Happy Planner Work + Life Unboxing
Tag: time saving hacks
Five Tips to Stay Motivated
Now tell me this have you ever felt tired, unmotivated, not really wanting to go on? If so this post is for you. Today we are going to talk about tips to stay motivated. If you are a mom, a working mom, or you just have obligations; these tips might help you out specifically.
First Tip is:
Do not compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter 10.
I know we’ve all heard it before, “comparison is the thief of all joy”. That is true. When you are looking at where you’re at in life versus where you want to be and someone else is already living that life it can get really demotivating as though you’re never going to get there. If anything learn what they’re doing right so that you can follow behind and do those same things, but do not compare yourself to other people’s progress because that will just put you in a slump. Then you’ll start wondering:
- Why am I not there yet?
- Why haven’t I been promoted?
- Why am I not doing this, why don’t I have the bigger house?
- Why don’t I have the nicer car?
- Why can’t I go eat out a nice steakhouse, or whatever the case may be?
Be happy and be present in your moment.
Second Tip is:
Find your people and find your community. It’s very important that we surround ourselves with people who are aligned with our goals our morals. You know the saying it takes a village to raise a child, well it takes a village to be an adult too. You need a support system. I credit my support system to a lot of my success. Honestly, without my support system I probably wouldn’t be where I’m at today.
It’s finding those people you trust, who have the same mentality as you, and you are all trying to be in the same position. You are the sum of your closest five friends, right? Keep that in mind, you are the sum of your closest five friendships. If you have those one or two people you can call talk to when you’re feeling down and out, talk to them and they won’t judge you. Again, you guys are all part of the same tribe!
I love like some of the connections that I have made over the years. We may not talk every day, but if I’m on social media and a post resonates with me I’ll send it to them. I want to let my tribe know they’re awesome too and I want them to know that! It might seem superficial when looking at it, but really that means a lot because sometimes you just want to know that someone’s thinking about you and you’re doing a great job with what you have to accomplish what you need to accomplish.
Third Tip is:
Wake up early, make a schedule, and get ahead of the process. Have you ever woke up and life happens to you from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep?!? That is no fun and if you have not experienced that, trust me, you do not want to. If you can get ahead of the day, that will make the day go so much smoother. Or even ahead of the month to plan things out, know what’s coming at you so you can anticipate those events.
Instead of just saying, “oh life is always getting thrown at me, I never have any idea what’s going to happen.” Get ahead of the problem and then go from there!
For me this is just it starts on the day before. We prep the night before by picking out clothes, start packing lunches, and all that great stuff. I get up before the children, like even if it’s 10 or 15 minutes, I try to make it more than that. However, you know again life happens. But I get up before they do. In doing that, I can grab something to drink, brush my teeth, wash my face, and change clothes before them. Then when they wake up they’re not dealing with a frantic mommy because no one wants to deal with that.
Fourth Tip is:
Wherever you are in life at this very moment is temporary, it’s not forever. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and drive on. Embrace the suck and know that this too shall pass. It is not going to last forever.
- Someone cut you off in traffic- TEMPORARY
- They got your order wrong at Starbucks- TEMPORARY
- Had a fight the night before- TEMPORARY
Fifth Tip is:
This is probably the most important tip, if I’m being honest, for me. Find your why! When you wake up every day, put on your uniform, or you get dressed to go to work, or you’re making breakfast for the kids; why are you doing it? Like honestly, why are you doing it? Tell me why you’re doing it and then that be your reason to keep going. Like I said before, the stress you are in is only temporary. For me I’m doing it because I know, that in a few years I will have the ability to be a stay at home mom. It’s very important for me, that I put in place everything to get me to my overall goal and my why is to be present in my family’s lives. Presence means different things to different people, but at the end of the day find your why!
It can be hard to like juggle work, parenthood, being a friend, life, and side hustles. Don’t let it get to the point where you’re just in a continuous rut and you don’t want to do anything. Pull it all together using these Five Tips:
- Don’t compare yourself
- Find your tribe
- Make a schedule
- Remember that this is only temporary
- Find your why
Bonus: Whatever you do it well and always give yourself Grace
Watch here for details not covered in this blog.
Steps to Evaluate Your Year
Here we are in the last three months of the year. October, November, December. Admittedly, this is my favorite time of the year. Something about cool crisps mornings, cool not cold, and the changing seasons brings me all the joy. While I do love this time of year for all the reasons: my babies birthdays, fall, apples, pumpkins, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I like to use this time to evaluate my year.
Do what?
Yes, you read that right. I like to evaluate my year. Relook my goals, personal life and relationships, our finances, extracurricular activities. Everything.
