Quest For Simplicity ~ Keep It Simple Silly!

I am a procrastinator from way back. I’m always late for something, haven’t finished something or urgently need to do something. In an effort to clean up my act, I make schedules, lists and routines ad nauseum. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t - I’m a big fan of certain components of Flylady, such as the Morning and Evening Routines, and I can definitely see the value in having a basic run down of each day in list form, but I’ve recently discovered something rather important about myself.

I like to over-complicate matters. I’m an ‘on paper perfectionist’.

In my quest to simplify my life this year – which included a ‘backward shift’ for Lizzie’s Home from Wordpress to Blogger – I’ve decided to try something new. Instead of attacking a rearrangement of my Basic Daily Plan in my usual manner (noting each task next to an (albeit rough) time, making the page look pretty and so on), I sat down to think first. I thought about all the things that frustrate me at the moment – all the things I don’t have the time to do, the areas I’d like to improve in, the parts of ‘life’ that are most important to me. This is what I came up with:

Rise Early

I’m not a morning person. Getting up early hurts my brain. But on the days when I am forced up early and actually use that time constructively (like putting on an early load of laundry) instead of wasting it (like switching on the computer) it makes a big difference to how my day turns out. Take this week for example. We’re in the middle of a hot Australian summer, with temperatures forecast near 35ºC (95ºF) all week. Hanging the wash at midday – even at 9am really – isn’t a pleasant experience. Ten minutes outside can raise a sweat. Those same ten minutes at 7am? Very do-able.

A Calm Start To The School Day

We don’t homeschool, so we have that crazy period between wake up and the bell to contend with. Our eldest, J, goes to school a few suburbs over and is picked up by taxi around 7:45. Thanks to my Evening Routine I can have him up, fed, dressed and with brushed teeth in 15-20 minutes, but it doesn’t make for a very smooth start to the day. Boof and Moo aren’t walked to school until almost an hour later, leaving us with a false sense of security after the previous rush and we are often still a couple of minutes late despite living just five minutes away. The kids will now all be woken at 7am, and all will get ready for class at the same time, instead of staggered as it happens now. We can always chill out with a book if we wind up with extra time at the end.

Getting A Head Start On Dinner

I have a problem with the dinnertime meal. First, if I don’t plan a menu and shop according to that plan, I’m toast. But I’ll put off meal prep for as long as possible – either caught up in the usual dramas of daily life, or just being lazy – and as a result we’re eating later than either Talented Hubby or I would prefer. I noticed a few gals in Bloggityville set aside a portion of time in the morning to do dinner prep (sometimes through to completion) and then just bring it all together later at mealtime. Sounds like a great idea to me, so I’m building it into my day.

The ‘Six List’ and Eating That Frog

I’ve already mentioned that I’m a ‘list person’. My problem is knowing when to stop adding to the list, LOL. The longer it gets, the less likely it is to be completed and the worse I feel when it isn’t. Then I stumbled across a cool new-to-me blog, Like a Warm Cup of Coffee, which reminded me about a tip I’d heard a while back – The Six List. The idea is to keep your To Do list down to just the six most important items. I tried it yesterday and managed to complete everything for the first time in months. I went a step further with it and also incorporated a ‘frog’ by marking that item with an asterisk. You might have heard about this – the ‘frog’ is the task that is the most tedious, would take the longest, or is something that just needs to get done first - basically, whatever is your biggest procrastination trigger. It stems from an old Mark Twain quote: “If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.” My frog yesterday was ironing a week’s worth of Talented Hubby’s business shirts. Once that was done, everything else went pretty smoothly!

Time To Create

I’m very much a girly-girl and I adore pretty things, especially gorgeous things for the home. I would love to be able to devote some regular time to updating my skills in the areas of sewing, baking and decorating – but I just haven’t rated them highly enough before to set aside time to do it. The ‘other stuff’ of running a household always takes precedence over the ‘pretties’ but by getting up earlier and really working at the housework in the mornings, my afternoons will be relatively free. Our mothers and grandmothers knew all about this approach :)

Supervising Homework

In the general craziness that is the after-school/dinner prep period, it is very easy for a non-homeschooling mum to miss out on some important instructional time. My kids are at that age now where they all have a little homework to do each night (at the very least, some reading) so this returns as a priority.

‘Last Call’ Laundry Round

If I’ve followed my own guidelines properly, then I’ll have washed and hung a load of laundry, and started another, by 7am. The second load is hung when I return from dropping the kids off at school and if needed (it will vary) a third is started and then hung as part of my housework block later in the morning. All three loads (if I haven’t already brought the first one or two in) should be in, folded or hung and put away by the late afternoon. This is also the time I’ll iron a few things. We’re pretty easy going folk and folding or hanging directly from the line instead of leaving things to wrinkle in baskets pretty much reduces our ironing to hardly anything. As I wash and iron my husband’s (damp) shirts all in one hit at the beginning of his work week, the ironing pile should never have more than two or three items in it per day - very easily taken care of then and there. Getting all the wash in and put away is a big problem for me, LOL.

Kitchen Clean Up

I hate cleaning the kitchen. Blech. I hate the feeling of having just finished a lovely meal and knowing I have to get up immediately afterward to scrape plates and load the dishwasher. But I hate the sight of dirty dishes at 9pm – or even midnight! – a lot worse. I have to train my brain (and my body, LOL) to suck it up and just get it done.

No Snooze? You Lose

If I am not a morning person then its because I am 100% night owl. I’m up late, not really doing much, perhaps a little last minute school day prep that I hadn’t done earlier when I should have. Wasting time on the internet. Just pottering really. I need to break this habit. Sometimes I’ll be watching television but plenty of times I could be in and out of the shower and in bed by 10:30 if I really tried. This needs to be a priority if I’m ever going to make a 6am wake up call. As we speak I am currently campaigning Talented Hubby for TiVo - which has only been around down here for a few months - for Valentine's Day/Wedding Anniversary/Mother's Day. I won't kid myself into thinking I will watch less television - I'll probably watch more, LOL - but I can watch my favourite shows on my schedule...and still make it to bed early.

And there you have it. These are my priorities for each day for the coming school year (which begins in a week down here - eek!) Fingers crossed!

For more participants in Motivate Me Monday, drop in at my new favourite blog, Like A Warm Cup of Coffee (hi Sarah Mae!)