The day in the life of a stay at home mother of 4 boys trying to live a simpler life in this mass consumer age.
We have a winner! Sara who said that until now she has been keeping track with sticky notes and her phone which wasn’t working that well for her with 3 young children. Hopefully this will help.
Remember there is no wrong way to use a bullet journal and you can modify it to your needs.
Here are a few pages I added to my bullet journal this last month.
How do you use your planner/bullet journal?
I’d like to take today to talk about the importance of self care no matter what your profession is but especially when you are in a care taking job. Whether you are in the health care field, a mother, or taking care of aging parents people get depleted pretty quickly. It is difficult to keep giving and giving but a lot of people misunderstand what self care really looks like. It isn’t always a massage and a mani/pedi. Self care can be as little as just taking 15 min in the morning and reflecting on what your day will look like and remembering to acknowledge the things you can be thankful for that day. Morning journaling can go a long way in putting your mind in the mind set of getting things done and prepping for what is to come that day. Drinking your favorite warm beverage or juice while doing this can help set the mood for a wonderful day. It is just a short check in with yourself. Your feelings and your body.
Most western countries have the bad habit of hitting the ground running as soon as the alarm goes off. Believe me I make this mistake too. Especially while I was working full time. But I always tried once I got to work to make myself a cup of coffee, look over my calendar, and envision what my day will look like. What tasks I had left over from the day before and what I needed to do that day. Now as a stay at home I go over all the different tasks that I have to do to keep this family functioning.
Morning Journal is my favorite and least expensive self care technique. There are plenty of other ways.
Here is what I do to keep me to doing. I start with a piece of paper and three colors of either markers or pens that I find pretty and/or fun. I pick my main color that I write the list out in. Then I write the day and to do at the top. Then I make boxes in front of each to do item to be checked off later. It is very important that even if you have already made your bed that day to include it because you should never underestimate how gratifying it is to check that off your list of to dos as DONE. Also if you do something that is not on the list like you notice that the front porch needs to be swept and you do it. Add it to the list and then check it off. Then I pick the second color to make the list more appealing by outlining the check boxes and underlining the date to do header and then I have a whole other color to check off my done to dos.
DO NOT FORGET TO PUT FUN STUFF ON YOUR TO DO LIST!!!!
Enjoy reading? Put 10 min or more of reading on your to do list.
Enjoy knitting? Put 15 min or more of knitting on your list.
The adding to the list of things already done, things that you enjoy and things you think of through the day is important because it makes the list more doable and less of a chore. And like I stated above NEVER underestimate the psychological feel good of checking things off a list as DONE!
I try to write mine in order but with kids and all I get distracted and things end up all over the place.
Also if I have something that I need to do multiple times through the day like 3 loads of laundry I put one check box at the front and then three behind it so that each time a load goes in the wash I check it off and then when the three loads are done I can check off the box in front of the item. I also put dry, fold and put away in their own separate check offs each with 3 boxes behind them so I can check off at each step.
Why all the colors? Because this is something you are going to look at often through the day so you want it to be appealing!
At the end of the day I might not have finished ALL of my To Dos but seeing how many checks I managed is very rewarding non the same.
How do you do your To Dos?