Tag: Time Management

Is Your Routine Stuck In A Rut?

     I talk about Routines often, OK, all the time.  Why?  Because Routines are great! Creating a Routine helps us prioritize and order our necessary tasks.  Sticking with our Routine takes care of regular maintenance items.  Routines free us from time-wasting decision-making.  They are vitally important to our every day success.

     However… there is a darker side of routines.  Buried in “Routine” is “rut”.  As in, “When we do the same thing over and over again, we can get stuck in a rut”.  We can lose sight of Why we do what we do, and then our routine starts to run us, instead of the other way around.  Sometimes, we have to look at our current practices and make sure they’re working for us.  And if they aren’t, it’s time for a change.

How do you know your current Routine works?

  • You feel comfortable with your schedule most days.  Even when you are busy, you don’t worry that you are forgetting a task or appointment.
  • You allow for flexibility in your schedule, to accommodate travel time between appointments, special events or requests, spontaneity and minor emergencies.  Then you get back on track.
  • You can easily explain your time management practices to others.
  • You get things done. 
  • You have time for work, relationships, hobbies or passions, etc. 
  • You are good with deadlines and appointments, and you are on-time most of the time.

      If you are wincing at any of the above questions, it’s time to re-assess your time management and Routine. 

 “How’s that working for ya?”     

     I’ve been working with a client who struggles to complete tasks. I suggested she use a planner and to-do lists to help her get things done.  She asked me Why she had to make a change?, because she really did not want to.  As her professional organizer, my obvious answer went something like “well, let’s see, life without a planner or lists – how’s that working for ya?”

             If you are missing deadlines, forgetting or re-running errands, spending more money than you need to, or feeling overwhelmed and out of control at least once a day, your current practices are not working, and YES, it is time to re-assess your time management and Routines.  I know new practices may seem intimidating, but soon they will be routine, too.    

     Do you know the story of the Frog and the hot water?  The adage says that if you put a frog in hot water, he will jump right out.  But if you put the frog in cold water then slowly heat the water, he’ll not jump out, and will boil.  We notice an abrupt problem, but not always a gradual decline.  

Don’t Boil the Frog, or yourself.  Review then re-commit to your routine regularly.   

      Lately, I have not stuck with my own Routine components of 1.  getting in the shower upon waking (very important for me to get in early, so I can get my boys up and ready for school); 2.  taking my vitamins every day (I feel so much better when I do the right thing); and 3. exercising (also, so important and usually the first thing I abandon when the schedule gets busy).  So I need to get back to all three of those things, and I started this morning. 

     I also realized that the things I have let slide are for my own health, and since it is bad when Mom gets sick as there is no one left to tend the family, I am also committing to completing the vitamins / exercise / weight watchers log-in tasks by 10 am every day. 

      If you notice things slipping, make sure the task that is slipping is still important, and then spend a few days focusing on completing that task until it again becomes Routine. 

Break Your Own Rules:  occasionally break your routine to get non-routine tasks done.

      Last Thursday, I realized that my regular routine was not allowing a couple of really important projects to get done, so I ditched the Routine and powered through those important things just to get them done and into someone else’s hands.  Then I caught up with my regularly scheduled life.    

     If I find that I am regularly breaking out of my daily Routine just to get things done, then I have to ask myself 2 questions:  1.  Do I allow enough time in my daily schedule and Routine to get all my tasks done?  And if not, 2. Do I need to reconfigure how I spend my time?  Which leads me to….

 Life Changes, and so should your Routine. 

     Our schedule has gotten crazy lately with 3 boys in 3 sports, in addition to everything else we do.  I love that my boys are involved in sports, but our 3-7 pm block of time, the time I usually use to make dinner, catch up on paper work, make client calls and take care of home business is now spent at games. 

     I recognize this fact, and have consciously decided to let Routine slide on some days to get business tasks like billing and writing done. I assure myself that volleyball season is fleeting, and in 6 weeks, when all is done, I’ll be sad it is over.  For now, though, forgive me if I respond to your phone call or email from the bleacher seats (thank goodness for my smart phone)!

