my laptop camera. If I am presenting and need to share my screen for a handout, then I need to use my laptop. But for a better camera, I can use my Ipad.

OR… Consider Using a Virtual Background.

  • Also in the first weeks of this strange time, I tried out virtual backgrounds for my Zoom calls. I quickly discovered my laptop camera did not support virtual backgrounds without a green screen (which I did not have). If you’ve looked lately, on-line vendors aren’t shipping green screens until August.
  • My first solution was to create a green screen using green foam board, green masking tape and binder clips from a local office or educational supply store to mount the whole thing on the wall behind me. This works well!
  • The other solution is for Zoom calls that I attend (but not deliver). I attend on my iPad for that better camera, to support the background better with or without the green screen.
  • Plan ahead for the virtual background, and BEFORE your next meeting populate your saved photos for virtual backgrounds.

Once you have chosen your space, pay attention to lighting.

  • Don’t use overhead lighting, it casts unflattering shadows.
  • Don’t rely on daylight since much can change in an hour.
  • Use soft lighting in front of your face or to each side (almost equally).
  • Lighting is one of those areas in which the following is true: “You won’t notice it if it is good, but you will certainly notice if it is bad.”

Bring Your Supplies With You. If your chosen space is not your usual seating spot (one of mine is at my desk but the other is in a different room where I can close the door), plan to bring supplies with you. I have a tray for my stuff that I need during my own virtual presentations. The tray hold tissues, water or tea, my phone and charger if necessary, laptop and mouse, iPad and stand, etc.

Practice, practice, practice. After you’ve added the apps to your devices, start a meeting on one, invite yourself and join from the other devices, and get used to navigating between them, choose the better and view, etc. If you have been in a call having technical difficulties, you know you don’t want to be that person!

Spend a little time and practice this week to put your best virtual self forward!

Is the Phone Really Dead?

Someone: “My phone is dead.”

Me:  “Is the phone really dead?”

Someone: “Yes, it won’t charge.  It doesn’t hold a charge.  The charging light doesn’t even go on.  Tried it a couple of times, the phone is dead.”

Me: “Let’s break it down.  The problem might not be the phone, that is just the part we see.  The problem could be the phone (the most expensive item to replace, of course!), but it could also be

  • the cord, 
  • the cube, 
  • the outlet, 
  • the connection between any of these components, or
  • in many cases sometimes, ‘user error’ (a nice way to say I or you may be the problem).”
  • And the problem was the charging cube, in case you were wondering.  The phone recharged and works fine.

I love a good challenge.  I love to solve mysteries and problems like this.  And yes, sometimes, the phone really is dead and the problem is exactly what it presents itself to be.

But sometimes it is not.

“Is the ceiling fan really dead?”

“… It doesn’t turn and the light won’t turn on.”

Yes, but is the ceiling fan the problem, or:

  • Is there something wrong with the wall switch?
  • Is the circuit tripped?
  • Is it the on-off switch on the fan?
  • Is it the connections in or out of any of these?
  • (turns out, it was the connections in the ceiling to the base unit).

My handy husband and son spent an hour and solved the mystery a few weeks ago instead of just going out and spending money on a new fan which wouldn’t have worked either, because the problem was in the connections in the ceiling.

This works on more subjective challenges, too. 

“Hmmm, This person and I don’t seem to be communicating well.”  Is the problem with

  • the message? (one of you doesn’t want to hear it or want to say it?); 
  • how it is being said? (the tone, the jargon)
  • the method of communication?  (you would prefer to text, the other person prefers to talk on the phone)
  • the timing? (the sender or receiver is distracted by something else more important or urgent)
  • something even more  personal or subjective with either the sender or receiver that has nothing to do with the process or method?

If you have a problem to solve, whether it is objective, like fixing a cell phone or ceiling fan, or more subjective like interpersonal communications, it pays to take a moment and break down the problem into smaller pieces that can be examined on their own.  Perhaps the solution is right in front of you!

