Feel like your head is cluttered and crazy? A brain dump is just the ticket. Yes, simply writing it all down will help to Reduce stress by getting your thoughts onto paper Reduce frustration by assigning homes to stuff, tangible & intangible Reduce anxiety by knowing what you have on your plate
Kids’ hats and gloves all over the floor and never handy when they’re needed? They need a home. Today is one more simple system in October’s series, Simple Systems: 31 Small Ways to Reduce Decision Fatigue. Setting up simple systems will make life run more smoothly. It might even help things get done and put…
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,…
Many of us are task-driven. We want to see things done, accomplished, finished. This is what the world tells us is productivity. However, our life at home is not the kind of world where things are often finished. You might check off “laundry” for the day, but before the day is out, there will be…
Getting Things Done by David Allen has been a key source in my own attempts to get and stay organized at home. GTD is very applicable to homemakers. I have implemented and re-implemented and revamped and reorganized my GTD processes and approaches so many times over the last six years that I’ve stopped counting. Every…
We’ve all seen those online articles, calculating what a mother would earn on the free market. No matter how high it estimates a wage for motherhood and homemaking, we all know it’s ridiculous. There is no price we can put on late night feedings, on intense parenting conversations, on making a grocery trip both frugal…
One thing I do miss about not being on Instagram is that I have no place for brief thoughts. Of course, there’s also no pressure to have brief thoughts every day, but a place to process small events can be helpful. In lieu of social media posts, I’m reviving the old-school practice of a hodgepodge…
The adolescent years are where we are most tempted to give up homeschooling, yet home can be such a needed supportive atmosphere for the turbulent pre-teen years. The curriculum is not the most important piece, but it is where we often begin. Let me share the curriculum we’ve used to homeschool middle school, as well…
The weekly review is a time set aside to remind yourself to what you have on your plate and choose your commitments so you can stay organized. You take some time and look at your calendar, make fresh to-do lists, decide what your biggest responsibilities are this week and then make sure those stay in…