The only post of 2023

Christmas is over, New Years is coming, my kids’ teachers have been on strike for over a month and we’re waiting to hear if the union teachers are going to finally accept a deal. Today should be spent tidying the Nerf bullets and pine needles scattered across my floors, vacuuming up the goldfish crackers that are ground into the boys’ bedroom carpet, and scrubbing the long-ignored shower walls. 

Should be. 

Instead I’m tucked away in a busy Starbucks with an off-season holiday drink (am I allowed to drink a Pumpkin Spice Latte during the Christmas season?). I can’t remember the last time I felt like I could actually write, that I actually had something to say. I’ve had one topic on my mind for the last 18 months, probably since I picked up The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi. Reading that book, in one sense, was the end of my blog as I knew it. As I was reading it, I knew that it encapsulated what I had been trying to ‘accomplish’ with my writing here. It may not be apparent to long-time readers (and certainly not if this is your first visit), but I was using this space to sort through how to make my life easier. I began by chronicling my movement through my Bucket List. I wanted to write about working towards my goals, growing, learning, failing, and failing forward. I wanted to show the long game. I also wanted to figure out how to make my life a little less of a mess. How do I get anything done with kids? With a family? With aspirations and goals? I wrote about writing, building habits, and time management all in hopes to streamline my life and be able to reach my goals.

Having kids really threw a wrench in my writing. As you can see from my post history, after having my second (Nov, 2016) the writing decreased rapidly, which makes sense and I was ok it. I started working out, which was huge for me, and was still moving towards “a better me.” I wrote nothing in 2019, having had my 3rd boy in May of that year. I was overwhelmed with three kids 4.5 and under. The first year felt like running a twelve month marathon while herding cats during a cyclone. But somewhere that year, I found Kendra. Blessed Mother Kendra. She taught me about how to let go of what didn’t matter, and hold on to what did. Her 13 Lazy Genius Principles helped me grow in confidence in bringing some order to the chaos of my home. The other revelation that brought a lot of clarity was investigating ADHD for myself. So far, though I’m waiting for the new year to get an official assessment, it felt like the most reasonable explanation for some of the reasons I felt like my life was chaos. Having kids is a lot. Having 3 boys feels crazy for me (though I obviously love them each incredibly). 

Needless to say, when each day felt like I was running and never catching my breath, everything else was put on the back burner. I was a mom and wife, I went back to work, and crocheted. That was my life. Not a bad one, but not exactly living my best! life! now! 

2023 was different. I started reading again. I hadn’t read novels really in years. I was actually being afraid of novels for fear of feeling sad (literally, I was terrified of feelings. Life was already felt like so much, why would I add second-hand sadness or sorrow because of a fake person or story?). 

But Kendra. (This was not meant to be a love letter to her, but here we are). 

At the end of December last year, she released a podcast episode about how she read 120 books last year. I was inspired! She also has talked about her “book words.” She has figured out what words describe the books she always likes, so she knows how to know what books to pick and what to leave. After reading a few “gentle” books (like some of the Anne of Green Gables series), I decided I would stick to that stuff first. Then, read Little Women. I caught feelings. I felt sad, a little heartbroken, even. But you know what? It was ok. Slowly, I grew in my literary courage (though, to be sure, I was sticking to Young Adult and other ‘safe’ types of things. I realized I didn’t have to read great literature for it to ‘count’; I could read whatever I wanted. 

I started reading before bed. I found LibriVox and started listening to audiobooks while crocheting in the evening, rather than watching TV the whole time. I started noticing patterns in my reading: sometimes I’d get to a tough part about half-way through or 60%, but Learned to push through and then I’d be close enough to the end be motivated to break through the finish line. I read 3 books in January and probably averaged that many each month until September. Then I read 8, followed by 6 in October, 12 in November, and 21 in December (so far). 

Reading this much has reignited my imagination. It’s reminded me how much I want to write, and honestly, it’s shown me how many authors are out there that are writing just OK books. Some are even writing books that I really enjoyed, read twice (Christmas “romcoms” anyone?), but few people have heard of. Even that is inspiring to me. 

