Life is busy. Every member of the family has a schedule. I drop Bates off every day at school, and I always wonder how I made it to my desk when I get there each day. (Photo below is right before drop off – and Bates is wearing PJs because it was freezing and hardly anything fits! Mom lessons – keep buying play clothes before the current ones don’t fit. Still learning!) 

Whether you work or stay home, there is always something to be done and not enough time to do it! Here are some ways I’m managing life’s craziness – and it’s ALWAYS a work in progress:

1. Put everything in your brain on paper and keep notecards or a notepad in a central area. 

I have a notepad on our bar in between the living room and the kitchen so it’s always near by! (For example – right now it says “alterations, CVS, think of more dinners” haha!)

2. Schedule it or it won’t happen. 

Organize the things you wrote down by urgency and importance. Now, tomorrow, later. Schedule the “NOW” things during your day. 

If something can’t fit, it goes on tomorrow’s list! Remember – Rome wasn’t built in a day!

3. Coffee!

Try two cups instead of one for extra oomph. It releases dopamine – and sometimes we all just need a little more HAPPY to push through our tasks! Sip it, grow wings. Repeat!

4. The “Reminders” app on your iphone. 

Forget to take your medicine? Forget to feed the dog? Set it to remind you when you pull up to your house or at a certain time! Or you can be like my Grandmother and put your medicine next to the coffee pot – surely you won’t forget it then! (See step 3 above.)

A recurring meeting at work? It can remind you when you pull up to the office! It can even remind you not to blow your budget when you pull up to Target – but let’s get real – that probably wouldn’t work in this instance. Because give us ALL the things at Target.
5. Dry shampoo 

No description needed. It’s simply every mom’s best friend. Because long showers are few and far between – much less blow drying time!

6. YNAB (You Need a Budget)

Let’s face it: Budgets can be a beast. Especially for a new married couple. YNAB has helped us see where our money is going! I like to spend – and YNAB tells me when I can’t and when I can because EVERY dollar has a job in a category. I cannot overstate what a game changer it’s been for our financial life! It’s an app – google it. Get it. Learn it. Watch what happens! (Hat tip: @laurenbarbalich, aka supermompreneur!)

7. Clean Sheets on Sunday. 

Change them on Sunday. I know it sucks – but when I make it something I do every Sunday as I prep for the week, I sleep like a princess and wake up feeling like I already did one thing that sets me up for the week. Because doesn’t a set of clean sheets make everything better? (Add a few drops of lavendar oil on your pillow if you really want to be wowed!)

8. Turn on the dishwasher. 

I talk about this a lot! There is something about it being on. When everything else is going to heck and I am feeling overwhelmed, I start there. At least the dishes are getting washed! And when it is humming I think – yay free sounds of productivity! (I went a year without one – and let’s just say they have a special place in my heart!)
9. 30 minute home workouts. 

No one deserves to live in the place of wanting to get healthy but feel like they’re paralyzed. I’ve been there. I am convinced that doing them at home through a streaming app is the ONLY way to stay consistent for the rest of life. Workout fads go away, but apps on your phone are forever – you get what I mean? That’s why I host my own virtual accountability groups. I believe in them that much! I’ve worked out consistently since February because of them. Life is too short to not slay your health goals. You only have one body! 

10. Prayer.

There is something profoundly peaceful about knowing you don’t have to handle life all alone. Because life can get hard. When I was at my worst during my postpartum depression, I would send up prayers because it’s all I knew to do. If I didn’t know 1) God was for me; 2) He sent Jesus to die for me so I didn’t have to wander alone; and 3) that he had my back through it all… I’d probably still be in that pit. Prayer and the Bible got me to where I am – solid and confident! Try it! And feel free to ask me about my journey to knowing Jesus. We can have a virtual coffee date!