Category: DIY and Organization

DIY and Organization, Life and Health

Being More Productive By Doing Less At Once

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Depending on what job you have, the idea of only having 45 minutes (on average) during the course of your day to prepare everything you need to do for the other 6 may sound outlandish.

However, for those of you who aren’t aware, the teacher workday is broken up into a variety of tasks:

  1. Teaching and working with the students
  2. Prepping the work and materials that you’re going to be doing with the children
  3. Duties (hall, study hall, office, etc..)
  4. Fighting with printers/copiers/technology to make #1 and #2 happen
  5. Grading work that has been turned in
  6. Meetings (post-observation, 504/IEP, professional development….)
  7. Emails/communication with other teachers, counselors, parents, etc…
  8. Writing reports and/or lesson plans (which is a separate task from #2 because often the lesson plans for administrators look wildly different than what you’re giving the students)
  9. Bring pertinent information to administrators, counselors, etc…
  10. Other duties as determined by administrators (really this list could keep going but I’m going to cut it off)
Photo by Sonja Langford on Unsplash

For those of you who don’t realize, number 1 takes up 5+ hours of our day and we have to handle the other 9 during the rest of the day. Sometimes they can overlap with number 1 but more often than not we have to squeeze the rest into the other 2 hours of our work day along with lunch, going to the bathroom and sometimes just taking a breath so you don’t lose your mind.

There was a time when I tried to squeeze as many of the other tasks into a single day’s planning period. Most of the time it was because I thought I had to have it all done immediately. What happens when everything is important? Then nothing really is.

Over the course of the pandemic I’ve learned the way I need to balance my prep time is not by trying to do it all at the same time but by dedicating my prep time to very specific tasks.

I realized that there are three main things I usually do during my prep periods over and over again: developing/preparing new material for future lessons, grading, and communicating with others.

When I realized that these are the same tasks I have to focus on repetitively I realized that if I committed my prep periods to the single task then I could stay on top of the workload easier and was more productive because I wasn’t constantly jumping from one task to the next without finishing the first.

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

I actually started writing on my schedule for the year “planning new stuff” or “grading” and now, because I know that prep for the week is dedicated to that task instead of trying to do everything all the time I get more done in a single period than I did before.

I generally alternate the days so if today was a planning new stuff day, tomorrow will be grading and email (I can usually get them both done unless it’s a particularly heavy grading day) and I’ll go back and forth through the week.

Chunking out my time this way has helped me stay on track (mostly) teaching three different classes, one of which is brand new to me this year, without feeling like I’m overwhelmed and underwater with everything. It’s even given me the opportunity to take my lunch and read for fun while I’m eating instead of working through lunch.

By setting guidelines and structure to my work week I’ve been able to get back to a place of normal with my job and not constantly feel like I’m in fight or flight mode while also still handling my responsibilities and carving out some time to breathe.

DIY and Organization, Tips and Tricks

Six Steps to Better Time Management in 2023

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Here we are again in that mythical time of new years resolutions, one word promises, and other ways that we plan to do and be better in the new year. New year’s resolutions are promises we make to ourselves when we can see our potential and we’re hoping to live up to it. The problem with resolutions is we always have the best intentions but the follow through is difficult for most of us.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

I recently discovered an easy way to track your resolutions or goals which can be easily adapted to your professional or personal life. 

I stumbled across a video by creator Matt Ragland about his “ten block” method but realized that I don’t really need to organize or worry about my work life so much. My work life as a teacher is pretty structured already and I’m good about using my time wisely because there’s only so much of it to go around but I have found this method to be incredibly useful in tracking the things I want to do in my personal life instead of the usual habit trackers.

Step 1: I figured out roughly how much available time I have in a week:

Total hours in a week: 168

Total hours spent commuting at at work: 45

Total hours doing errands, meals, kids activities, meetings (high average): 15

Total hours sleeping (I’m a sleep zealot and work really hard on getting my sleep): 63

Hours left over: 168 — (45+15+63) = 45 hours

When I did this calculation, I was shocked to find out that I had 45 hours a week to do what I wanted to do, not just what I needed to do. That was an eye opener to me because, like most people, I’m usually complaining about the fact that there isn’t enough time. 

