We are more than half way done through our organizing and decluttering challenge! It’s Monday and each week on Sunday night or Monday morning (whichever works better with our schedule), I set my goals for the week, write out my weekly meal plan, check the calendar to see what will be going on, and get a feel for the upcoming week.
I have found by doing this, it has been very beneficial to my life. By organizing my schedule and decluttering my mind, I save myself a lot of headaches later in the week with not knowing what to make for meals and having to get take out. I rarely look back at the week on Sunday and think, “what happened to the week?” At the end of the week, I usually can cross of most of what was on my goal list and it helps me focus on my priorities in life.
We’re going to take a different direction today and today’s challenge is to work on organizing and decluttering our minds, lives, and schedules.
Here are some tips to organize your mind:
- Each week set your goals for the week based on your priorities. If you need help with goal setting, How To Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals and Living An Intentional Life might help you!
- Each night before bed make a small to-do list based off of your goals list and the next morning attack the project you don’t want to do first. By making your list at night, you clear your mind for sleep. I have found that when I do this, I can fall asleep easier and sleep better. By taking on the worst task first in the morning, you will feel that you made progress that day whether or not you get anything else done on that list.
- Keep a small notebook with you for jotting down ideas (or use an app on your phone such as ColorNote). I have been really forgetful when I’m at the store and by making a list on my phone. I have been looking for new curtains for our dining room and by having the dimensions of the window on one of the notes, if I find some that I like, I will know if they will work for our window or not.
- Limit time spent on the internet and watching television.
- Make exercise a priority. Remember, walking the dog or chasing kids in a game of freeze tag count!
- Get proper sleep. Most adults need 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Sleep needs to be a priority. (I have a hard time with this one, but when I don’t, I always end up sick!)
- Schedule time to simply “be.”
- Schedule time for activities that you enjoy. Reading, going to a movie, whatever it is that you enjoy doing. Life is too short to not enjoy it!
- Make more time for the positives, less for the negatives. Spend more time on things that are enjoyable and align with your priorities and less time with negative people, negative news, and sad movies.
Here are some tips on organizing and decluttering our lives and schedules:
- Create a morning and evening schedule. Start with 5 things you need to do each morning. I wrote about the 5 Most Important Things I Do In The Morning. By doing those 5 things every morning, it keeps me on task! Once you have those done create a list for in the evening. Mine are doing the dishes, taking medicine, tucking in the kids, spending time with Jason, and laying out clothes for the next day.
- Say yes to activities that align with your priorities and say no to the ones that do not.
- Plan for interruptions. They happen.
- Have one planner for your life. Whether it’s paper or electronic, that’s up to you!
- Gather up all loose papers around your house and add them to your schedule: the dentist appointment cards hanging on the refrigerator, save the date cards and magnets, sticky notes with phone numbers and dates, and kid notes from school. Add the important into your planner and discard all of the clutter!
- When you are at the dentist, schedule your next appointment. Plug it into the calendar. This saves you from having to make one later (mind clutter) and also from forgetting to do it, keeping yourself healthy. This also applies to veterinarian appointments for your pets, annual check ups for the kids, etc.
- Don’t overschedule yourself or your kids. You will be all be miserable. Trust me…been there, done that!
- When you run errands, plan them around the area of where you will be to save on backtracking, gas mileage and time.
- Keep birthdays and other important dates in your calendar. If you use an electronic one (such as Google’s) set the event as a yearly event so you never have to plug them in again and will get a reminder each year.
- Don’t procrastinate! When you think about it, do it!
- Don’t be a perfectionist. This is hard. I put off a lot of tasks because I’m afraid it won’t turn out how I want it to. Do it anyway.
What are your best tips for organizing and decluttering your mind and schedule?
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