Tag: routines

Back To School: Mornings!  Keep It Simple, Sweetie!

Life’s funny some days.  I planned to write my “keep your morning as simple as possible” article this morning.Last night, one son had a stomach bug – poor guy!  And sick son and older brother share a room, so older brother was up, too, and helped take care of sick brother, which was just so sweet.  Of course, I was up, too.  Now I am tired, the teens are still sleeping, the laundry is going and I am looking forward to a trip to the doctor and a day of cleaning from top to bottom (in response to the stomach bug of course).

However, my Not-At-All-Routine morning today highlights the point I want to make with my this week’s article, and that is to “Keep Your Mornings as Simple As Possible!”

Here’s how:

First Things First, Focus on Survival.

Food, clothing, shelter, safety.  Make sure all of these are taking care of, before moving on to anything else.  Feed your self and your people.  Get clean, get clothed and get ready for school. Our days are starting even earlier this school year, so Focus is essential.  I am still waiting to see how the middle school schedule pans out, but I believe my youngest will be starting by 7:30 am at least 2 days a week.  So, to help me focus, my goal is to avoid computer / facebook / email before everyone’s out of the house.  5:30 – 7:30 am will be about getting everyone up, off to school or work, and home maintenance.   After that, I can look at other things.

Limit Options.   Decision making slows us down.

My teenagers and I had a conversation over the weekend that went something like this:

Me: “You have to eat breakfast before school this year.  I know you don’t always manage a healthy lunch, so you’ve got to ace breakfast.  What will you eat every day?”

Them:  to paraphrase….”toaster waffles,  we like toaster waffles.  And costco pre-cooked bacon. We like that, too.”

Me: “So, if I keep toaster waffles and bacon on hand, you will eat breakfast in the morning?”

Them: “Yes.”

Cool.  We have a deal.

I will not try to fill every possibility as I may have in the past – 5 kinds of cereal, a couple of flavors of granola bars, blah, blah, blah, and they still didn’t eat.  Nope. Waffles and bacon.  Done.

Limiting clothing options makes decision making easier, too.  If you have indecisive or spontaneous little people, together (or not!) choose 7 outfits at the beginning of the week.  Put the whole ensemble on a hanger or rolled up on the dresser.  And pull from just those options for school days. Too many options kill decision making.

For example, a loved one mentioned how my favorite 2.5 year-old likes to pick out her own clothes these days.  I remember that when my sons were young!  And I cleared the drawers of everything I didn’t want them to wear, leaving them fewer but higher quality choices!

What does your Face look like?

There was a moment a few weeks ago, mid-tirade, when my brain stopped and said “I wonder what my face looks like right now?”  Since I was raving at my kids, I’m sure I was red, scowling, possibly petulant… certainly not the person I want to be, or who I want my kids to see when they look at me.

When you are running around in the morning, what does your face look like?  Take time for hugs and tickles, a few deep breaths, maybe some great music and kitchen dancing, you name it.   Happy is contagious.

Leave Early.

Early is on time, and on time is late.  We really just never know what will happen on the way to our destination, so it’s always best to leave a little extra time.

Parents, consider that when your child leaves you, they still have 5-10 minutes of getting into school / hanging up coats / unloading backpacks, etc. to contend with, before they’re ready to learn.  Your child and teachers want you to err on the Early side of on-time, so everyone feels more in charge and less frazzled.

Trust me, Keep It Simple, Sweetie!

7 Solutions to Get My (and Your?) Morning Back on Track

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This is not the blog I planned to publish this week.
But as I drove home from a very early morning client, I considered what I need to focus on today to make tomorrow morning run more smoothly.  We have simple and wonderful systems in place.  Our mornings typically work really well, and all 5 of us know our parts and make the essential stuff happen.
However….. This week…  we could improve.  Let’s just leave it at that.
So here is part of my plan for today.  Maybe one of these solutions will resonate with you, too?  If your morning is a scramble, give them try!
Solution #1: Put ALL the laundry away.
There was a scramble for pants this morning.  Sounds funny when I spell it out. Other days, we scramble for clean socks or a favorite hoodie, but today it was pants.  I occasionally entertain the idea of buying more of certain items to lessen the chance of running out, but we really don’t need more of anything, we just need to maintain the established system, and put ALL the laundry away.  It’s clean, its just not where its supposed to be.