            Sometimes changes are more long-term, not just a sport season but for life, like a new baby, new job or retirement, etc..  Use that transition time to reflect on your daily tasks and determine how to make things get done, around your new schedule. 

     So, Routines are the best time management tool ever, but even the best tool needs occasional adjustment.  Be aware of how you spend your time, and how you want to spend your time, and make sure the two match up!

Spend Your Screen Time Wisely

Did you Know?  September 18-24th is National  Turn Off Week , a challenge to Reduce your Screen Time on TV and technology.  

     I am blogging to the internet on my laptop, then sending a newsletter via email to suggest you spend less time this week on Screen Time and technology devices.  The irony is not lost on me!  So let me get on with this, so you can read and learn, then go and do something else!

     A Google search of “Turn Off Week” produced links from hundreds of organizations recommending less screen time for both adults and children.  Why?  As a society, we are spending lots of time, often too much time in front of Screens and technology.  Stepping away from the TV, computer and game screens enhances our fitness, health, nutrition, education and family time, just to name a few.  

     I like TV.  I have a handful of shows that I DVR every week, and watch avidly when I have the time, on my own terms.  TV is not bad.  As I start this article on a rainy Sunday afternoon, my hubby is watching football and the kids are watching a Red Box DVD downstairs.  We like TV.  But just this past week, it became evident we need to spend some more time on our school work; all three boys want to sign up for Fall sports; and the pre-teen wants to learn 2 (yes 2) more musical instruments.   Time for these activities has to come from somewhere, so Off The TV will go!

     I love technology.  I use lots of screen time for work and play.  But Technology is only a  tool.  It can educate, communicate, illuminate, entertain.  It can do lots of things, but it is a thing.  It exists to make our lives better.  So use this National Turn Off Week to make sure you are using your technology, and not the other way around. Consider Turn Off Week as a Time Management experiment, how to use our time and resources the best way possible.  

 Things to Think About and Try This Week:

  1. Remind everyone (including yourself) that Turn Off Week is a positive choice.  Replace screen time with family activities, game night, hikes and outings, etc., to reinforce that Real Life is more important than screen time.
  2. The first step to positive change is always awareness.  Need to start small?  Just pay attention to how much you and your family uses technology, and determine if you all could improve your lives by cutting back on your screen time.
  3. Use tech tools to manage your tech.  I love these ideas, for managing your Tech Time, from a Real Simple article, April, 2011:
    • “MacFreedom.com disables all roads to the internet for an allotted amount of time”;
    • “RescueTime.com  tracks your every on-line move and provides easy to read, painfully revealing charts” telling you just how much time you really spend on Facebook or shopping on-line; and
    • “LeechBlock, addons.mozilla.org, blocks certain websites either perpetually or during specific periods, to help you focus you and your family’s time better.”
    • Also, we can set our Direct TV parental controls to allow TV viewing only at certain times of the day, and on certain channels.  I will re-set our viewing hours to between 6 and 8 pm unless I lift the block with the secret code (we’ll see how that goes!!).
    • On the other hand, we can record shows on the DVR for the kids to watch later, so they are guaranteed to have something they want to watch when they do finally sit down to do so. 
  4. Set a limit for how much screen time you and your children use every day.
    • My MIL used TV tokens with her kids, and introduced the idea to my boys one week over the summer. Every day each child receives 3 tokens, for ½ hour each of TV time, Wii or Nintendo.  They can lose their tokens for minor offenses, or they can save them up if they want to watch a movie on the weekends. 
    • It was amazing to watch my 7-year-old become a savvy shopper when it came to “spending” his tokens.  He might turn on the TV, consider what his choices were, and then decide to turn it off because he didn’t really like the choices.  Before the tokens, he would have just sat there and vegged out. 
  5. Be mindful.  Decide when and what to watch, or when you will check your email or smart phone.  Then Do what you plan to do, and Move on.  Get on Facebook, check in, get off, go do something else.  Be mindful when you are using your technology tools, but also be mindful and appreciative of your family and the day around you.  