You may ask, “why do you do this?”
Well, throughout the year things change. I think it is important to maintain awareness of what changes and the implications those changes have. It is not always about change though, something may be going really well. We all know the saying, “if it is not broke, do not fix it!”. Right? Bottom line, I like to use this time to review my year and prepare fore the upcoming year.
How Can You Do This?
First things first you have to know what your goals, plans, ideas, whatever are. Let’s say you wanted to read 12 books this year, one a month. You can easily keep up with this monthly, but you may reach October to see you have only read five. At this point you can revise your plan to read more, continue at you current pace, or finish the goal all together.
There is nothing wrong with maintaining where you are at. Do not rush from one goal to the next, take time to bask in your accomplishments.
When it comes to evaluating relationships, it is just a matter of who is worth your time and energy. Think of the interactions you have with friends, coworkers, neighbors. How did they make you feel, was there any value added, were you there for them? These are a few questions you can ask yourself with doing this. Looking at your relationships is not meant to be rude, but we have to protect our peace. People come in our lives for a season, reason, or lifetime. I would rather know sooner than later if something is not going to work out.
It is always good to ask yourself a few questions when evaluating your year.
- Where am I at with my goals?
- Did I make a plan?
- Am I ahead?
- Am I behind?
- What do I need to do to reach my goal?
- What this a realistic goal?
- Did I give myself enough time?
- Do you have consistency?
There are so many ways to keep track of your goals now, but it is important you do so. I think this helps with commitment too.
What’s Next
You will have to make a decision based on your discovery. Is it time to make a new goal, finish the other, realize it was too much to handle? Whatever you decide, your goals are not something you can set and forget.
It is during this time you may want to make some year end goals. Some ideas are:
- Decrease screen time
- Pay for the holidays with cash
- Volunteer at a shelter
- Read three books
- Exercise daily
- Maintain goal accomplishments from before
The list could go on and become exhaustive. Point is, use this time to figure out how you want to close the year and start the new year.
Don’t Forget
A goal without a plan is a dream, but a dream with a deadline is a goal. If you would like more information on goal setting, I talk about it here and here.
Do not get stuck in a rut. We owe it to ourselves to strive to reach our goals, better ourselves, and ultimately get what we want out of life.
As always, Give Yourself Grace.
My Mornings Are… Rough
Does the title of this post resonate with you? If it does, you may want to consider making some changes to your day. Why day and not morning? Because what we do throughout our day, both morning and evening, has a role in how our mornings are.
Mornings have always been my achilles tendon. For the majority of my life, no matter what I tried, nothing could help me have a smoother morning.
Let me be the first to mention, I never tried really hard…
I had read and watched everything about waking up early and improving your mornings. You know, grabbing life by the horns and rolling with it. Finally, I decided to make a change and do something I never thought I would do. I joined The 5 A.M. Club. This is based of the teachings in the book, “The 5AM Club”. I will not give a review or go into the details, but it is an excellent read and perspective changing piece of literature.
I detailed my journey with waking up at 5 A.M. here and here. What I want to share with you today are some reasons you morning may not go so well and what I have learned that helps me.
***Disclaimer*** This is written from the perspective a wife, mother, and budding entrepreneur. Somethings I mention may not be applicable. I hope you are able to tailor this to your lifestyle.
Why Your Mornings Suck:
- You wake up at the last minute
- Are you rushing from the time your alarm clock goes off until you get to your first destination of the day? Then it sounds like you are not giving yourself enough lead time in the morning. If you are responsible for getting little people ready, can you imagine how frantic their day has become too?
- Do yourself a favor and wake up a little earlier
- You wake up at the same time as everyone else
- I have thought to myself, “I just need a moment to myself” several times. I have said, “I just woke up, are you really asking me this?”
- Well guess what, when everyone wakes up together, everyone’s needs will take priority over yours. This can lead to burn out, frustration, moodiness and probably a slew of other feelings we have all felt at some point.
- Even on days I do not wake up at 5 A.M., I make it a thing to wake up before the children.
- You are not prepared for the morning
- For the most part, our mornings look the same Monday to Friday. Of course there are some changes during breaks, but I would say 75% of the time, our mornings are the same. It helps that I am a creature of habit.
- If I know my mornings look the same, that means I can prepare the night before. You know, make lunch, prepare coffee, layout clothes, pack bags, and all the life things. Imagine how much time you can open up in the morning by prepping the night before. Amazing right!?!
- Let me layer this for you… If for some reason you wake up at the last minute, guess what? You have already prepared the night before, so that is one less thing to worry about.
