2012 Getting Organized

Again.

It's no secret that I TRY real hard to be organized.

My BIGGEST NUMERO UNO get organized tip.... are you ready? Wait for it..... I've been working on this one ALL year in 2011...and will continue to work on it this year.

Instead of buying cool storage containers for your crap....

it's revolutionary. Are you sure you can handle it?

GET RID OF YOUR CRAP!

BE RUTHLESS! Do it in stages. Start with one REALLY ANNOYINGLY cluttered part of your house. Start small. Clean out that junk drawer in the kitchen. Dump the WHOLE thing out. Get a drawer organizer.... put it in your drawer. Choose a spot for each thing you NEED in this drawer. While you are at it pull the garbage can over or a box for donations. Shoot go crazy, grab both.

Now remember RUTHLESS. How many pens do you really need at your finger tips? Perhaps there are other locations in your house that can use a pen. Do they even work? Check. Get a scrap paper and try to write with EVER pen in there. Or choose three pens you like and throw the rest out. DO NOT go out and buy another bulk pack of pens. DON'T do it! Now put ONE roll of tape in there, your book of stamps, one ruler, a nail file, a pair of scissors... ONE to THREE of each little thing you NEED in your junk drawer. If there are other things you want to keep, but they don't belong in your drawer then find an appropriate home for them.

Now STOP throwing everything on your counter in your junk drawer!! PUT IT AWAY in the RIGHT place instead. (now go through other areas of your house and REPEAT. Always bringing the donation box and garbage box with you.)

And NUMERO DOS... a plan. AT this moment we will talk about a meal plan. I've tried numerous approaches to this. Most recently I tried Simple Mom's Google Calendar idea, but as simple as it is it's too complicated for me. It might work for you though so check it out. I do like a lot of (most of) her stuff.

I like paper and pencil.

I'm simple. My most successful approach has been to just write the plan in my calendar with a pencil. Old school style. I have been pinning many recipes in Pinterest and generally have been using that to catalog my recipes. (Though I - admittedly - need to organize them a bit better). I write a little note in my calendar as to where the recipe can be found. Pinterest, a different site, a book, magazine etc.

I hate to clean. Numero Tres, but I have kids!!!! Why did this take me so long? My kids are getting to the age where they can actually help. And ONE of them is more than willing. The other is excited.... for now, but I suspect the novelty will wear off.

those that guessed chore chart were right.

Now I don't have to do it all. They can (and should) help and we do it together .... mostly because they aren't quite old enough to do all of this on their own... and it's actually kind of fun. BONUS: It helps them with their reading. Full disclosure... this was not my idea!

INSERT PHOTO OF CHORE BOARDS!

Side note... if you want them to do something MAKE SURE it's on the CARD because I'm now breeding little Union leaders! "BUT MOM it's not on my chore card!" Or "Mom, it says get dressed FIRST THEN brush teeth!!"

Boring Mom stuff is sometimes helpful. Enter NUMERO QUATRO 'the binder'... I'm typically very resistant to this domestic kind of BS, but I am in desperate need of organization and things made easy because I'm going to be enlisting some serious help this year... and anything I can offer to make things a little easier on those (aka MOM) coming into my home in my absence than I am all over it.

Artwork by Lily. I think that's me.

Still working on which Tabs work for me.

Again How She Does gives me the HOOK UP on the How To for the FAMILY BINDER. Now my tabs are a bit different than hers... Note MY first tab. (Okay maybe this won't make it easier for my mom to run my house, but it's a big thing in my life and deserves tab numero uno in my mind.) My first tab is TRAINING and contains my training schedule and any other training related info I find that I want to remember/keep tabs on.

If you have kids you NEED this. NUMERO CINCO: the 'tickler file'. I noticed the other day that my dad has one. He's like 65.. he's been organized (in a simple way) his whole life. Well, let's be real, my MOM keeps their house organized and always has, but my dad organizes all things house/financials. Anyway I notice the other day that dad has this cool folder thing that has one in the front that says TO DO! Hmm... then I saw THIS (again from Simple Mom... told you she had good stuff). I recently had the papers for renewing out car tabs rolling around in this basket / inbox thingy ... my last attempt at organizing my paper crap... and while it did get done... mostly on time.. I kept touching it and moving it while waiting for it's due date to get a bit closer. This only increases the chances that I am going to LOSE it until WELL PAST it's due date.