For Life:  Reduce Screen time with a few simple guidelines: 

  • Keep TVs and computers out of the bedrooms, especially children’s bedroom, for safety, better sleep, better focus, and more family time;    
  • Don’t eat in front of the TV or computer (a challenge for me on days when I work from home); and
  • Set guidelines, like “No cell phones in the bedroom or at the dinner table”.  Neither my teenager nor we parents need our phones where we sleep, since we should neither send nor receive texts at midnight!  We can choose when to answer messages and texts, and hopefully raise awareness in others as to what is appropriate or not. 

     So, our plan?  1. We’ll all work on using our Turn Off Time wisely, for the cool activities we want to do instead of mindless TV viewing, and 2. I am going to work on my own screen time, to focus on people and not technology when we are all together.  I will check then ignore my email first thing in the morning on my iPhone, but wait to turn on my computer until the boys are off to school and I am ready to really work.   And I’ll let  you know how it goes, in a week, via technology again!   And let me know if you have ideas or suggestions for how to spend your Turn Off Week!

A Great Morning Starts The Night Before!

2 Comments

(A note: I originally wrote this article for Speech Plus in Frankfort, IL for their Back-To-School newsletter issue.  They graciously agreed to let me post the information, for the benefit of all!   For more information regarding Speech Plus, P.C., go to their website at www.speechplus.org, or find them on Facebook.)

Getting ready and out the door in the morning can be a challenge, especially for families!  Here are 5 things you can do tonight to make tomorrow morning great:

  1. Look ahead.  After dinner, check tomorrow’s schedule. Assemble by the door the items needed for your work presentation, your child’s school band rehearsal or soccer practice.  Complete permission slips, make sure your teenager has lunch money, note special needs or events.  Do this early in the evening while you still have time to run to the grocery for snacks or wash the soccer uniform.
  2. After dinner is a great time to pack all the lunches for tomorrow, too.  Pop them back in the refrigerator, and grab them and go in the morning rush.  Pack one for your self, too!
  3. Lay out clothes for tomorrow, for you and your children.  If you have small children and some open floor space, lay out the clothes on the floor, face down, as though they were on a child, to help your young one get himself dressed independently.  If you have older children, take out the guess-work and roll ensembles together or leave them on a hanger all together in the closet.
  4. Put the school work away tonight, leaving out only an item or 2 if there is last-minute test review to do.  Otherwise pack up the backpack when the homework is done for the night, and leave it by the door to grab and go.
  5. Go to bed.  Good sleep hygiene is vital to success, for you and for your children.  Calming night-time routines with family time, soothing lighting and relaxing reading ensure restorative sleep and a better morning tomorrow!  Introduce the school-year bedtime a week before school begins, to ease your sleepers and your self into the new time.

A great school day begins with a great morning, and a great mornings starts the night before.  Here’s to a successful school year!

BTS: Never Be Late Again!

2 Comments

Last August, I resolved we would be on time for school. Every day. And except for the very last day of school, when there was an actual flood in our neighborhood, we accomplished our goal.

Do you know why we succeeded?  Because I realized that my own adherence to my own routine can make or break our morning.  If we are late for school, by and large, it really is my fault.

As my children grow up, the responsibility shifts to their shoulders.  Some mornings, kid cooperation is not 100%.  But it is still up to me to set the example, to create (with family in-put) and stick with our Morning Routine, to focus on the task at hand and not get distracted, to keep the goal of “School On Time and Prepared” ever in sight.

Your kids may have a few weeks until they go back to school, and soon their morning routines will get tweaked.  So, this week, get your own Back To School (or going to work every day) Routine on track, and make the BTS transition easier for everyone!

Get up when you plan to get up.

I admit, I am a snoozer.  When the alarm sounds, my hubby hops up and stays up.   Me?  Not so much.  I learn from him, though, and moved the alarm clock more than an arm length away from the bed, to keep me from smacking the snooze button without even fully registering that the alarm went off.

