Write simple homeschool lesson plans that are easy to follow and never out-of-date. Beat discouragement by never being “behind” on your lesson plans! Some homeschool moms – maybe those with school-teacher backgrounds – have elaborate homeschool lesson plans – full sheets of papers full of ideas, notes, references, activities, and objectives. Many homeschool moms have…
Write your plan the night before and supercharge your day. The day was over. The kids in bed, the house quiet. Time to sigh, breathe deep, and decide how to relax. I glanced down and I caught sight of my daily index card plan I’d made that morning. Ugh. I’d totally forgotten about it after…
A commonplace journal is not complicated and doesn’t need to be fancy. It is simply a place where notes and quotes from our reading are kept. The simpler we keep it, the better. Let me show you how basic commonplacing really can be. It appears I am the cheapskate of the group. I use college-ruled…
I will give you a tour of my Google Calendar to show you tips and tricks for using it well and keeping track of everything going on in your life, from menu planning to appointments to record-keeping! This video is a small part of the Work the Plan course, a streamlined course that walks you…
The list doesn’t destroy culture; it creates it. Wherever you look in cultural history, you will find lists. – Umberto Eco These are the lists that I consider essential to my sanity. I always go through times of neglecting them, and then I feel crazy, and then I return to them and feel great relief….
I make lists. I make a crazy number of lists. Making a list is my go-to strategy whenever I start to feel a little overwhelmed (or a lot), scattered, or just plain crazy. David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done gave me a name and an excuse for this process: Brain Dump. It’s a great practice,…
I am very much impressed by the people who regularly set aside time daily, weekly, or even monthly to get their school stuff in order and laid out. As a planner, it seems like I should be able to do the same. But the truth is that I am not a details person. I can…
In this series, we are seeking the elusive goal of finding satisfaction in housework. I’ve written already about motivation, attitude, and purpose, and now we start moving toward the practical, the point where we have to actually do it. Drat. So, let’s talk about other people doing it, shall we? Hiring Help There are times…
Use the theory behind interval training to maximize your planning effectiveness. Just as runners train and gain strength and endurance by running in short, intense bursts and then going at a slower pace for awhile, so we can follow the same pattern in our day-to-day lives. Breaking up your year into intervals, with rest periods…
Often when we plan out our goals, we think in year-long chunks of time, either personal goals in January or academic goals in August. If you’ve ever done this, perhaps you’ve noticed that it’s really difficult to keep those goals. A cycle I’m familiar with goes like this: Commit to a huge life-overhaul, personal transformation…