Use Small Steps to Measure Your Organizational Success

On a zoom call yesterday, a class participant asked “How should we measure progress in our organizing?”

What a great question. I was so excited she asked, and in that moment I realized that question would also make a great blog article topic for this week!

The short and truthful answer is

“Incrementally.”

As in, please measure your organizing progress in small increments instead of broad and large sweeping content.

Just last week, I suggested in my blog that we should all craft our Done List in this Strange Time. And I absolutely still mean that!

But Done can look different from person to person, project to project and even day to day.

So let’s talk about Incremental Progress instead of only Completion.

If you break down a large organizing project, it becomes easy to see that large projects are made up of many smaller projects. For example, if my large goal is to “Organize My 15 Year-old’s Room With Him”, some of the smaller projects I can cross off my list might be:

  • Order new platform bed and risers (Done)
  • Clean out the old toys in containers under the bed (Done)
  • review and re-organize the bookshelves (Done)
  • Move empty bookshelves downstairs (Done)
  • Assemble new bed and risers when they arrive (Done)
  • Order chair and new comforter (in process)

We are making progress – actually, he is making progress, as he has done most of the work himself! – and crossed many tasks off the list. Are we DONE with the WHOLE PROJECT? No. Are we making really good and completely satisfactory progress? Yep.

In working with a virtual organizing client lately, she and I discuss the cascade effect of organizing projects. More truthfully, I refer to it as the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” effect. Are you familiar with this children’s book series? The book tells the story of cascading tasks…

“If you give a mouse of cookie, he will want a glass of milk.
If you give him a glass of milk he will probably ask for a straw.
When he is finished, he will ask for a napkin.
Then he will ask for a mirror, to make sure he doesn’t have a milk moustache.” etc..

The point is this: often when we move through our organizing projects, we realize that the path is not straight. Given the example above, I had a few steps to complete before my son could move forward. Also on my task list was “make room in storage room on bookshelves for John’s children’s books that he wants to keep” which meant I needed to review my books and purge some, and while I was at it, organize the books by category, etc., etc.

All of these tasks are moving us towards a broad goal, but they don’t all happen at once. If we only celebrated completely finished big projects, we wouldn’t celebrate very often and our motivation might lag.

Then, there is the subject of Maintenance. (More on Maintenance Here) Usually, our projects don’t stay completed. We have to maintain our progress, and often tweak or update the progress we have made. Just because I went through my books last week and purged a bag doesn’t mean that I will never again have to review and purge my books. That doesn’t mean that I did it wrong or incompletely: more books may come, some books will get loaned out, my interests will change. The task is DONE, and done well, but it will someday need to be done again. Maintenance is part of the organizing process.

In this strange Pause time, it is even more important to measure our success incrementally. I have tackled MANY organizing projects in the last month but I also spend a whole lot of time on Maintenance. And I, like you, find more areas I want to organize as I work through my days. The cool part about this Pause time (yes, the Cool Part!) is that some days I have the time to tackle that new project when it pops up!

To finish answering my class participant’s question, Measure your progress in incremental steps. Celebrate progress towards a goal. Set your time and work for half an hour and see how much work you can get done in that time. Don’t worry about or get hung up on only completion or perfectionism. Just start, and celebrate when you can!

Create a “Done List”, In This Strange Pause Time.

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I want to talk again about lists! (see my article from 2 weeks ago, It’s Time to Make Your Some Day Soon list).

This week, I challenge you to start your Done List. In the past two days, I’ve had two conversations about Done Lists. I LOVE a good Done List. Not a To-Do list of what still needs to be accomplished, but a DONE List, of accomplished tasks and completed goals. (Woot Woot!!)

There are lots of benefits to creating and keeping a Done List. Every week I share a Done List with my accountability partner, where I get to share successes from the last week based on my goals. A mini-celebration, if you’d like, with imaginary confetti and fan fare in my head. I get to share my Done List, re-assess what still needs to get accomplished, and craft this week’s plan. But first I get to celebrate!