Why?  Because I use an alarm for a reason.  I need to get up at 6 am to get myself ready before the kids get up.  And if I don’t get up with the alarm, I defeat my own intentions before I even get out of bed.  Setting the alarm earlier and allowing snooze time doesn’t solve the problem, either, now does it?  Nope.  Same bad habit and defeatist behavior.  So bye-bye bedside clock, hello hidden-under-the-bed or across-the-room clock.

And, DO NOT set your clock ahead.  Everyone knows it is set ahead, and it loses effectiveness (unless you set it a minute or two ahead, and don’t tell anyone….)

Get Ready First.

I talk about “Back to Ready” with my clients.  It is a mental image of what an organized and ready family looks like.  We know what is necessary to get ready, how to do those things, and that once we’re there, we can go do something fun.

But it has to start with getting Me “Back To Ready”.  Why bother getting the kids or the house ready for us to go if I am  not ready?  First order of the day is to get myself up and showered and dressed and fed.  Then I am much more available and coherent when the kids get up.

Lower Your Morning Standards.

Whenever I talk about routines, I always suggest to write down what you Need to do in the morning.  And, yes, I said NEED.  Make sure the Needs are covered, then move on to the Wants.  Needs are get clean, get dressed, eat breakfast, get out the door.  Everything else is extra.

I am the queen of starting just one more thing when I should be leaving, but that “one more thing” like writing an email or starting a load of clothes can make us late.  You and I both need to Write It Down and save it for later, and get out the door.

I read an article the other day that suggested we all Need to rise before 5 am to meditate, journal, work out, conference call with Singapore and grind our own flour for organic muffins for our families (yes, I made some of that up.  But not all!) before 7 am.  But if that list of things to do is not for you, don’t worry.  Stick with Needs, then move to Wants.

Recognize Load Time and Leave Time are two different things. 

Load Time:  The time we start loading ourselves in the van.  Factor in the every-morning-search for the 11 year- old’s watch, the 7 year-old’s daily dash to the bathroom as soon as I holler “Let’s go, people!”

Leave Time:  Time you pull out of the garage and head to school.  Leave Time factors in the length of the car ride / walk to school and adds a little cushion.  Aim for 5 minutes early to start with, it’s better to be early rather than late!  And don’t consider Early early.  Consider it On Time.

If you only have yourself to get out the door every morning, you can learn from this, too, especially if you find yourself running back for a few things as you leave the house.  Know your self.  For example, if you have to leave at 7:30 am to get to the office on time, aim for 7:20, realizing you always search for your car keys, double-check the locks, share a few words with the neighbor, or forget something.  And if you actually get to work a few minutes early, that is great, too!

So, whether you are going Back to School or not, let me challenge you this week to make your Morning Routine work better for you, and Get Where You Are Going On Time Next Time.  Give it some thought, get up a little earlier (or just move the alarm clock like me) and never be late again!

“Going Away” Checklist

Ask yourself:

What do you do every time you leave the house?  Run around like a crazy person, hoping you remembered to do everything….

What do you wish you had done, an hour into your trip?  Unplug the iron, set the DVR, water the grass, check the faucets….

What are some tasks that would make your getting-out-the-door go more smoothly? (insert your list here!)

What would make your coming-home more pleasant?  and Wouldn’t a standardized list of this stuff make the whole process a lot easier?

Of course it would!

One of my most often used and beloved organizing tools is a simple hand-written index card with a dozen or so task items written on it.  It is a standardized list of what I need to do to get the house ready for us to leave.  I laminated it early on, so that I could cross off the tasks as I accomplished them with a dry-erase marker and re-use the card.  And I have. Over and over again!

