Tag: commute

Managing Transitions: Coming Home. Do Future You a Favor!

At first draft, this post was going to be called “Don’t Drop Your Stuff In a Heap!”, but that seemed a little too rude.

Imagine with me… It’s the end of your work day.  You get home tired, hungry, perhaps a little frazzled.  Your defenses are low, your decision making muscles are all wrung out.

Admit with me – we could very easily give in, drop everything at the door, leave a trail of dirty clothes on the path to our PJs, grab a bowl of cereal or a bag of chips for dinner and flop on the couch for the rest of the evening.

Tempting… so tempting…

But, let’s look into our crystal ball…

How will Future You feel about your poor choices in the morning?  You may not have slept too well, with such a sad dinner.  You will be frustrated by the mess, scrambling around to get ready and make up for lost time.   Let’s face it, Today’s You and this evening’s choices are setting up Tomorrow’s You to fail.

What can Today’s You do right now, to ease your transition to home?  To help you spend a pleasant and relaxing evening, and to spend just a few moments tonight making tomorrow go more smoothly?

First things first, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR STUFF IN  A HEAP BY THE DOOR.  Take the extra 30 seconds and hang up your coat and bag, kick off your shoes and leave them by the door and NOT in the middle of the floor, and put down your keys in their Home, so you can find them again when you need them.

Next, address immediate needs and take a few minutes to decompress.  Change your clothes, grab a big glass of water and maybe an apple, then get dinner started (perhaps your menu plan is in place already?).

Whew.  Now that your physical needs are met, you can take a few moments to think ahead – what do you want tomorrow morning to look like?  Crazy and stressful?  Calm but energized?

If you still have some energy left, do more to take care of Future You:

  • tidy up the kitchen, run the dishwasher, set up tomorrow morning’s coffee, pack tomorrow’s lunch;
  • take care of today’s clothes, and plan ahead for tomorrow’s;
  • check the weather forecast plan ahead appropriately. Jacket? Umbrella?  (It’s October in Chicago, this is VERY important these days, with 85 and sunny one day and 60s with rain the next!);
  • line your gear for the next day near the door.

Future-You will thank Today’s You!

Organize Your Car and Commute

At a class last week, a participant asked:  What can you suggest for organizing my car?

A little background on the participant – she is a busy teacher and mom.  She reports to being in her car up to 3 hours a day, with getting her kids to school and daycare, helping out her own mother and commuting to and from work.  Plus, she and her husband are a one-car family, so she and her car really do get a workout!!

And I appreciate her honesty.  The first thing she did when she parked next to my car in the lot was to look in my windows, to see if I was truly organized.  Everyone does, I like that she admitted it!

So, what can I suggest?  Here goes….

Start with a clean car.  Here is a blog I wrote on Organizing Your Car, outlining the basics of cleaning and clearing out your car: http://colleencpo.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/1040/ .  Check out this blog first, and schedule an hour this week to get this done.

I think this participant was really asking for higher level organizing ideas, to make the process run more smoothly.   So, once the car is clean, how do we keep it clean and uncluttered, and streamline our commuting process?

Keep it uncluttered:

  1. Establish a place in your car for your vitally important pieces, like your cell phone and wallet or purse.  Every time I get in the car, my purse goes in the exact same place.
  2. Make sure to keep your purse or wallet off the empty passenger seat beside you, for safety’s sake and to discourage smash and grabs while stopped at stoplights.
  3. Commit to emptying your car every day.  Keep things moving in and out of the car.  Trash, clothes, paper, outerwear, sports  gear, whatever.   Your car is for transportation, not long term storage.
  4. If you have stuff to pick up or drop off to other locations today, make a list and keep the list visible.  Better yet, keep the items visible if you can, like in the foot well of the passenger seat.

Streamline the Commuting process:

  1. Keeping the car and commute simplified starts inside the house, at your back (or side) door.
  2. Near your door, set up a Staging Area, a flat space for your items staged to leave.  Line up      briefcases, and handbag, errand bag, school backpacks, activity bags, etc.
  3. Keep activity gear in specific bags, like band instrument and music in it’s own bag, or the softball gear for practice, to encourage your family members to get their stuff and in out of the car.  If your child is old enough to be in an organized activity, they are old enough to carry their own bag and be encouraged to help out.  (I say this, and yes, my sons still forget stuff.  We are human and we are working on it!)
  4. I always have an “errand bag” hanging by the door for receipts and return items, mail for the post office, library books or other items to drop off with friends around the neighborhood.  I add to the bag inside the house as things come up, and then take it with me when I run my errands.
  5. Check your schedule the night before and in the morning, make sure you have what you need, and make sure the Staging Area is clean (meaning everything is loaded) when you leave the house in the morning.
  6. Don’t load items you need right away into the trunk or back of the car, for fear of forgetting them back there!
  7. If you run errands for others, try different colored shopping bags for each destination.
  8. When you or your passengers leave the car, listen to the flight attendants in your head.  “Secure your tables?  No.  “Restore your seats to the upright and locked position?”  Well, no, not really.  I meant “check under your seats and around you for your personal items, and make sure to take everything with you when you go.”  Create a verbal check list / chant for everyone:  “coat, backpack, lunch, coat, backpack, lunch…”  or whatever works for you.
  9. When you pick up, repeat the chant so bags and outerwear come home from work or school, and repeat the chant again when you get back home, to bring everything back inside the house!

So, I guess the moral of today’s blog is to clear out your car, and then focus on the commute process to make things run more smoothly!  See you on the streets!