What are some benefits of the Done List?

  • Dopamine boost that comes with a sense of accomplishment;
  • acknowledgement of learning;
  • release and stress relief from met deadlines;
  • a clear conscience!

Have you noticed? Time is passing strangely – the hours pass slowly but the days pass quickly. As the days pass without acknowledgement, our efforts could also pass without notice.

I have been amazed, though, by what people are accomplishing during this Pause Time. Big things, little things. We are all finding new and interesting ways to do our regular stuff, and also new and interesting ways to do new and interesting things. People are growing beyond their comfort zones and stepping up to help as needs require. Way to go, everyone!

Here is a little piece of my own Social Isolation Done List so far (in no particular order)? I…

  • successfully made yeast bread after years of telling myself I didn’t know how;
  • caught up on my VIRTUS training modules (there were many!);
  • took LOTS of Zoom webinars to find out how to host Zoom Webinars;
  • presented my first and then many more presentations as Webinars on Zoom (has been on my to-do list for years!);
  • recorded and shared a newly created Webinar with a training center just this morning;
  • transitioned many in-person clients to virtual organizing and coaching (also on my list for years!);
  • cantored for two Masses that were recorded and / or live-streamed for Holy Week;
  • made progress on the back-log of my non-fiction reading pile;
  • started to learn to play the ukelele;
  • attended meetings virtually last week that I can never seem to find time for in a normal week; and
  • cleaned up the yard for Spring.

Maybe your Done List is simpler: “Worked, maybe a lot; served others; made it through today; found beauty where I could; reached out and made connections with loved ones.” All important and noteworthy.

The point is, tracking our accomplishments can help us to find positivity and hope in this strange unsettled time. Days are passing without our usual noteworthy experiences – how many birthdays have already been celebrated without the parties, how many events have been rescheduled or cancelled all together? Weekends look different now, and may look remarkably like any other day.

So, my friends, make a conscious decision to create and maintain your Done List this week. Appreciate your own efforts and applaud your own accomplishments, with a little (or a lot of) celebration!

What Do Instant Coffee and Travel Sized Toothpaste Have in Common?

I drank instant coffee yesterday morning. It wasn’t too bad, actually, Starbuck’s Via Dark Roast. I keep some packets on hand for when I travel, just in case there is not morning coffee at my destination.

Goodness knows I’m not traveling this week, so what gives?

(And Why?! do my posts seem to involve coffee, pictures of coffee or drinking coffee?!)

Here’s the thing. I inventoried my kitchen cabinets before a grocery trip over the weekend, and I noticed the coffee packets were nearing their expiration date. Obvious next action, use them up before they expire.

In keeping with the coffee topic, I started out this social isolation by using up ground coffee in my french press. Why? To use up open inventory and clear clutter before returning to my usual K-Cups in the morning. My Intelligentsia coffee beans are still in the freezer, they will last a long time in there.

(For more information about using up your food inventory, check out last my article from a few weeks ago, “Menu Planning: This Just Got Real”.)

HOWEVER, this is not about coffee. Today’s topic is inventory management.

I know why I talk about coffee, but Why am I talking about Inventory Management? Because utilizing the items we already have in our home is the best way to save money, save time, clear clutter, waste less, make better choices, flatten the curve, etc.

I’m also using travel sized toothpaste right now. Who knows why we have 6 of them, but I’m using up those before I start on any new full sized tubes.

I mentioned inventory management to a coaching client yesterday. She was adding “finish organizing the bathroom” to her plan for the week, and when I brought up inventory management, she said “Yes! I always seem to tuck things away in clever places but then can’t find them again when I need them!”

Yep.

So, to save money and time, clear clutter, waste less, etc., here’s what to do this week!

Find Your Inventory!

Corral all your stuff by category. For example, the toiletry category, like soaps, shampoos and toothpaste. Other home inventory categories could be cleaning supplies, light bulbs, paper goods and the like.