Solution #2: Another set of keys.
A family member has misplaced his keys.  This one little foible has complicated things, by necessitating other family members having to come home to let the lost-key family member in the house, plan around them, etc. We used to have a back-up key, but a winter garage break-in caused us to change our ways.  And Yes, I know, the real answer is for lost-key son to find his keys.  But today’s solution is to suck it up and get another set of keys made.

Solution #3. Stock the Mom-Envelope.
The Mom-Envelope, with $40-ish dollars in small bills, is sadly empty.  A trip to the bank will solve the emptiness, and the Mom-envelope will be able to again solve morning scrambles for a few $$ here and there.

Solution #4: A Full Tank of Gas.
Luckily, I gassed up the other day.  But as I did, I recognized how having a full tank of gas eliminates a lot of worry (or conversely, worrying about running out causes a lot of stress.)

Solution #5: Fully charged technology.
The strategies are having multiple chargers and just one place to charge stuff (the kitchen counter).  Mysteriously, last night we discovered some of the chargers have wandered off, so a goal for today is to round them all up and keep them where they belong.  I have also started carrying an extra charger in my car.  A recent quote from the Minimalists reads “If your phone is constantly ‘about to die,’ then maybe it’s not the phone that has a problem.” (click here for the full article)

Solution #6: Communications.
My youngest is a rock star when it comes to reviewing the plan for his day.  Before going to sleep, and again in the morning, he reviews out loud what’s in store for his next 24 hours or so.  “Ok, Before-Care, then Band and Boy Scouts, right?  And I already packed my lunch.”  This helps us both to plan ahead and remember the details.

Solution #7: A Clean kitchen counter.
A quick way to de-rail movement in my morning is a messy kitchen.  Can’t make my coffee, eat breakfast, make smoothie, work on breakfast for the little guy, etc.  We left early and in a hurry, but that is the first thing on my list after I publish this!

So look around, and see where you can get your morning back on track!  Whether with these solutions or some of your own!

Organizational Truth #42: When we want to break our habits, that’s when we need them the most.

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Organizational Truth # 42: When we want to blow off our good habits the most, that’s when we need them the most.  Routines and good habits help us restore order to our disorder; bring focus to our scattered brains; and prime the productivity pump when our motivation has run dry.

I was reminded of this Organizational Truth last night.  We had a truly great weekend; participated (ok, walked) in a local 5K for a really great non-profit organization; visited with guests and friends at our house and at a party; had a fabulous evening downtown with dinner, great friends and a concert of one of our favorite bands; and sang at Palm Sunday Mass.

Come Sunday night, I was very tired.  I’d earned a Sunday evening of laying around, and I could easily justify abandoning my usual Sunday night prep-for-the-week hour.  But I also deserve an organized, productive and less-stressed week.  So, even though I really wanted to blow off my routines, I knew they’d serve me well and that I needed them more than ever.  I took a breath, and got to work.  I:

  • Cleaned up from dinner and started the dishwasher.  Again.
  • Had the 10-year old pack his lunch for today, unpack his bag from camping (oh, add that to the list of fun), and get his backpack ready for school.
  • Started laundry. Again.
  • Tidied / swept the bedrooms, collecting random laundry items and stuff, and emptying trash as I went; and then the family spaces as well.
  • Wiped down the bathroom surfaces and floor, and emptied trash.
  • Checked my email accounts, and ruthlessly deleted anything that I didn’t need.
  • Checked my Evernote To-Do list, and deleted or moved to Monday everything from the weekend.
  • And THEN, I curled up with my new book. (Insert contented sigh…)

Truth be told, this isn’t the blog I had planned to write today.  But when I woke up this morning to a tidied house, the kids mostly ready for school and a clear vision of what I needed to do this week, I appreciated the great value in my Sunday night maintenance hour that prepared us for our week.

HOW, you say?  HOW to maintain your habits when your Get-Up- and-Go got up and went?