- You are staying up too late
- Guilty as charged. I used to think I was a night owl and more productive at night. What I did not realize is this came at a cost to my mornings and those around me. Look, I am in the military, so there will be early mornings until I hang it up. I had to find a way to be productive outside of work without staying up until the wee hours of the night.
- I started going to bed by 10 and waking up earlier. Honestly, I can get more done in that early wake up than staying up late at night. I say, my mind is refreshed.
How to Improve Your Mornings
The simple answer is to wake up early and prepare the day before. I would recommend reading “The 5AM Club” by Robin Sharma.
The first step is to give yourself grace. Too many times are are too hard on ourselves. We all have a lot going one and get negativity from so many angles. Let’s not beat ourselves up. It is not worth it.
Secondly, imagine what your perfect morning looks like and try to create it.
Close your eyes, focus on your breath, think of your alarm clock going off, what happens next? Do you kiss your spouse good morning, say a quick prayer, immediately jump out of bed? Then what do you do? Between the time you wake and have your first interaction, what does that look like? Make it happen…
Finally, be present and enjoy the moment. Life will always happen, just do not let it happen to you.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Please comment below if you struggle with your mornings or have made changes to make the mornings better.
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Frugal Finds at Goodwill
I’m Going Shopping- Even Though I’m Moving| Let’s Get Ready for School
Have you ever wanted to just shop? Some call it mindless shopping, emotional shopping, careless shopping. Well, I felt like buying me something. Because, WHY NOT.
I will say, I started with thrifting instead of going knee deep in to my aimless shopping.
I’m always amazed at what I can find in the thrift shop. Great brands and quality for the most part. And they have an endless supply of housewares. If you’re not checking the thrift shop every so often, what are you doing?!?
It’s A Target Haul
Hey everyone! This week I have a Target Drive Up Haul. We needed a few things and coming off COVID we opted to order through the app. I like using drive up because it keeps us on budget and I don’t have to get the kids out the car.
Have you ever used Target Drive Up
Why Would I Wake Up at 5 A.M.
Yes, I’m still starting my mornings at 5 A.M. Some days are harder than others.
Did I ever tell you my reasons why? Watch the video to find out!
Time Saving Hacks
The mornings can be a time of peace and excitement to start the new day. Or the mornings can be filled with frustration and excitement about starting the new day. I am sure there is a happy medium in there somewhere, but that is neither here or there.
For my family, mornings can be hectic with all the moving pieces and trying to make it to our respective locations on time. Over the years, I have implemented a few hacks to save time and make the mornings smoother. Some have stuck, others not so much.
Today I will share the hacks I currently use to get my life together in the mornings and carry my family along.
Tip #1: Prep The Night Before
Just like this sounds, do what you can the evening before. This includes making lunches, picking out clothes, coffee timers. Anything you can do the night before to help your morning, do it. If there is a lot, start with one thing then slowly add to it.
Doing this will open up time in your morning routine and make things a little less hectic.
Tip #2: Include Everyone
Do you have anyone that can help out in the morning? Aside from the two year old, everyone in my household is capable of helping. We each have our own slice of the pie to get us out the house in the morning.
For example, hubs makes coffee and deals with the dog, the nine year old makes breakfast and entertains the toddler.
Including everyone takes the stress off one person and lets everyone know they are an important part of the equation.
Tip #3: Find Time For Yourself
Even if it is 15 minutes before the rest of the house wakes up, take that 15 minutes and prepare yourself for what is to come. I personally take an hour as described in the “5 A.M. Club”. I can tell you I have more patience to deal with the craziness of the morning compared to waking up with everyone else. This time can also be used to accomplish tasks that did not get done the night before.
You may find that getting a head start in the morning increases patience, offers clarity, and helps to get the ball rolling in the morning.
Tip #4: Plan The Morning
This is related to Tip #1 above. Having an idea of what your morning looks like will help ensure you have everything needed to leave the house?
- Are there papers that need to be signed?
- Anything special to take to school or work?
- Extracurricular activities that need to be planned for?
Going in knowing what to expect will help your morning routine, just by making sure you have everything you need for the day.
Do not get so caught up in having a plan that you lose flexibility. Sometimes things do not go as planned, be able to adjust.
Tip #5: Give Yourself Grace
This is by far the most important tip I can offer. Too many times we are hard on ourselves for not getting it just right.
It is okay, things come up. Mistakes are made. Embrace the moment and move forward.
Sometimes it’s not what happened, but how we respond.
I am sure we are all trying to accomplish the same thing.
Be the best version of ourselves for our family and loved ones.
If there is one think you can do for yourself and others is take a moment and be in the moment.
I hope these tips will help to make your morning smoother and your days brighter.
Until next time, take care.
Time Saving Hacks
Time Saving Hacks