If you've got kids... they bring all kinds of stuff home from school. Then there are all the other obligations in your life that still require pieces of paper. I created a tickler file that has a section to hold my individual notebooks for various commitments I have (Rev3 has one, ECH has one, this blog has one, and I have one more for a goal I have for this year) and I have a slot for each month. Something is due in February I put it in my calendar with a note that it is in the Tickler file then I file it. MAGICALLY it is no longer rolling around in my kitchen getting ruined and potentially lost and forgotten! This is AWESOME! I've got high hopes for this one!

Talk to me about what you do to manage it all. How do you keep yourself organized!? So far this is working great for me. If you try any of it let me know how it works for you.

WANT TO BE MORE!

I want to be better. I want to provide more to you, my readers, to my family and to my friends. I want to go beyond the drivel I put up here in blogger land... and upon reading some old posts ... the belly aching. OH MY GOD!!! I tell my kids not to whine. I think they learned it from me... Holy HELL batman. Strike me dead with lightning I am the CAUSE of the problem. Crap, I digress.... (and start w/ my blathering and whining again.)

I feel like time has gone by and while I'm sure things have changed... they are much the same.

I want to write epic shit, I want to do epic shit, I want to be 100% satisfied with where I am and who I am, but frankly I'm scared. How can I be scared of being the best I can be? Of putting myself out there. Of providing value!?

How? I'll tell you how. I worry that I CAN'T do it. That I can't write epic shit or even do epic shit. That I can't provide value. That I can't break out of the mundane that has become my existence. While I realize the ridiculousness of these statements... surely I provide value... to someone.

What if I put it out there that I want to do these things... I get through a few epic things/thoughts/ideas that I'm actually able to successfully share. That actually motivate and inspire people... and then .....

Crickets!

What if after that the well runs dry..... the blog dies? I die? 

Surely not.

My heart will still beat...

Your heart will still beat...

And I guess I could just go back to writing like I do now.... 

Right? 

So I said it. I put it out there. Next year I hope to BE more... to PROVIDE more...

It's almost 2012 people. ALMOST!

2012.. it's a comin' in a big way!

I've got a bunch of projects in mind for 2012.... who's getting excited for the 2012 debut!? I think I must have accidentally had caffeine this a.m. bc I have been JACKED all day. It's either that or the anticipation of all of the cool things on the horizon has me super FIRED UP!

Right now I'm working on looking at all I hope to be involved in and accomplish in 2012 and prioritizing and scheduling my time. I feel like through the process of all of this I'm FINALLY starting to find myself or grow into myself and I'm not going to lie... it feels glorious. Who went through their 20s feeling like they were having a midlife crisis and feeling ill equipped to deal with it? THIS GIRL! I called it my quarter life crisis.... then I had kids... couldn't really have a cognitive thought... follow through = FORGET ABOUT IT!

And now suddenly - surely has something to do with the full day kindergarten thing - I can have a cognitive thought... and now I work on the follow through. By way of a plan and simplification of the things I need to and want to get done.

(Mom, hold onto your hat.. I'm about to implement things you've been harping on me telling me about for YEARS!)

From Zen Habits:
"Design a simple system intentionally, making a routine that works for you, and alter it if it doesn’t make sense. Write out the system, so it is formal, and try to stick to it as much as possible — religiously, if possible."

Schedule all those little things! Make a plan... and it will get done. Just running around and 'filling in' is inefficient and sucks up a lot of my time. (It's not like this is a new thought... I've been doing this with training plans for years now. Time to apply to other aspects of my life.)

Designate day for each task: I'm working through this. Here's what I have so far
- laundry
- meal planning (1week out) - day before grocery day (sunday)
- grocery/errands (monday)
- clean (friday)
- review finances (thursday - 2x/mo)
- spinning/training (tuesday & thursday)
- workout/train (I've been scheduling this for years... it's 5-6 days a week for me at various times/locations.. all written in my calendar and updated weekly.)

Schedule time to complete your NEED to do tasks: (think of your projects and things you need to do to complete them.)
- workout (9:30a m/w/f, 12pm t/th)
- write (6am-7am m-f)
- photograph
- blog
- email (ie. top of the hour, 3x/day for 30 mins)
- create spin and training plans

How do you make sure it all gets done? Do you prefer a paper calendar, icalendar, pda calendar?