  1. Set a timer to keep you moving.  Use your smart phone or a kitchen timer, set it for your allotted time, race the clock to get your routines / habits done, then go do something fun when the timer sounds.  I use timers all the time, for myself and with my clients.
  2. Set a timer because then you know you get to stop soon.  This can help us get and stay motivated, too!
  3. Crank some tunes.  Seriously, it helps.  Not so much when I’m writing a blog or coaching phone clients, but staying on task while plowing through emails, assembling marketing materials or working with clients?  Oh yes, we need music!
  4. Enlist aid.  Get help from the humans around you, or phone a friend to chat as you fold laundry or wash dishes (hands free, of course, so you don’t drop the phone in the sink), to make the mundane routines more enjoyable.
  5. Decision making slows us down and trips us up. Determine what YOUR Getting-Started / Making-Progress / First-10-Minutes-When-I-Sit-Down-At-Work Routine looks like.  Write it down, pin it up, make it simple.

So establish routines and good habits, and then use them all the time, especially when you don’t want to!  You’ll thank yourself later!

4 Basic Tips for Fighting Holiday Overwhelm

I love the holidays, but they can be overwhelming.  We’re busy enough on a regular day, but when we add the joy and pressure of the holidays, many of us leap straight to overwhelmed!  And I say “We”, because I’m there sometimes, too!

Sure, this time of year, even the mundane and day-to-day business of life can be elevated to something more meaningful if we put some thought into it.  On the other hand, completing big and impressive holiday prep tasks feels great, but not when we neglect ourselves and our lives to complete them.  “Hey kids, I finished your Christmas shopping on-line today, but I was so busy doing that, we have nothing to eat for dinner.”

So when we are feeling overwhelmed, at the holidays and any other time of year, we can benefit from taking a deep breath and returning to the basics.

Take Care of Yourself

Maintaining routines and taking care of our health is important any time of year.  But it becomes both more vital and more difficult around the holidays.  It’s more vital because more is asked of us, and who wants to get sick for Christmas?  It’s more difficult because there are so many conflicting demands on our time and efforts.

We traveled for Thanksgiving, and had a lovely time with family out-of-state.  And even though I know better than to neglect my routines, I….. over-ate, under-slept, didn’t exercise, and forgot to take my vitamins.  Not surprisingly, I hit the proverbial wall some time Saturday night, feeling blah but overwhelmed.

Today was a return to routines, with regular bedtimes, mealtimes and schedules, and I feel better already.  I also spent some time in the kitchen, making healthy meals and snacks for the next couple of days.

Make time for the daily habits that will maintain your health and wellness.

Take Care of Each Other.  We can get so caught up in the stress of the holidays that we lash out at the people who we are celebrating for, like our friends and family.  Remember Why we celebrate this time of year.

Take Care of your Home:

Even in the face of the busy holidays, we still have to do things like get dressed and go to work and take care of our families.  Just because I spent 2 hours on-line purchasing Christmas gifts last night instead of doing laundry doesn’t make the laundry any less important.  It just means I have more folding to do this morning, to make sure we have clothes for the week, uniforms for the high-schoolers, work clothes for me, etc. We still need to wash dishes, take out the garbage, sweep the floors, etc.  These few simple maintenance steps become even more important during this hectic time of year.

Take Care of your Business:

A radio commercial this morning called December a “wasted month”, professionally speaking.  Yikes!  Most of us can’t “phone it in” for an entire month, so remember to maintain your professional efforts this month, even though it’s so tempting to cut back and goof off, when all the world is a distraction.  My 11 years owning my own business have taught me is that my marketing efforts this month directly influence my success next month.  Stay the course this month, finish this year strong and start 2015 ahead of the game!

I’ll Never Be A Secret Agent (And I’m OK With That)

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secret agentI’ll Never Be A Secret Agent (And I’m OK With That).  Or, this article could also be titled “How being organized and predictable makes me a better mom, driver, dry cleaner customer and person.”

I have been thinking a lot about time management lately, to prepare for 2 productivity presentations.

My sons and I like to watch “NCIS LA” together, it’s one of our favorite shows.  The characters, the agents, often discuss how they vary their schedule every day – rarely stopping at the same coffee shop or taking the same route to work, all in the interest of their personal and professional safety.  For them, having a predictable routine could encourage an attack, so they shake it up every day.