Check the medicine cabinet, the linen closets, under bathroom sinks or in bathroom drawers, the travel bags and where else? Where does that stuff land in YOUR home?

Bring it all together, open or still sealed, on the bathroom counter or the kitchen table if you need more space. Sort the broad toiletry category into sub-category piles, like soaps, shampoo, dental, personal care, etc.

Purge the Stuff That HAS TO GO.

If you have a 5 year -old partial bottle of conditioner that has turned lumpy and smells funny – would you actually put that on your head? (No. The Answer is No.) Purge the old and the empty, recycling containers if you can. Pet shampoo when you don’t own a pet? Old shower poofs or loofahs? Go, go, go.

Establish a Designated Location For Your Home Inventory.

Some folks like to keep a stash of toiletries in every bathroom, and I understand that … sort of. I find that having multiple locations in your home for stashing inventory is what makes inventory management so difficult. So, choose a spot or maybe 2 – one on each floor of your home, perhaps? And store your unopened inventory in that spot, to stock the spaces where you use it when you need it.

Plan to Use The Open Stuff First.

Stock your storage space like a store. Freshest (items with expiration dates farthest in the future) inventory goes to the back of the shelf, with inventory that needs to be used before it goes to waste moves to the front. If we are talking about those other categories of inventories, like cleaning supplies or paper goods, place partial containers at the front and use them first.

Check Your Stock Before You Restock.

Get in the habit of checking your Inventory before you shop.

Use the empty spot to alert you to when something needs to be replaced or reordered. If the “bleach” spot on my chrome shelves in the laundry room is empty, I know it’s time to buy bleach. If the cup of new tooth brushes in my toiletries bin is empty, it’s time to buy toothbrushes.

DON’T BUY MORE UNLESS YOU NEED IT!!

Just like retailers or manufacturers, Know your re-order point, and recognize that stuff takes longer to arrive these days, whether you go out and shop for it or order on-line. For example, over the weekend I ordered more dishwasher detergent pods. We’re not out of them yet but we will be in a week and shipping takes longer than it used to, so I placed my order.

Do your home and your $$ a favor, and spend some time setting up your inventory management this week. Get the most out of what you already have and clear some clutter while you’re at it!

It’s Time To Make A “Some Day Soon” List

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Friends, this, too, shall pass! Notes for Some Day Soon.

I’ve suggested before to create a Future To Do List. 

Most Decembers, for example, I suggest that folks make a “January List” for the things that we can put off until after the holidays.  We want to keep the ideas as they occur to us, but we might not need to act on them until the New Year, in that case.

Personally, I have a rolling Master To Do List for most facets of my life. 

What that means is that I have, in an online platform called Evernote, a Master To Do List that contains my tasks for family life, home maintenance and improvements, Ministries and Public Service, plus all facets of my business and my own self-improvement.   This makes it easy to move tasks around the Evernote document as I complete a task or need to move it to next week, etc.  

As I write all that, I realize it may sound nutty to keep all that info in one document, but this practice really helps me to track tasks and projects each day, week, month, etc..  And I’ve tried keeping separate lists for each area of interest, but then I forget to regularly check them.  This just works best for me.  

But here is the snag, friends.  While I typically complete a one-time task and then remove it, or move ahead a recurring task to a specific week or day in the future, I am facing a new and (admittedly) uncomfortable new category.  The “Some Day Soon When We Can Return to Normal” task category.

You know what I am talking about.  

  • The events that we have had to postpone due to social distancing. 
  • The appointments we need to set up once offices and service providers are open again.
  • For me, the in-person client appointments that I’ve had to cancel, and presentations that have been put on hold.
  • The actions that we have promised ourselves in these rougher times that we are ABSOLUTELY going to do when we can again!

But we don’t know yet when that will be. So I want to keep the ideas until me and the world are ready to take action on them again.