Whenever it is time to close up the house for a while and leave, for either a quick over-night trip or a 2 week vacation, the list remains the same. The tasks take an hour (uninterrupted) to complete, and then I can leave the house with a clear conscience.    The biggest motivators for creating the “Going Away” checklist were:

1. Clarity of thought, just in case I am leaving in a rush or for an emergency;
2. Safety, above all;
3. Energy and resource economy; and
4. Avoiding pests like ants, gnats or mice.

Here is the List: “Going Away”:

Kitchen:

  • Clear the fridge, toss left overs, Freeze what can be frozen
  • Refrigerate what can be refrigerated (fruit bowl or bread on the counter)
  • Wipe down surfaces
  • Lock stove door, make sure burners are off
  • Turn off the coffee maker timer
  • Wrap up the dishes, start the dishwasher and run the garbage disposal to clear it

Pets and Plants:

  • Dog: Plan or Pack up her stuff (when we had a dog)
  • Fish: Vacation Feeder pellet, or a plan for someone to watch them
  • Gerbil: Check water and food levels, or have a plan for someone to watch them
  • Plants: Water all, including the garden

House

  • Bedrooms: make beds, laundry to hamper
  • Close and lock all windows, pull shades in bedrooms and family room
  • Vacuum all
  • Turn up / down thermostat
  • Turn off / unplug computers
  • Take out the trash
  • Final walk through for safety and water check, making sure things are turned off or unplugged

So, my challenge to you this week is to Make Your Own “Going Away” check list.

  • Sit down with a pen and paper, and note all the tasks you tend to do to get ready to go.
  • Be an objective observer the next time you are getting ready to travel, and figure out if anything needs to be added to your Going Away Checklist, or subtracted, if it is not really important.
  • Most of the tasks on my list can be shared or delegated to my kids, too, and help is always welcome!
  • The order of my tasks is important, too, leading from one to another in a logical fashion, the path I walk through my house.

So, spend a little time now to make your next departure go smoothly and your next homecoming more pleasant.  What does your list look like?  Please share!  And safe travels!

No, Really, Balancing Work and Life

1 Comment

A reader requested information on organizing time and space as we work from home.  I’ve written this response over two days, between baseball games and dinners with friends, mulch and laundry, so SZ, you are not alone in this struggle!   

The Act of Balancing
I hear the term “Work-Life Balance”, and it puzzles me.  “Balance” is a tenuous and fleeting moment as a thing tips one way to the other.  “Balancing”, on the other hand, is active.  It is the movement of a thing back and forth between two sides, and seems a more attainable goal.  Judge the big picture and determine how your day or week went, instead of momentary balance.  Here are ways to make Balancing simpler:

Know your self and your family.
I am not very useful after 8 pm, as my brain is tired.  However, as crazy as it sounds, I find inspiration at 6 am (and my house is quiet!).  Early mornings rock!   That is how my body and brain work, and I have learned to embrace it.

 S.Z., you asked “Do I work now or run to Target?”  The answer is “Both, just not right now”.  In my case: 

  1. I can go to Target….
    1. Alone right now, while my kids are in school;
    2. With them after school; or  
    3. Alone after school, if my oldest child or hubby are home. 
  2. I can Work….
    1. Now, while I am alone in my quiet house. 
  3. Once everyone is home, it is much more difficult to focus or make calls uninterrupted.  Personally, I protect early morning, school time or nap time for work, and leave the errands and house tasks for family time.  Work now, errands later.
  4. Work is an “external motivator” (I’ll write more on this topic some day!).  An external influence (employer, publisher) requires accountability from you, to get your work done.  The laundry doesn’t require accountability, at least most days, and it also does not pay well!  So sometimes work wins. 

Focus & ReFocus:
Make a list of 3 things that absolutely have to get done today, regardless of whether they are work related or personal.  Do these three things first, in case your day does not go as planned.  

Re-assess at 2 pm.  I don’t know about you, but mid-afternoon, my concentration and energy fade.  It is a good time to take a breath, take a break and look at my list for the day.   I check my 3 important items and make sure they are done or in progress.  If they are not, I re-focus on getting them done, so I don’t lose my day to distractions.