I, on the other hand, am apparently predictable.  Or so says my son.  Last week on his birthday, he and some fellow band students stayed late to help with an evening event.  I let his band director know that I would bring cupcakes for the kids who stayed late, to help my son celebrate.  It’s a good thing I did, too, because when I mentioned it to my son, he said “I sort of expected it, Mom, you did it last year for the same reason, I figured you would do it this year, too.  You’re kind of predictable like that.”

Predictable sounds rather dull, but finding out that predictable means I consistently do nice things for my son and he knows he can count on me makes me think predictable is pretty great.

 

I stopped by the dry cleaners this morning, to drop off my husband’s work clothes.

The nice lady I see every week at the Cleaners:  “Good morning.  You’re early today!”

Me:  “Yes, lots of people to see and things to do”.

Nice lady:  “And you’re dressed for working, you must have people to help.”

Me: “Yes!  No jeans or skirts today!”  Then….

Nice lady: “6 pants and 5 shirts this week? Did your husband buy some new pants?”

Me:  “Why yes, yes he did.”   Then, at the end….

Nice Lady: “See you next Monday!”

This is typical.  And as I think about it, being consistent and predictable in my errand running has made it really easy for my Cleaners to take good care of me (and she really is a very nice lady!!).  Interesting.

My oldest son is learning to drive.  Lately, many conversations center on the logistics of driving, but also the spirit of driving.  For example, on the expressway yesterday, we talked about how important it is for all the drivers on the road to follow the rules.  The three lanes of expressway traffic flow much better when slow cars stick to the right lanes, and when the left lane is used solely for passing.  Other drivers depend on us to follow rules and be predictable in our actions, so they can make their decisions, too.

So, looking at my three examples, and taking a metaphorical leap:

  1. Being predictably organized make it easy for my kids and family members to count on me;
  2. Being predictably consistent improves my relationship with others, to our mutual benefit; and
  3. Acting predictably makes for a safer and more positive flow in life.  Unless you are a secret agent.
  4. (I suppose I could be predictably bad, too, if I never showed up for stuff or did things consistently wrong, but that’s not today’s topic.)

Now, I know some instances in life require spontaneity and creativity, and I can step up with both of those, too, I am not advocating only predictable and organized behavior.  I am recommending, however, that you spend a little time today and this week considering how creating and maintaining routines and predictability could improve your performance or relationships.  Meeting the same friend or co-worker for a weekly chat, consistently getting your work submitted ahead of time, creating routines for making everyone’s day less stressful and more enjoyable.  Sounds pretty good to me!  So, I’m ok with never being a secret agent. I have other things to do.

Seven Family Summer Survival Strategies

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Driving home from a client appointment last week, I had some time to think big ideas.  I felt that I should be dreaming up this week’s blog article topic, but I really wanted to map out my plan for making this summer fun and relaxing, and productive, too, for all the members of my household.

I had a light-bulb moment on the Tri-State tollway – I put the two together!  So let me share ideas that work for us always, and also a few new ones that I’m trying this summer!

Seven Family Summer Survival Strategies:

  1. Have everyone stick with Morning Routines (personal maintenance).  Regardless of when I, the little guy or my teenagers get out of bed, our routines remain the same: Get up, shower, have breakfast, make your bed, put your dirty clothes away, brush your teeth.  No matter when we wake up or what is on the schedule, these tasks need to be completed before we head out for the day.
  2. Stay on top of home maintenance.  Laundry, groceries, cooking, cleaning. You can pare down some work for summer, but these household tasks are essential.  And since my kids are capable and available, they are going to help.  Which leads me to……
  3. Chore Assignments:  Make and post a schedule of activities and chores.  We have never used chore charts and my boys are too old to earn stars or treats, but the assignments are essential.  I just created a dry erase board (made a template in MS Word, slipped it in a plastic page protector), with blocks for each child’s activities and chores for the day (including food prep like grate cheese or peel carrots, mow grass, clean basement, vacuum, take out trash / recycling, pack, put laundry away, unload dishwasher, dust bedroom).  I’ll write this up and post it daily, so even if I am off to work when the teenagers get out of bed, they will know their expectations for the day.
  4. Lay some ground rules, or remind everyone what they are.  For example:
    • No company when mom and dad aren’t home, but we are open to company       otherwise.
    • No TV before noon.
    • Basic hygiene still applies, no matter when you wake up.
    • Be home by 5:30.  HOME by, not leaving your friends house by, 5:30.
    • Cell phones and tech gadgets still get turned in at 10 pm.  Non-negotiable.
  5. Lay your own ground rules.  Mine include:
    • Maintain 5:30-7 am productivity hour.
    • Abandon TV viewing altogether, until I conquer my reading pile.
    • Walk every evening with my husband.  Relaxing and fun, and good for us both!
  6. Re-work your menu planning for summer.
    • We will stock our breakfast menu planning items (go to http://colleencpo.wordpress.com/category/meal-planning-kitchen-organzing/ for more ideas), since we do have early activities to get to this summer in the morning.
    • We eat lunch at home during the summer.  No school hot lunches for the next few months.  So I asked my sons for input, into what they want on-hand for their lunches.  I stocked up on sandwich ingredients, cut fruit and veggies, chips and leftovers.  Thankfully, these are all things the boys can make for themselves or each other.
    • We eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, thanks to my local farmers market.
    • In an effort to keep the house cool, I rely heavily on my crock pot and grill during the summer.  If I have to turn on the oven, I will make 2 or 3 items all at once (like bake cookies, bread and potatoes), to make the most of the hot oven!
    • May was ridiculously busy with after-school and evening activities.  I am just looking forward to cooking, and eating together as a family more consistently!
  7. Slow down and Have Fun!  We had a number of activities and tasks to complete this past weekend, but we also had some unstructured personal time, and it was lovely.  In addition, we’re all making our list of things we want to go and do this summer, like road trips, movies, adventures and hikes, and favorite ice cream haunts!

So, spend some time this week working on your plan to make your family’s summer great, too!

Productivity Series: Give Yourself the Gift of Routines

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I pondered this article while I started laundry this morning.  After grabbing coffee and jotting down notes, I jumped in the shower and puzzled over the closing paragraph for an article I am writing for my church’s newsletter.  I quizzed a son on spelling words while I started dinner in the crock pot and cleaned up the breakfast dishes.  After I dropped off the kids and ran my Monday errands, I sat down, booked clients and confirmed presentations via email before heading out to a client appointment.

This article is not about how organized I am.  It’s about establishing Routines and getting things done.

Let’s define a Routine, so you can start to identify and improve on yours.  A Routine is a set list of 5 or 10 habits, tasks, etc. that you complete every day to maintain your life.  Tasks for personal hygiene, household maintenance and nutrition may be included.  Your morning and bedtime routines may contain tasks like “take a shower, brush your teeth or wash your face”.  Perhaps you (or your kids) make the bed in the morning, and put laundry clothes in the hamper.  Basic maintenance – Done.  In addition, perhaps you like to meditate in the morning, or call your sister or exercise before dinner.  Every person’s routine will look different.

Call your daily maintenance tasks a “Routine”, “Daily Habits”, whatever you want.  Class participants and clients have resisted the word “Routine” because it sounds too rigid or too boring, and they may be right. But Routines are a great way to lead busy, productive and less stressed lives.

Establishing Routines moves mundane tasks out of our active thinking brain, leaving more room for more interesting things.  This morning, maintenance tasks were completed through my daily routine, and I was able to work on other things.

Because a Routine is a list, we can manipulate it, choose the order or time for the tasks, and tweak the list to make it work well.  Please note, a Routine is not your to-do list.  Routines are for the things that have to happen every day, and should quickly become automatic habits.  Unless “go to the post office” or “update your website” are things you do every day, they should not be considered part of your Routine.

Decision-making is the single biggest time waster when it comes to getting organized.  I have a client who agonizes over when to shower.  Every day.  “Getting up” and “getting moving” are not synonymous in her book.   We’re working on this, though, because puzzling over this simple and obvious task very morning is a terrible waste of her time.

This week, Create or Improve your Routines.