My challenge to you this week is to start and then add to  your Some Day Soon List.

  • Work or medical or personal appointments to reschedule.
  • People to meet up with (not just connect virtually).
  • Non-essential errands to run.   
  • Service people needed, like the tree I need planted in my front year, or having the plumber or electrician out.
  • Birthdays to celebrate in person!

Maybe it’s a wish list!  

  • That Some Day soon, I will drive to Michigan and hug my parents and siblings and families.
  • That Some Day soon, I will spontaneously hug friends at the grocery when I see them.
  • That Some Day soon, I will go to restaurants and sit and soak in the ambiance and linger over dessert.
  • That Some Day soon, I will go to a movie theater, or enjoy our Broadway in Chicago membership again.
  • That Some Day soon, I will go to church.  I will bask in the peace, I will thrive on the energy, I will sing and pray with others. 
  • That Some Day Soon, I will do something as simple as go to my favorite local bakery to virtually work from their booth while enjoying the people and the steady supply of hot coffee.

I think of this list as Hopeful and Happy, and I hope you feel the same.  This strange and awkward time will pass.  For my own sanity and outlook, I have to believe it will.  And when it does, we will emerge better and stronger and more grateful for what we have.  And we will be ready to take action on all these ideas and wishes we make now!


Meal Planning: This Just Got Real.

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These are interesting times we’re living in right now. I have written and presented A LOT about Menu Planning and Strategic Food Prep, etc., but these ideas have gained special importance over the last few weeks.

You bought the food, now what are you doing with it?

If you didn’t inventory your stock on hand before you bought all your groceries over the last few weeks, you really need to do that now.

Sort like items together, pulling the foods from all the areas in your house it might be stashed or stockpiled

Check expiration dates on all of your food, cabinet / fridge and freezer! Pay close attention to expiration dates, friends. Even in this uncertain time – perhaps ESPECIALLY now – saving money over an expired can of tuna could land you with a case of food poisoning.

Rotate your inventory like a store, meaning put all that new food you’ve recently purchased at the back of your inventory in the cabinet / fridge / freezer and pull the older food towards the front to be used up sooner.

What to eat first:

Eat your leftovers first. I issued a moratorium on throwing out leftovers. With our current status around here, it’s even more important that we not waste food. Check the pantry, too, and use up what is open first.

This is the actual note I left my family members the other day, with the board placed under a bag of crackers left on the counter overnight with TWO crackers in it, a loaf of soda bread with ONE slice left, and a bag of 6 banana mini-muffins in it left open on the counter. (grrrr…..)

Finish. The. Bag. And then throw it away!


(And I’ve already reminded all the young adults in my house to NOT EAT ALL THE SNACKS in the first few days!)

Make your plan: I am not necessarily assigning meals to dates just now, but I have on hand the ingredients to make the following:

chicken pie, shepherds pie, baked ziti, crock pot – chicken tacos (today), beef stew / home made bread, crock pot – creamy chicken and rice soup, bacon-potato soup with cheddar, pork roast and risotto, pork chops and ??, chicken breasts and ??, spaghetti and meatballs, breakfast for dinner, crock pot chili, beans and rice (Friday).

Most of these meals rely heavily on frozen meats and veggies (which will last for months), non-perishable pantry items and some fresh produce that I’ll need to use in the next week, choosing those recipes first – hence the chicken tacos today!

In this new normal where we find ourselves, I have to think about having lunch food on hand, too, which is new. Granted, around here, planning for lunches means making sure we have sandwich stuff, leftovers or make-your-own-breakfast stuff available.

We’re actually having some adventures in cooking, since we have the time! I made french bread from scratch the other day, which was time consuming but so gratifying and delicious, paired with my home made beef stew! And now that I found bags of caramels at the store this morning, my sons are planning to bake some type of new cookie they want to try (works for me!).

I hope these ideas help you to get a handle on your own kitchen inventory and your meal planning! I wish you all good health – physical, emotional and spiritual!