I use timers.  All the time.  I’ll dial in 20 minutes and focus just on clearing my in-box, then move on.  I use one while I do home tasks, too, setting it for every 30 minutes or so as a reminder to re-focus and move on, if I have gotten off-track. 

Ditch perfectionism, and accept that you may not start and finish a big project in one day.   For those of you, like me, who work in 2 or 3 hours blocks, here is an example:  Day 1: Plan and start your project; Day 2-3: Write or work on it in blocks, for 2 or 3 days; Day 4: Edit; Day 5: Publish or complete.  Again, this buys you time if things don’t go as planned.

Open for Business:
Make a Clean Break between work and family life.  I have a friend who leaves the house every morning at 8, buys a coffee and comes back home through a different door to help with the transition to his work day.

A successful start today relies heavily on how you ended yesterday.  At the end of each work session, leave yourself notes or a task list for tomorrow.   Here is a recent blog on this very topic, The Last 10 Minutes.  

Dedicate your first 10 minutes to routine tasks,  to set the stage for getting things done.  A friend suggests starting the day with a couple of short and easy tasks, to ease into the work day.   Having a routine for your work time is invaluable, too.  I have lots of ideas for my business, so many in fact that sometimes it is difficult to concentrate on just one.  Starting with mundane tasks like a quick email check, Facebook post, and update of my work hour spreadsheet helps me settle into my rhythm and transition into a more complicated task.

Other blogs on Time Management:  168 Hours A Week, 1440 Minutes a Day  and Taking Care of Business Tuesdays

A few words about Space:
I love my office space when I am home alone.  however, my lovely work space is in our family room, and once everyone is home, I feel a little crowded.  I love my family, but my focus disappears as my family appears.  

We need to choose our work spaces wisely.  I work best with lots of light and a pretty work space.  We have space in the basement or in my bedroom, but I don’t want to work underground or where I sleep.  I recently lobbied for desk space for me and my laptop on my hubby’s desk in the quiet living room, away from the TV, door, etc.   He said yes because he is a kind and generous person, and even cleaned it up for me.  And if I still have too much background noise from my people, earphones and my IPod are very handy (SRC, thanks for the reminder.  I’ve got Tracy Chapman on right now!)

We’re part of a global community of workers, providing each other with inspiration and ideas – Please share your comments regarding the Work/Life Balancing Act.  Meet you in the break room later!

Menu Planning: The What, Why and How

2 Comments

I have mentioned MENU PLANNING to a number of people lately, and the responses run between”we love to menu plan, been doing it forever” to “wow, that is something I have wanted to try” to “Menu planning?  No idea what that is.”  

     Menu planning is the strategic planning of your meals for the week.  The small amount of time it takes to plan our meals for the week is a teeny tiny drop in the bucket compared to how much time and money I could waste without planning, running to the grocery every day for something for dinner or heading for fast food, wasting leftovers and not using up the food I have on hand

     Menu Planning enables us to use our resources well, saving time and money, and making the most of our storage space.  If we had special considerations like food allergies or a special diet, menu planning would be even more invaluable, helping us focus on what we can eat, not what we cannot.

So, how do you Menu Plan?  On a piece of paper, blank calendar page or computer spreadsheet:

  1. List the days of the week.  Now set some themes, if you’d like, to make it easier to come up with meal ideas (my biggest personal challenge is just coming up with ideas).  For example, ours are:
  • Sunday:  Family Dinner / New Recipes
  • Monday: Soup / Salad / Sandwiches
  • Tuesday: Italian
  • Wednesday:  Mexican
  • Thursday:  Grill-ables
  • Friday:   Pizza / Lenten Friday
  • Saturday:  Seafood / Grill-ables / New Recipes

2.  Come up with a list of 10-15 Favorites for your family, perhaps in keeping with the aforementioned themes.  I try a new recipe every week or 2, and add it to our list of favorites if the family really likes it. Our Favorites include:

  • Soups / Salads / Sandwiches: Chili, BLTs, Grilled Ham and Cheese
  • Italian:  Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti, Lasagna, Baked Ziti pasta with meatballs
  • Mexican: Taco night (my family’s all time favorite!), taco casserole, chicken enchilada casserole
  • Grill-ables:  Pork Roast, barbecue chicken breasts, steaks, burgers (beef or turkey)
  • Pizza
  • Seafood:  fish tacos, fish filets, baked or broiled fish, shrimp or scallops
  • Sunday Dinner: Chicken Pie, Turkey Breast, Beer baked Pork Chops over rice, Pot Roast, Corned Beef
  • Other: Breakfast for dinner, Anything served with Mashed potatoes.

3.  Next:  Look at your schedule this week and make a note of any special events or arrangements:

  • Sunday:  Family Party in Michigan
  • Monday: CCD  – early / easy dinner
  • Tuesday: Baseball, scouts
  • Wednesday: baseball, client for me
  • Thursday: Band After school, late dinner
  • Friday: 
  • Saturday: (Daniel’s Birthday dinner)

4.  Now, put it all together:

  • Sunday (Sunday Dinner):  Family Party in Michigan – No cooking for me!
  • Monday (Soup/Salad/Sandwiches) (CCD  – early / easy dinner) – Chili / Mac and Cheese
  • Tuesday (Italian):  Spaghetti and Meatballs
  • Wednesday (Mexican): Chicken tacos (make rice and chicken in the morning)
  • Thursday (Grill-ables) (Band After school, late dinner) – Pork Chops and sweet potatoes
  • Friday:  (Meatless – Lent) – Pizza and salad
  • Saturday: (Grill-ables):  (Daniel’s Birthday dinner)  Corned Beef, Mashed Potatoes

 Tips to make it work:

  1. Realize any good plan is a flexible plan.  We use our menu plan as an inventory for what we have on hand.  If my plan for today falls through, I can look at the menu, take an idea from later in the week, and know what else I have on hand to cook.
  2. Enlist Aid: Get your family to help with planning and implementation of menu planning.  With my sons:
    • When they help me plan, they are assured of having at least one thing they really like for every meal, so it is worth it to them to help me out. 
    • In addition, they are more likely to eat a meal they had a hand in preparing.  They are less likely to take issue with a dish if the contents are not a mystery. 
    • They have become pretty good sous chefs, cleaning and peeling vegetables, shredding cheese, reading recipes or directions on boxes, setting and clearing the table. 
  3. Cook dinner in the morning (or the day before):
    • Right now, our dinner hour is crazier than our mornings, so we get creative! 
    • Anything taking  more than 30 minutes to make is relegated to the weekend or a different time of day.  We love Spanish rice with our taco night, but it takes 35 minutes to make, so I make it in the morning and leave it in the fridge to warm up at dinner time.
    • Learn to love your Crock Pot! 
    • I have gone so far as to assemble 3 casseroles on Sunday for the next three days.
  4. Double up on your prep:
    • Last week I mentioned how we clean and prep our veggies when we bring them home, for healthy snacking.  We shred a cup or two of carrots for recipes later in the week, dice extra onions or peppers, split up meat into appropriate serving sizes and add marinade while frozen.
    • We brown 3 pounds of ground turkey or beef at once, re-freezing it in 1 pound blocks, thawing as needed. 
    • We also cook or grill extra meats to put in salads or soups later in the week.  Which leads me to ….
  5. Get over your LeftOvers.
    • You may have to sell the idea of Leftovers to your family, but they are a valuable component of menu planning.  If it weren’t for leftovers, my hubby would eat out downtown for lunch every day.  At $10 a meal.  Yikes.  And there are days we would starve if not for leftovers!
    • Call them something else, or Pair them with a positive experience.  Instead of left-over night, call it Tater-Tot Night, or whatever will make your own family happy. 
    • Attach them to a reward, to make them more palatable.  Left over night is also dessert night!  (my kids love to make instant pudding.  Go figure!)
    • Pair a left over of one thing with a new side and a new veggies, or make it look different, like grilled chicken breasts from Monday sliced and layered on a Caesar salad on Wednesday.