  • Think carefully about what you do, what you want to do and how to make things better.  Make your decisions about what to do and when, and then stick with what you decide.
  • List what has to happen every day.  Perhaps it is just looking back at your morning, or evening, or the hour after you get home from work, and listing the tasks you complete in that time.   In no particular order, you might have
    • Shower
    • Floss
    • Open mail
    • Make bed
    • Put away laundry
    • Take out trash
    • make dinner
    • Take vitamins
    • Feed the dog
  • Now look at the list, and make some improvements if you would like:
    • Group common tasks, save yourself some steps and cut out duplication
      • Using my random list above, you can group the dinner / trash / vitamins / feed dog tasks all together in the evening, if you’d like, to save yourself steps and help you focus
      • Perhaps make bed and put away laundry go together, too, as you tidy up in the morning
    • Determine if these tasks are happening too often, or not enough.  Maybe put away laundry is a few times a week, as is take out trash, instead of every day.
    • Add things that are not yet happening.
      • I never miss my morning cup of coffee, so I try to take my vitamins as I brew my first cup in the morning.  I’m not always thinking straight at that time of the morning, though, which is why I am still inconsistent about that.
      • I have taken to committing to take them before I leave the house in the morning, though, and have gotten better about that.
      • So far, I am still remiss on taking my vitamins every day and exercising on a daily basis.  And until both of those items happen automatically, I still have them on my daily to-do list.

To sum up, Make good decisions once, and save time forever. Look at the maintenance tasks you complete every day, put them in a good and logical order, make them habits (give habits 3 weeks to take root), and move on to something more exciting!

3 Reasons We All Should Love Back-To-School

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I love Back-To-School time, and not just because my sons sometimes drive me buggy during the summer months. Whether in school or not, this time of year always feels like an opportunity to start fresh, get back to a new and improved routine, find all sorts of cool gadgets in the stores, and learn something new. It’s like New Year’s without the snow, winter misery or credit card bills. So use Back-to-School time as an opportunity to embrace new ideas and gadgets, and improve yourself and broaden your mind, not because you have to but because the world is full of new things to learn every day.

Start fresh, get back to a routine:

I love the lazy days of summer, but as a mother of three busy boys, a small business owner and recovering insomniac, I recognize that a routine is vitally important to everyone’s well-being.  We all benefit from having a Routine, a reasonable yet necessary set of tasks and expectations for certain times of each day.  August brings regular bed- and wake-up times, routine chore completion and basic hygiene without nagging, regular office hours for my clients and regular sleep patterns for all.  Sit down with family members and think about what needs to happen before leaving the house every morning or going to bed every night, and incorporate those tasks into your morning or bed-time routine now.

Cool new stuff and gadgets:

Book lights for in-bed reading; post-it notes for every imaginable application; 5-subject notebooks to keep track of your lists for all your projects in one central location; a new Websters Dictionary because it is a good thing to have (and yes, Ginormous is now a real word); comfy new ergonomic back packs or messenger bags for toting your stuff; colored index cards for anything you can think of (like making checklists and laminating them or assigning household tasks by person or room):  the stores are bursting with problem-solving gadgets and back-to-school stuff.  My all time favorite tool is a dry erase marker – Leave messages for family members on the bathroom mirror, whether “Pick up the kids at soccer practice” or “Comb your hair!”.  Wipes right off, and the kids use it, too!

Learn something new:

Education is important.  Learning new things keeps us sharp.  Knowledge is power.

There are so many wondrous things in the world, and now is a great time to commit to learning something new. Two goals for me for the Fall are learning how to knit and how to meditate (though certainly not at the same time), plus 5 books recommended to me by people I respect.  Goals are only dreams until you put them into action, though, so to make my goals happen, I have found out when a local knitting shop has drop-in lessons, and I’ve tracked down a book that offers a 30 day approach to learning to meditate and one of the recommended books.  The ideas are limitless, and you don’t have to sign up for a class – your local library and the Internet have information on everything under the sun (and I know a really nice organizer who offers classes all over the South Side if you want to learn about organizing!). So pick a topic and get to work!

Embrace Back-To-School time whether you are going back or not.  Determine the 5 or 10 simple tasks you need to do morning and evening to make your life run smoothly, and make those tasks Routine by doing them every day.  Check the stores and on-line for problem-solving devices.  And get out there and learn something new!