How Do I Get It All Done?
It is a new year, and with a new year comes the excitement of starting fresh. Many of us have goals for ourselves, our families, and yes, even our creative endeavors for this brand new year. We are working on establishing routines and trying to find a rhythm of doing things that will work for us. That is the thing about routines though…they are personal to the individual. Rarely is there a one-size-fits-all solution that solves all your organization problems or time management issues. However, I do think that we can observe how other people move through their day and their spaces to get ideas on how we can continue to refine our routines to truly build a life that we love.
I recently had someone ask me how I am able to get it all done, which honestly just made me smile. Of course I don’t get it “all” done! I’m a wife, a mom, a business owner, a daughter and a friend, plus a million other roles that I play at different times during the year. A lot of days I feel like I have done nothing right or accomplished zero things on my to-do list because I’m in the midst of putting out fires all over the place. Truthfully, becoming a small business owner has been the most humbling adventure ever, because I am discovering there is always an area that I could be putting more work into. But from what I hear, that is pretty much the norm.
There are, however, some pretty solid routines that I lean on throughout my day that help me to stay on track, and I’ve come to depend on those routines as anchors in my life that I can always come back to when things start feeling a bit out of control. Here’s a look at a few elements of my daily routine that work really well for me:
1. Waking up early
It isn’t easy, but starting my day earlier gives me a boost to my productivity throughout the day. I know what time my kids are normally awake. I know what time I have to have them off to school by, and I know what time they are going to be home by. I only have a certain number of hours to work with for my personal needs and my business, so waking up early is pretty key for me. I wake up (to an alarm) most days at 5am. I drag myself out of bed (again, this never feels easy), I make coffee, and I head down to my basement for morning quiet time. My quiet time consists of Bible study & prayer journaling, and doing it first thing in the morning helps to get my mind in the most peaceful place for the rest of the day. Ideally after that, I move my body, either by running on the treadmill or doing some sort of exercise routine. I’d say I get that done 75-80% of the time, and then it is off and running with the whirlwind of feeding kids, packing lunches, starting laundry, and getting everyone out the door for the day.
2. Daily planning/journaling
After the kids are out the door, I generally have two temptations. The first is to pop on the Today Show, lay on the couch, and recover from morning chaos. The other is to race downstairs and get straight to work on my giant to-do list of tasks. But, I have found a happy medium between both these choices. Generally, I pour myself another cup of coffee, pull out my catch-all planner and my work planner, and take a few minutes to enjoy the quiet of the house and get my mind wrapped around what the rest of the day holds. When life is busy, it sometimes feels like the best option is to jump straight into work, but spending 15 minutes working in my planners, filling in trackers, doing a bit of journaling, and consolidating my task lists and schedules onto a daily planning page serves as a great transition from my morning into my work day. Like I said, checking in with my planners includes a little bit of everything. I do the practical tasks of reminding myself of that day’s activities and updating any changes to our week that have come up, but I also take a few minutes to check in on my wellness and journal a few thoughts. This process takes no more than 15 minutes, but gives my brain the chance to shift gears!
3. Tasks on-the-go
My family is constantly on-the-go! We have at least one kid activity every night of the week, and often times we have more than one. I am a mom with a mini-van full of sports equipment, band instruments, and far too many goldfish crackers on the ground. Because I know that I am going to be on-the-go for most of the evening, I always have a bag packed and ready to go with my planners, my laptop or tablet, a few crafting goodies, and possibly a book. I give myself options on what I can choose to work on either as I wait in the car or sit on the sideline of my 4th soccer practice that particular week. Doing tasks on the go is not always the easiest because I am much more likely to have to stop/start in the middle of trying to get something done. That means that as I am going through my day, I attempt to leave the simpler, easier tasks towards the end of the day. For me, that is responding to emails, responding to comments, and scheduling social media. I have a list of what I can do on-the-go and what HAS to be done in my studio. It allows me to find pockets of productivity later on in the day!
4. I give myself grace.
Like I said, I don’t get it all done. And I don’t have it all together. As I write this, there are dishes in the sink, laundry to be folded, and let’s not even talk about what my twin boys’ bedroom looks like. They can’t even open one of the dresser drawers because there are too many clothes shoved in…I never got the chance to take out the smaller sizes of pants when it was time for them to move up a size. We have probably 30-40 bags worth of leaves to be raked in our backyard, and I have multiple business projects that are either waiting to be finished or waiting to be cleaned up. It used to bother me so much that I was not accomplishing all the things I want to each day, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to just simply ask myself, “Did you do your best today?” If the answer is yes, than that has to be enough. Truthfully, my “best” can also look different from day to day, which is another lesson I’ve learned and another grace I give myself. Nobody was ever meant to do it all!
So that’s how I manage all the things that I fit into one day…I check in with myself each day and I do my best on that particular day. After all, that is all we ask of others, so shouldn’t we give ourselves that same grace?
I hope this little sneak peek into some of my routines has been helpful to you! Do you have any tips to share about how you manage your time, your tasks, and your creativity day in and day out? How do you manage to squeeze in a little “you” time during those busy seasons? Let me know down below!
Keep it creative,
The Scrappy Wife