So here I am, at the end of my Pumpkin Spice Latte, my parking about to expire along with my bladder. I’m proud of me for this year. A lot happened with my kids and husband and job, and after all of it I’m happy to say, I like me more and I feel like me more. 

Onward to 2024. 

2019 Planner Ideas

Somehow as soon as Christmas is over, my mind starts racing about the New Year. I haven’t been bullet journaling or doing anything productivity tracking related for months. Pregnancy and life with my littles has knocked the wind out of my sails in terms of goal hustling (see previous post), but there’s something about January 1 that inspires me again.

I even thought about starting to work out again! This is funny mostly because I’m actually on Doctor ordered “reduced mobility” for a few weeks due to some concerning contraction patterns. So exercise is not a good idea.

So now I’ve been bit by the New Year bug and it got me thinking about planners.

Bullet Journaling vs Planners

Somehow I haven’t been blogging much about bullet journaling, but I’ve posted quite a bit on my personal Instagram over the years. I really like it because of the flexibility. You can do what you want from week to week and if you fall out of the habit, you don’t have all kinds of blank pages to remind you of that lost habit!

However, like many of you (and the reason so many told me you haven’t given it a try), I no longer have/make the time for it. It used to be an enjoyable therapeutic thing to do lots of colouring and designing on it. No longer. I’ve still been using my “bujo” to make and keep lists. It’s become a more minimalist bujo, which is still very useful. What you might find more useful, is a bullet journal-type planner that is already set-up for you. Or, you like a traditional style. I never have. I keep all of my day planning appointments etc in my Google Calendar app on my phone. Everything else is in my planner. Usually this means, meal plans, daily trackers, and to-do lists. Lately, it means only meal plans and to-do lists.

Check out the summary list below. Click on the pictures to be linked to Amazon to see more photos and features. You can also find the whole list here.

Traditional(ish) Planners

Orange Circle Studio 2019 Do It All Planner

Do It All Planner

Who it’s good for:

  • if you’re tracking a few different things in a day. This could be either different family members or home life and work life etc.
  • if you like pretty things. There are 5 different cover styles to choose from

Features:

  • stickers
  • spiral bound
  • colourful

Katie Daisy 2018 – 2019 On-the-Go Weekly Planner:

katiedaisyplanner

Who it’s good for:

  • if you like pretty things
  • if you don’t need a lot of space to write what you need to

Features:

  • 17-moth planner (starts in 2018)
  • colourful
  • fun quotes
  • spiral bound

DayDesigner:

daydesignerWho it’s good for:

  • People who have daily to-do lists
  • If you don’t need your schedule written down
  • you like a little colour

Features:

  • to-do lists each day
  • space for weekly top 3 priorities, notes, gratitude
  • inspirational quotes
  • goal pages at the beginning
  • comes in 2 sizes and multiple cover designs
  • monthly tabs
  • spiral bound

OrganizeIt Weekly Planner:

OrganizeItWho it’s good for:

  • Someone who doesn’t need a ton of space each day
  • Weekly notes/summary area. One reviewer explained, “at the end of each week there are both a notes page and a preview page to write down those tasks of importance for the upcoming month.”

Features:

  • softcover
  • several design options
  • black and white interior
  • cost-effective (between $10-$15)
  • inspirational quotes

Pretty Simple Planner:

letmepencilyouinWho it’s good for:

  • Someone who likes the DayDesigner but wants a slimmer/softcover version
  • Likes fairly minimalist interior

Features:

  • daily to-do lists
  • multiple cover options
  • softcover
  • minimalist interior

Nomatic Planner

nomaticweek1Who it’s good for:

  • someone who needs lots of functionality and features

Features:

  • whiteboard paper
  • 3 bookmarks
  • a pen holder elastic
  • 2 elastics to keep pages in place and book closed
  • comes in black and mint covers
  • hardcover

Blueline DoodlePlan 

doodleplanner

Who it’s good for:

  • Someone who likes colouring more than planning
  • If you don’t need much space for planning but do need somewhere to write things down

Features:

  • Spiral bound
  • Colouring pages
  • Monthly and Weekly spreads

Panda Planner Colour

Panda Planner Colour

Who it’s for:

  • Someone who likes colouring pages as well as a full action planner
  • Someone who wants space for daily schedules

Features:

  • colouring pages
  • Weekly spreads with daily columns
  • weekly tasks, priorities, daily gratitude space, daily thankful space

Minimalist (Undated) Day Planner by Action Publishing

minimalist-plannerWho it’s good for:

  • a true minimalist
  • someone who likes to colour or draw on their pages

Productivity Planners

The SELF Journal: The Day Planner, Goal Setting System, Journal for Doers

SELFplannerWho it’s good for:

  • People who like to record more than just what they’re doing in a day
  • Goal oriented people

Features:

  • smaller design
  • space for weekly priorities, space for reflection, daily goals, big-picture goals
  • a part of a productivity series that includes weekly action pads etc.
  • fairly minimalist design

High Performance Planner

High Performance PlannerWho it’s good for:

  • If you read and enjoyed High Performance Habits, this follows that system
  • Someone who needs constant prompts and guidance in reaching their goals/productivity desires

Features:

  • A LOT of prompts and guides on every page.
  • Daily, weekly, monthly reviews etc

The Clever Fox Planner

cleverfoxWho it’s good for:

  • Contains an organizer, calendar and gratitude journal to boost productivity, happiness and hit your goals in 2019
  • A bullet journaler who doesn’t have time to do daily layouts
  • Someone who likes to record daily tasks, reflections, habit trackers etc

Features:

  • black or brightly coloured covers (blue, pink, purple, rose, orange, turquoise, black)
  • stickers!
  • daily habit tracking space
  • main goals, priorities, to-do list space, daily dot grid section for jots
  • other planning pages throughout the book including mind map space

Full Focus Planner

FullFocusWho it’s good for:

  • If you love Michael Hyatt and his systems
  • Claims to help set annual goals, increase focus, eliminate overwhelm, and achieve your biggest goals on top of being an agenda organizer

Features:

  • Daily spreads include a page for tasks, lists, and trackers, and a second page for notes
  • two ribbons
  • Goal Templates – to detail the specifics of your goals and help you reach them faster.
    Ideal Week Template – to plot out what your perfect week should look like.
    Monthly Calendars – to get a glimpse of the entire year when you plan your big goals.
    Rolling Quarters – to get a closer look at your quarters when planning.
    Daily Rituals – to design routines for your mornings and evenings that make you extra productive.
    Daily Pages – to plan your days with your to-do lists and priorities separated.
    Weekly Review – to look back, correct what went wrong, and make the next week better than the last.
    Quarterly Review – to celebrate the wins of your quarter and move forward with confidence.

Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change

productivity-plannerWho it’s good for:

  • Amazon says it’s frequently purchased with the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
  • Someone who mainly wants to keep tabs on their daily movement toward goals and productivity

Features:

  • undated daily pages
  • smaller size
  • Weekly and daily planning pages + a weekly review page

Cossac Planner

CosacCleanWho it’s good for:

Features:

  • Premium quality ivory colour paper (100 GSM)
  • Simple and highly functional journal layout
  • Habit+Health tracker
  • 2 bookmarks + 2 elastic bands
  • Back and front pockets
  • Non-dated calendar
  • Eco-friendly materials

Morning Sidekick Journal

Morning JournalWho it’s good for:

  • A morning routine person who wants to track day and and goals
  • Someone who needs guidance in achieving their goals: “Our morning planner uses 3 phases to help you get the ball rolling and keep up momentum with your morning productivity, morning energy, and overall health”

Features:

  • Multi-phase planning system
  • Daily tips bite-sized, actionable piece of content that you can apply immediately to improving your mornings.

Let me know!

In the past I have tried Simplified Planner, Passion Planner, and the Action Method Book. None of them ever really “stuck” for me. Out of all of these, I think the one I’m the most interested in is the Clever Fox Planner because it has the most features like what I would write out in my bujo.