However, seeing it in black and white, there really IS enough time, I am just squandering it with doom scrolling and TV watching. 

After I processed my feelings of “wasted” time, I decided to get to work on making it not wasted. 

I’ve been on the bullet journal train consistently now for about a year and it’s the only planner style I haven’t given up on yet because it morphs into whatever you need when you need it which I have found incredibly helpful. I will say, I generally stay away from social media or videos about bullet journals unless I use the word “minimalist” because the bujo world is CRAZY and some people get really artistic with them but that is not me — I am a minimalist — give me the basics and the simpler the better.

This is what hit me about Matt’s ten block method — it was a super simple time tracker that let you see how much time you were spending on different activities and if you were using too much time in the wrong areas. You can use this simple method as a way to track how much time you spend doing things you don’t want to (i.e. doom scrolling) or things you do want to be doing (i.e exercise). 

As we enter into 2023 — I wanted to share this with anyone who might find it helpful:

Step 2: Set up a four hour strip — for me in my bullet journal it works out to sixteen dots on the dot grid paper and four for each hour.

Step 3: Draw this four hour strip as many times as you want or need to. Matt originally suggests ten times for a total of forty hours but I generally use six to eight strips (twenty-four to thirty-two hours) depending on what my focus is during that week. And since I’m using this in my personal life I figured I don’t need to be productive for the full 45 hours I have available, because sometimes we need to “waste” time and be restful.

Step 4: Separate the strips into one hour increments. I do this by using four dots for each hour.

Step 5: Then label each strip with what you’re tracking (i.e. meetings, exercise, reading, etc…)

Step 6: Shade time in the strip every time you spend time on that activity:

photo by author

I have found this really helpful in keeping me on track and focusing on my priorities in a gentle and open way as opposed to being so rigid I end up giving up. I have found that I need a nice balance of routine and flexibility and this ten block method helps me with that. As you can see in the picture, I don’t always (very rarely) meet my goals or get even close to them but it at least is a way for me to see how I’m spending my time and where I can improve.

I hope you take whatever you need into 2023 and work towards the life you want to have — no matter what that looks like to anyone else!

DIY and Organization, Life and Health

To Clean Or Not To Clean?

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We have had a whirlwind of birthday parties these past four weeks. As of writing this we’ve had a birthday party every weekend for a month, and it’s been succor to this extrovert’s heart but after two years of the pandemic it seems like my social life (or more accurately my daughter’s) went from 0 to 60 without blinking. While we have both enjoyed being able to be around people and socialize in a way that hasn’t happened for quite a while it’s been weird having commitments again and I must remind myself that I don’t want to live in that frenzied state of running from one thing to the next without a break.

But as someone who thrives on engaging with others even in small doses, how can I meet that need without burning the candles at both ends? How can I feed my extrovert soul without shirking my responsibilities at home or the need to sometimes pause and reflect?

Photo by Ricardo Viana on Unsplash

The problem with being out all the time is I feel like my house is in shambles because we haven’t spent time cleaning up and putting things away because we’re running. My daughter has also found new friends on the block, so she is out the door to play with them most days after school; since it’s keeping her from becoming a screen zombie and it’s feeding her extrovert soul, I find it hard to tell her no but then she is also not learning responsibility around keeping up with the household chores.

Don’t get me wrong, our house is not an unsanitary, hazardous waste dump but there is just STUFF. Stuff that collects on every surface because we (yes, I do it to even though I tend to blame most of it on my husband and child) just come home and drop whatever we’re carrying or what needs to be sorted through in any number of places. I attempt to have clean surfaces, such as the breakfast nook or the dining room table but they quickly get overtaken by mail that needs to be sorted, kindergarten work that needs to be recycled in the dead of night, so she doesn’t notice it disappearing, or other items that need to find their home in our house.