Oh... as to what all these projects and super fun things I'm looking at for 2012.. and the elusive race schedule. Well, it's coming together.... but I won't be unveiling it until closer to the new year... come on people there is still 1.5 months left in this year!!!!! :D Maybe on my birthday I'll do that post... but only if you PROMISE to check in here on my Birthday Christmas!!!

2011 is going to be the year of AWESOMENESS!!!

I'm putting it out there right now. You are on notice 2011 you are GOING TO BE THE YEAR OF AWESOMENESS!

Proof of this fact! Big things are planned. I've got myself a rockin' coach! I'm putting myself out there in ways I've always wanted to, but never gone through with! Things like.. the coach, the GREEN, and now I'm working on re-certifying for Spinning and am GOING to USE it (need something to pay for the awesomeness), I'm going for the BQ, putting my hat in the lottery for NYC and am stepping up my triathlon distance! I'm also working on building this blog into something more than just a 'journal' of sorts.  As I've alluded to before there is some other 2011 awesomeness in the plans too, but I'm not at liberty to discuss them here right now. It'll all come out some day...

I'm amped and excited about this. I've struggled for most of my adult life with the "what am I going to do with myself?" question. I've been painfully paralyzed by it. I'm not sure what happened, but I feel like I'm breaking free of it in a big way. I've always been ALL OVER the place with my interest and have really lacked focus, but the one constant has ALWAYS been the training/exercising. Granted it has come and gone, but over the last 4 years it has always been there. So I'm going with it. I'm not ready to really work per se. I am committed to the two little munchkins and being there for them in these years, but once school starts full time I want to hit the ground running with whatever it is I finally settle on. Part of the planning for that is doing the things above to either get them out of my system or ingrain them in my life to carry them on in different (read paid) ways as my time opens up. Word on the street is that kindergarten might be full time next year! Holding my breath and wishing hard on that one. Would certainly contribute to the second half of the year of AWESOMENESS!

I'm excited to take you all along with me for the support, motivation and inspiration. You all really do make me want to step up the game and live this life to it's fullest! Let's do this thing!

What awesomeness are you bringing into your life in 2011?

Balancing the lifestyle...

As I was trying to fall asleep last night I thought about Trimommy's post about Visualization and how she uses it before race day and it works so she should try using it in the realm of parenthood. (how's that working trimommy?)... as I lay there I was also thinking about what was on deck for my workouts for the next day. I always do this.

I'm not sure about all the other moms of young kids out there, but one of my main struggles in motherhood is REALLY connecting with my kids on a daily basis. YES, it's true. I spend almost EVERY waking moment with my kids and it's not uncommon for me to go to bed at night and not be able to think of one moment in the day where I really stopped the chaos and madness of motherhood/house caring to connect with my children as opposed to just responding to their needs and shuffling them around for school and errands. And this is not a new problem...

I've tried a number of times to figure out how to fix this problem. To be more scheduled about our day... but really it's not my style. So then I was thinking... okay every day I have at least one (sometimes two) workouts planned each day. I am non-negotiable about this and it gets done every day.. barring any unforeseen circumstances ... normally related to the aforementioned spawn. So why not do the same thing for the kids and I. I could plan an activity or something for every day that is 'non-negotiable'. It doesn't need to be elaborate because frankly they just don't care they just want my undivided attention. And really is that too much to ask of your mother!? It could be reading books or coloring.. and I mean coloring as in me coloring too not them coloring while I'm on the computer!

So today's activity is going to be a hike w/ Leo dog, then a trip to the library to return the Halloween books and movies (and pay for the movie that Jason broke before we even got to watch it.. ugh) in exchange for some Thanksgiving stuff. That's as far as I've gotten right now.

Another area that I'm struggling with is the 2011 goals and image board. I'm all set in the world of endurance sports, but struggle with adding things around the family goals. There's just ONE big one... other than that I'm stumped. What's wrong with me? Clearly the undivided attention goal is a good one, but other than that??? I guess this is one reason why I love triathlon... it gives me a schedule and goals. Mostly I feel like there is a schedule to get the training done and the rest just happens. I know I need to make it so that the rest has purpose and intention as well, but I get so overwhelmed with it.

How do you do this ladies/gents? How do you make sure to spend that quality time with your kids? I feel absolutely ridiculous asking this question, but I know I can't be alone in this. I never thought that as a stay at home mom this would be an issue, but it's easy to get distracted by all the mundane things that 'need' to get done to run a household.. and frankly playing trains bores me! :)