Was this helpful? Do you have other planners to add? Leave me a comment with suggestions or whether you went ahead and bought one of these (these are not affiliate links). If you want to look at them all in a smaller list, you can find them on this Amazon list I made.

Miracle Morning: getting off the strugglebus

IMG_6495

Hey look it’s one of my semi-annual posts! I’m feeling pretty great about it, thanks for asking. A few weeks ago my husband referred to “my old blog” and I was a little sad when I realized he meant this one. It’s not old, just a little neglected, ok??? If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you may notice a pattern. I stop things and sometimes I start them back up again. This is actually improvement because I used to just stop things and be disappointed in myself and then never start again. This has happened in the last few months again. I stopped doing my early morning routine and things fell into chaos.

Miracle Morning

One of the most transformational changes our family has made in the last year was getting up before our kids. My early mornings was largely inspired by the concept of a Miracle Morning. I had already been waking up and doing morning pages, so this is only a slight variation on that. Earlier this year, that meant I was actually waking up at 5:30 ON PURPOSE. My toddler had started waking up earlier, at 6, and so I had become so desperate for my ‘me’ time that it became worth it for me to wake up that early. I’m telling you, it changed my attitude as a parent. I went from feeling irritated with my kids for taking up “my” time during the day, to having my day start with quiet, reading, journaling, exercise, and when they woke up I no longer felt like I was being cheated out of being a person.

It was a huge win for me to make that change. I spent years having a bad attitude before I got desperate enough to change things. Our family life runs much more smoothly now particularly in the morning. I have never been a “morning person” but the time has become precious enough to me that I was looking forward to it! It certainly makes for earlier evenings — I’ll get into bed at 9:30. Some nights that means that I’m only awake 30 minutes longer than my oldest, but it’s ok because I’ll have that time in the morning again.

We made some changes the last few weeks and I fell off the early-morning wagon for a bit. But I’m back, slowly, and that’s what counts! Not quitting entirely, but getting back at it again. Like this blog. I’m still at it, and I’m still at slowly chipping away at my goals. I’ll write more about that later.

Morning Pages & My New Morning Routine

pigeonThis image describes me perfectly. I’m not an early bird or a night owl. Since being married the fact that I am neither and need a lot of sleep has caused some frustration between us. Willy always wants to set his alarm to a time that involves a 6 in the front. This idea has infuriated me because I’m the girl who sleeps until the very last possible minute and doesn’t snooze the alarm because if-i-don’t-get-out-of-bed-this-second-I-will-be-seriously-late. It’s hard to be late when on mat leave, though. And it’s hard to sleep in with kids, too. But because my husband insists on getting up early in the morning, I told him the early bird gets the worm and the worm is our toddler! I don’t even remember when it was that he started letting me sleep in a bit extra and he manages the morning with our first. This was especially wonderful when I was up in the night a few times with the baby.

But guess what! I now wake up before him! With an alarm! And I look forward to it!

Eww, why? How?

A couple weeks ago I saw a friend post on Instagram about Morning Pages. I did a quick google and realized: I needed to try this. I wouldn’t describe myself as an artist and I feel too shy to call myself a writer, but I could relate to the issues the Morning Pages are said to address.

Morning Pages

What are morning pages? They’re 3 pages of scribbles done first thing in the morning by hand. Before you look at your phone, before you read your Scriptures or even pray, before your mind gets revved up, before everything. I decided to give it a shot. I wanted to take the time in the morning to get my head on straight before I started the day, anyway, and so this seemed like the best way for me to start. So this is what my morning looks like now:

  1. Wake up at 6AM with my quiet birds chirping alarm on my phone.
  2. Quietly roll out of bed an start the kettle IN MY ROOM (because with toddlers and squeaky floors, you gotta keep hidden!)
  3. Start my morning pages, while hovering over the kettle so it doesn’t whistle or click and wake Willy up by the light of my iPhone haha (it’s not as tedious as it sounds).
  4. Make my coffee in the french press because I’m still trying to not wake anyone up.
  5. Finish my 3 morning pages. This means I write everything that comes to mind. The random to-dos that pop up are written down and starred. I write them down as they come – often it’s in the middle of a sentence I’m writing. I write about all the dumb things that are in my head or come into my head until 3 pages is finished. By this point I’ve mostly guzzled my first coffee and I’m awake.
  6. Transfer my to-dos that have come into my mind over to my planner so they don’t get lost.
  7. Open up my devotional and read it. I write out the quote that most stuck out to me into my planner.
  8. It isn’t until I’m done all of this that I get on my phone and check my messages etc.

IMG_0100Guys, it’s been life changing! It’s changed my devotional time because I don’t have all those brain interruptions happening. I’ve already cleaned out the cobwebs of my head and I’ve gotten into a head space that does not involve my phone. I have Do Not Disturb mode on my phone anyway so I’m not notified of any messages or any activity happening that would take my attention.

When I finally leave the room, I’m ready for the day. I’m awake and human again! I don’t find that I’m swept away by the day, living as much in reaction to everything.

Lie 2: “X is more rewarding right now”

This is the second post addressing the three lies we believe that lead us into procrastination. See the introduction post here and the first post in the series here.

 

lie2-bucket-list

When it comes to procrastinating, I think this is the most familiar problem. How many times have procrastinators chosen TV, movies, video games, Facebook, or Netflix instead of doing their essay for class? More insidious is when we do good things instead of the task we should be doing. At work I always have tasks I prefer over others, and sometimes the only thing motivating me to do the crummy jobs was the fact that I was being paid to do them. This doesn’t apply as well at home or in our personal lives. Even the idea that we’re paying for our courses isn’t motivation enough for us to do our work sometimes. This is all because of the lie we believe that this other more fun thing is more rewarding than doing the crummy task.

I was starting this lie in the face last week. Jack was down for a nap and I could watch TV or clean. The day before I felt AWESOME after doing some cleaning. As I was tempted to watch TV I remembered that this idea that I would feel better if I watched TV instead of cleaning was totally false. TV would be fun right now, but then I’d be left with the icky feeling that I avoided what I really needed to do AND left with the mess.

Until you’ve learned through experience that Doing The Thing is, in fact, more rewarding than Not Doing The Thing, it’s so much harder to believe that not doing It isn’t better. It’s also easy to quickly forget.

The way I deal with these lies is to remember the times I Did The Thing and felt GREAT. It’s an exercise that requires intentional thinking, but I find is fairly useful. The other thing that helps (I talk about this in my ebook) is building momentum.

How do you battle this lie? 

Lie 1: “It will take too long to do right now”

This is the first post addressing the three lies we believe that lead us into procrastination. See the introduction post here.

Original photo by William Warby
Original photo by William Warby

How many times have you thought, “I need to do _____” only to “realize” you don’t have enough time. Let’s be honest with ourselves: 9 times out of 10 that is not true in the least. When I first started attacking this idea that I didn’t have enough time, I started timing myself. I would stare at the pile of dishes and think, “I should do this but I’ll be late if I start now.” After I timed it, I realized it was a 3 minute job and I often had 5 to spare. This was such a freeing  realization because I sincerely believed both things: that I needed to do the job and that I didn’t have enough time. Soon I realized that this part of my brain was broken and I needed to acknowledge that the thought “it will take too long” should be treated as an unreliable calculation.

I’m not sure how this lie started worming its way into brains everywhere but it really needs to stop. If you think you don’t have time – try anyways and see how far you get. Half done dishes are better than never done. After you time yourself doing several activities that will “take too long” my guess is you’ll notice that they were a 10 minute job, not a 30 minute job your brain exploded the situation into.

Stresshacker.com affirms this and explains:

Learning to better estimate time to task completion is a skill that needs to be developed by procrastinators who, for whatever reason, seem to fall short of its mastery.

There you have it. Next time you think, “I don’t have time to do that right now” call your own bluff and give it a try!

 



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...