I try to put systems in place that facilitate getting things put away in an organized manner, but my husband tends to rebel against those systems (he’s a rebel at heart, thanks Gretchen Rubin) and my daughter is now six so any thought process that extends beyond the here and now is lost on her. Days or weeks later she will ask for something — I’ll respond, “did you put it away?” and she’ll look bewildered at me like those are foreign words she’s never heard before.

But I know full well this is our fault. We have not instilled in her the need or the routines. Sure, she helps around the house, or she’ll put things away when I tell her to or withhold something from her when it gets really bad (“you can’t go play until….” “Or no TV until….”) which is not the best strategy. I’d like to raise a kid who puts things away and cleans up after herself but her parents haven’t been so hot at it either so I can’t really blame her.

Being someone who deals with ADHD symptoms, having systems in place and routines greatly helps keep me be organized and productive because when my environment is chaotic, my mind is chaotic because it’s struggling to keep tabs on ALL THE THINGS. Where are *insert item here*? What was I supposed to be doing? And then I’ll get distracted by the things that need to be put away or dealt with but trying to stay on top of these systems when I’m in essence forcing them on two other mostly autonomous beings in the house is another level of exhaustion so then I just say “screw it” even though I know that makes things worse for me in the long run.

I keep promising to myself that we will implement regular chores or time to clean up again both as a way to keep the house neat but also work on teaching her responsibility, but it always feels like I’m swimming against the current. And yet at the same time I know it will be good for all of us to go back to a little bit at a time — I just have to be the adult and make it happen.

Who knew that most of adulthood would be cleaning up the same $hit repeatedly?

And then I think about myself, it wasn’t until I got to college and had “itty bitty living space” where I really learned the value of putting things away and keeping things organized.

As with so many things in parenting, I know that we are sowing the seeds that take a long time to bloom but I just have to plant them.

DIY and Organization, Things I Like

Productivity Tools that Really Work (for me)

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Photo by Matt Ragland on Unsplash

Disclaimer: This is not an ad. I have not received or been paid by anyone to write this, these are all my own thoughts and opinions based on years of trying to hone my own planner style.

I blame my mother, I am an office product addict. When I was a teen my first real job was in an office supply store. Pens, notebooks, highlighters, sticky notes…I am in heaven. But how do these things coalesce into a functioning system that keeps me (mostly) on track and getting my $*** done? It’s been a long, evolving road but currently I’m going to share the top items or techniques that help me use my stash to be an effective planner.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” 
 ― Abraham Lincoln

  1. Bullet Journal Style — if you’ve been involved in the planner world for any time over the past decade you’ve probably run across bullet journaling or BuJo for short. My first experience with it was the insanely beautiful artistic spreads on instagram but I discovered that bujo was a technique that was designed for minimalist functionality and brain dumping. This is what I need, I am not a visual artist but I need a way to record my to dos, my activities, and somehow get it all done. The core of the bullet journal is rapid logging ideas to get them out of your brain and on paper as fast as possible. This really helps me keep tabs on the important information without losing it or fear I’m going to forget it later because it’s already been cataloged somewhere.
  2. Hero’s Journal — Currently my favorite notebook is The Hero’s Journal, pictured below. It’s a 90 day planner that “turns your goal into a quest.” Each page is structured enough to give you focus on the tasks or information for the day but enough free space to do what you need to. Since my days are all pretty similar (and I get up at 5am) I just use the timeline as a running list through out the day of my rapid logs which consist of appointments, to dos, quotes, or good ideas I have. I’m still working on migrating ideas into collections (a bullet journal thing) but at least I know I have those good ideas down somewhere. I also love that the Hero’s Journal is decorated enough without me needing to be an artist and as a bonus you can color the pages yourself if you want to.
  3. Papermate InkJoy 0.7/0.5 mm black click pen — this has become my go to pen, see above comments about not being so artsy and being a minimalist planner. I love this pen for all my general writing needs, I also love that I can secure it to the Hero’s Journal elastic band and ALWAYS have a pen with me. It writes so smoothly but also it’s a nice fine tip which I feel like gives me more space to work with on those days where I fill my planner up with all the things.
  4. Zebra Mildliners — Another explosion on the planner scene in the past few years and there’s a reason for it: these are highlighters that come in a wide variety of colors and opaqueness. This is the one way I “decorate” my journal; I’ll use these highlighters to color code things by priority when I feel like the world is getting away from me or just as a way to call special attention to something for the day. They add a nice pop of color to my generally black and white spreads while also being super functional and helpful.
  5. Setting an alarm — Every night my alarm goes off at 8:30pm and this is the reminder to sit down and review my day: what got done, what still needs to get done but can wait until tomorrow (or later), what’s on my schedule for tomorrow? Even if I don’t look at the planner during the whole day, this time allows me to review, reflect, and plan to do better tomorrow. After all, planners only work if you actually use them, right?
photo by author