    1,000 words on Menu planning will have to be enough, I need to warm up my previously prepared dinner and get us out the door to baseball and class.  Try this idea this week, and let me know what you think of menu planning!

Soar to New Heights: Your Landing and Launch Pad

1 Comment

Every day is a good day to to work on your “Landing and Launch Pad”.

Your Landing and Launch Pad:

  • Is the flat surface near a door where you drop your stuff and bags when you enter your home and pick them up again to take with you when you leave;
  • Is crucial to your success in arriving at destinations on time and prepared; and
  • Is one organizational project that will improve your life immediately.

Why do you need a Landing and Launch Pad?

  • We come and go from home daily, often multiple times! At Klimczak Central, 5 people come and go, to and from many destinations and events.
  • Assign a Home to your necessary items (like backpacks, briefcase, keys and cell phones), corralling them in one location.  Eliminate the last-minute scramble on the way out the door!
  • You probably have a L/L Pad already, but maybe you haven’t given it much thought.  This is your chance to consider your stuff and space, and make both work better for you!

What belongs on a Landing and Launch Pad?

  • Essentials like backpacks, briefcase, keys and cell phones
  • For Launch
    • Shoes, coats and accessories
    • Boots, gloves and hats in winter
    • Umbrellas, sunscreen, ball caps and sunglasses in summer
    • Activity Accessories:
      • For Example, Bags for Soccer with shin guards and uniforms; a bag for Band with music and instruments, etc.; and the bags to go to Choir with me, Cub Scout meetings with us, etc.
  • For Landing:
    • A place to hang your keys and empty your pockets, an envelope for receipts, a jar for loose change, and a shallow bowl for your pocket contents
  • Time between Landing and Launch:
    • Phone chargers and a surge protector
    • Stock items for purses, backpacks and diaper bags, like our stash of small snacks, tissue packets, chap stick, band-aids, anti-bacterial lotion or wipes

 Where should a Landing and Launch Pad be, and what does it look like?

  • Just like your Command Center, let function dictate form.
  • Choose one door as your main entrance, and funnel all the family through there so stuff doesn’t end up all over the house.
  • A L/L Pad near your coat closet is a great idea, but not always feasible, for example our coat closet is at the front door, and our L/L Pad is at the back near the garage door.  We just limit the number of coats out at any time to 1 per child, and 2 per adult.
  • We set a 2-pair shoe limit per person at the L/L Pad to cut clutter.  Extras are stored in bedroom closets.  This time of year, we see boots and sneakers, and sneakers and crocs in the summer.  (I am the worst offender of the 2 pair rule, but I am working on it!)
  • To encourage participation, consider each family member.  For example, my youngest son has a row of hooks for his coat and backpack at his eye level, and he’s great about hanging his stuff there!
  • Use vertical space – coat racks, baskets under benches, over-the-door shoe organizer with pockets for shoes, of course, but also seasonal accessories like gloves and mittens, or umbrellas and sunscreen.
  • We keep it basic.  A bench for staging bags and for putting on shoes, hooks for coats and bags at varying heights for all of us, a basket for extra hats and gloves, and a large rubber (waterproof) mat for boots and shoes.

As with any Organizing Endeavor, maintenance is critical to your Landing and Launch Pad:

  1. Pick a spot for your essential items and stick with it.  Label it, if that helps.  But ALWAYS USE IT!
  2. Give each person assigned and labeled space (e.g. a hook or two, a cubby or basket, even a magazine holder on a shelf) for their Launch stuff AND USE IT!
  3. Re-pack bags immediately upon returning home.
  4. Keep only current season (weather and sports) items in your Landing/Launch Pad, to cut confusion and clutter.    There is so much activity there, it is essential to keep only the stuff you really need.

Invest a little time and thought (and perhaps a little money) this week, and set up your Landing and Launch Pad to make your comings and goings run more smoothly!