Simplify your life {Week fourteen: Time management – Planning}

Time management…
I love finding new ways to be organised with my time. I am a list maker… I love them… but I hate it when I can’t follow them perfectly.
Anyway, todays post is about how I manage my time, how I plan my tasks and what I have found works for me.
This is part of the simplify your life challenge… which ironically I haven’t had much time to complete.. so.. thought this one was a good one to pick up from.
Some of my time management tools are handy and on my iphone. I have apps with lists of my daily routines on there and can click through them when they are done… easy peasy.
I also have a calendar where I jot down important events and appointments so I can easily see at a glance whats on in any given month or week. This forms my basis for how I plan my week. I can look at what is coming up and tweak any meal plans etc around the things that we have going on.
I will plan my meals on the weekend based on what is coming up and what is in the house already (which is slowly but surely getting easier).
Once I have this weekly plan I jot down in my notebook how I am planning to get through my days. I have given up on writing down specific times because there is always something that happens to throw timing out the window… eg… stopping to feed the baby or get a snack for the toddler!!
I just simply make a list of the “day” that needs to happen and work through it in order… sometimes skipping things if there is a “time sensitive” task… such as doing the school run. This way I feel in control of how Ï spend my time and making best use of it, while still being flexible enough to stop and focus on those people in my life that I need to be organised for.
I have this funny little joke with my hubby… he thinks I am a little ocd on my tasks etc… So I made up the saying “ROUTINES SAVE LIVES!!!” Well that really quite ridiculous… but they do keep my sanity and it does mean we are all clothed, fed and enjoying living in a reasonably well kept house, while making it to our important things on time (mostly!!).
I have found it really crucial to make sure I book in time with myself to do the things I like… so each month I will set myself a little goal of the ‘fun’things I want to get done in the month… and then plan that into my weeks. Things like scrapbooking, knitting and sewing. All of which I feel guilt free for spending time on because for the most part I create things either for other people to meet there needs… or something for others to enjoy.. .and it gives me joy in being creative so why not pencil in time for myself… especially when it blesses others!

Getting healthier…. on my list of things to do!!

Just posting in here to keep me accountable…
I am planning on starting a Lose baby weight program as of Monday… silly to start this weekend with all the chocolate and hot cross buns around… but I am starting on Monday.
I have lost weight before and I know how rewarding… and also how hard it is to stick with. So I am planning things ahead of time so that I don’t fall into the trap of if you fail to plan you plan to fail!
Measurements done… not sharing at this stage tho…
Goals: My goal is to lose the belly, get fitter and have a healthier diet… Why? It feels good, it looks good and its good for my breastmilk supply which in turn is good for my baby! So it helps fulfill my role as mother too… I will have more energy and feel in a better mood.

My one hang up is the cost… doesn’t it always seem to cost more to eat healthily… cost is a big issue around here at present… but I suppose that you need to start somewhere and that the cost of being unhealthy can in the long run end up more anyway.

My plan is to have smoothies once or twice a day, replace highcalorie, high sugar snacks for healthier and more satisying ones.
I plan to force myself to walk more again by getting hubby to take the car to work so I have to walk to do the school run (this worked so well when I couldn’t drive cos of the c-section… so now I need to remove the temptation to be lazy!!)
I also need to remove from my sight any tempting foods. Its just too hard when the choccie bikkies are staring you in the face!! I will allow myself some little indulgences of this nature but no more than 2-3 time in the week. (wow… hope I can stick to that).
My ultimate goal is to lose about 13kg… so we shall see how long this takes me.
I plan to log my food so I know exactly what is going in my mouth and I will aim to build up gradually in terms of my exercise.
There…. I have laid out the bare bones of what I will try to achieve…. so now.. I have to JUST DO IT!
Who’s with me?

Its time….

Well I figure that because today marks 6 weeks since my beautiful baby girl was born, that I had best make an effort to get back to blogging…
I am happy to say that I feel a bit more relaxed about getting everything done right now than what I previously have after babies.
I am working on prioritising what is really important… a constant task really, especially with a newborn. The other day I had a great big plan of what I wanted to do while my eldest was at school and my 3yo was at preschool… only my bub had other ideas and decided she wanted to feed most the day! So plans sometimes by necessity need to go out the window!!! Its ok.. I was actually thinking in my head while trying to settle her down after the first 2 hours… its ok… I am exactly where I am supposed to be right now.. the ironing, washing, folding and everything else can wait… it isnt’the end of the world. It has taken a long time for me to come to that kind of thinking. Even now I have pockets of mess in my house… they just have to wait because I can’t do it all. I can do what I can after I have spent time with the people I love and fulfilled their needs.
I am certainly keen to have a cleaner house, lose the baby weight, get some time to sew and scrapbook… but these are things that I can set aside for when they are the most important thing for me to do…
I plan to go and try to do some more of my 52 week simplify my life challenge… but today’s post in a nutshell I suppose is about the fact that just by changing my mindset… I really feel I have made huge progress in simplifying things.
Now… back to what is most important.. right now that is turning off my beeping oven… my cookies are done.. 😉