Without these tools right now I probably wouldn’t be keeping it together nearly as well as I am. I didn’t think anything could be as exhausting as the 2020–2021 school year but apparently the beginning of the 2021–2022 year said “hold my beer.” Each day feels like a ping pong game where I am the ball being knocked around; some days are better than others but it’s been a rough couple of months. 

I spend a lot of mental energy being the “adult in the room” at work and when I get home, if I’m not careful, I quickly avoid being the adult in the room except here I really have to be: I have a child to take care of and responsibilities to keep the household running. These tools help me prioritize, direct my energy, reflect, and ultimately keep me moving forward during some really difficult times. These tools also help me to carve out ways to refresh my mental energy (filling my cup or putting spoons back in the drawer if you’re familiar with those phrases) so I can continue being the adult in the room both at work and at home.

These tools rein in my inner teenager, help me do the things I need to, while also making space and planning for the things I want to do. Planning in ways to be selfish, take time for myself, do the things I love ultimately helps me be a better wife, mother, teacher, person than if I am constantly focusing on the “have to do” and not any of the “want to do.”

I found that finding the system that helps me balance out the needs and wants is critical to being a happier and healthier person.

DIY and Organization, Life and Health

“Don’t Mind the Mess”

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I don’t know about you but if you’re part of any social media that involves women it seems like almost every single photo that gets shared includes some line like “don’t mind the mess…” Sometimes they try to give you a reason for the mess and sometimes they don’t but the shame feeling is strong with this one.

Continue reading ““Don’t Mind the Mess”” →
DIY and Organization

DIY With A Side of Perfection Disease

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Disclaimer: The person who this gift is for has not been the cause for my anxiety or perfection disease other than the fact that I feel I owe her my best.  She even said “anything made in love is wonderful” or something to that nature way back when.  All thoughts are my own mind working against itself and it’s own disease to please.

A few months ago a dear friend of mine was explaining her struggle with her new place and I felt compelled to try and help by offering her some handiwork to make it feel more like her home…this is the saga.

 

Continue reading “DIY With A Side of Perfection Disease” →

DIY and Organization, Things I Like

The Indoor Sandbox

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As an adult, woman, person, teacher, and parent I have had some terrible ideas and some amazing ideas, some things that have worked, some that have bombed terribly and some that are both good and bad ideas all at the same time.  The indoor sandbox has become one of those ideas.

Continue reading “The Indoor Sandbox” →

DIY and Organization, Life and Health

The most “adult” thing ever

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I took a little bit of a break last week because it appears the Mr. and I have gone under contract to buy a house.

In keeping with my forward mantra of 2018 we have taken a leap in that direction.  A leap that I was completely and overwhelmingly prepared for and unprepared for all at the same time.

Continue reading “The most “adult” thing ever” →

DIY and Organization

Simple Toddler Felt Wall DIY Project

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Felt boards or books are all the rage at the moment.  It started with Christmas trees on the walls that little ones could touch and manipulate and then turned into a year-round project.  I decided it was time try my hand at one and also continue working on my budding sewing skills.

Continue reading “Simple Toddler Felt Wall DIY Project” →