The first building block to becoming a truly productive person is scheduling. Gretchen Rubin’s personality test shows me as a questioner leaning towards a rebel. I love reinventing the wheel. As you know, I have been doing this through my PhD. And I recently came across a study that I have now read many times called “Who’s Remembering to Buy The Eggs?” by Julie Holliday Wayne et al. It uses the term Invisible Family Load.

Invisible Family Load

I just loved the intentionality and thoroughness of the words she selected to sum up the invisible work of household managers. She started with invisible instead of mental which would imply mental only, but what about scheduling? Planning or worrying? Invisible is inclusive and encompassing. And then she used the word family to include people outside the structure of the home that a household manager would be caring for, like a college student or elderly family member. And lastly, she selected load instead of labor. Labor you get paid to do. Load was explained as being put on, burdensome, or weighing down a mind, thus requiring cognitive load and not getting paid for it. Do you know the top two tasks people marked the most as invisible in a study? Planning (#1) and Scheduling (#2); I think I’m onto something!! 

Schedules Sunday Basket®

I explained a few times that I created different types of schedules I have had in this episode. When I was still in-home organizing, I developed two types of schedules. I had one for working outside my home and one for working from home. I found that when a client canceled at the last minute, I would get frustrated and I was stumped on how to move forward with my day. Once I developed schedules, or scaffolding, for outside or inside work, I would just move to my working from home schedule when clients canceled. For my family, we had a weekend schedule and weekday schedule. Schedules simply keep you on task and eliminate decision making. Every Sunday, I go through my Sunday Basket®. Depending on things that need to get done that week, I can fill in my schedule, keeping in mind the routines I have established. It’s a general guide or, as I mentioned, scaffolding. 

Scaffolding Planning Days

Schedules give you structure but keep in mind, they can be reevaluated. Planning Days give you an opportunity to tweak your schedules. The Sunday Basket® is weekly and Planning Days offer the scaffolding, zooming out a little. Maybe you notice you want to change activities on different days due to a sports schedule change or getting your PhD. In Home Planning Day, we develop routines for morning, afternoon, and evening. In Workbox Planning Day, we develop routines for starting your work day, mid day, and ending your work day. Those six routines reduce your cognitive load. You made a plan proactively, now all you have to do is run it, go on autopilot. 

Level Up Scheduling

Wanna take scheduling to the Nth degree? Schedule the people coming to your home. I mean, book them out far enough that you can get a complete list of all tasks before they come for the appointment. Once you know they are coming, you may find more tasks for them to complete. And schedule meetings with people. I used to want to connect with people but felt rude telling them it would have to wait two weeks, so I just wouldn’t reach out or reply. I found over time that people don’t mind at all. Book the meeting and connect. It may seem weird to book out two months, but the day will be there before you know it and you’ll be connecting like you desired.

Truly productive people are always looking at their schedules and realize they support them through scaffolding. Schedules do not limit them. Up next? Consistency!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Organize 365® Podcast Resources

• The Sunday Basket®

• Organize 365® Home Planning Day

• Friday Workbox® Planning Day

• Podcast 10 Year Anniversary Giveaway

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In this episode, I introduce you to Lori R. who loves having her two adult children live with her. Lori learned her peers were really into podcasts. Lori was trying to keep a lot of balls in the air due to work, her children, and her husband was sick. She searched podcasts for productivity and found the Organize 365® Podcast. She listened repeatedly to the Sunday Basket® episodes and made a makeshift one of her own. Her biggest lesson? Think differently which goes against her engineering brain.  

Lori has learned a lot like DIY, hire it out, or delegate tasks. Like how she hired cleaners for her son far away at college. And you can just stop. This is the permission Lori needed to just stop projects or roles she no longer wanted to be doing. Lori’s daughter was in competitive cheer, on two teams. That meant a lot of time at the gym. To be more productive, she loaded up her paper and a camp chair and went through papers while her daughter practiced. When you are scheduling everything, be mindful of drive time and the best time to use the bathroom. And you don’t need to watch every practice. Let’s normalize getting ahead on house chores while kids are participating in afterschool activities.

The podcast challenged her to think of other things she could accomplish during her daughter’s hours at the gym, like the laundry that was bugging her and bringing a cooler to get groceries. As Lori told story after story of practical application of what she has learned, I realized she’s been creating operational systems to help her home be functional. She finally invested in an official Sunday Basket® in 2021. Even her daughter learned if she needed an important paper, it was in her slash pocket. 

Lori initially invested in a Medical Binder for her husband. She was happily surprised to have her documentation pay off during covid. He had to go by ambulance a couple of times. She was unable to be with him. She had the peace of mind to take out his list of medications, photocopy it, and send it with the paramedics. Her husband passed away in December of 2022. Lori leaned on the Sunday Basket® to collect all the mail of her deceased husband for later processing. Unfortunately she lost her mother 10 months later. Her mom now has a slash pocket to aid Lori in settling her estate. And that made her a caregiver to her dad. He got his own Sunday Basket® to help Lori in the functionality of his life, too. The statistics say you could outlive your husband. And most women as the household managers end up settling their spouses affairs as well as parents or other loved ones. The Sunday Basket® and Financial Binder are gifts to yourself in these times. After talking to Lori, we identified that her daughter is fairly organized. Thinking differently, I proposed that her daughter help with her father’s house and care.  

Lori’s advice is, Just get started. Just do a little bit at a time. It adds up. And to get a Medical Binder. Sometimes the apps don’t work at the medical facilities and it’s great to have it on paper. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In the mindset trilogy of this series, “prepared” is the last part of mindset. We discussed going pro, being balanced, and now truly productive people are prepared, over prepared really. This level of being prepared can be weird to people or distance you from others, but you won’t be the one scrambling when an unexpected life event rears its head. I’m going to give you some examples.

Go Bag

A friend of mine is in the caregiver role and I said what she needed is a go bag; think diaper bag for you as an adult. When my dad was sick and I needed to leave when I got the call, I had a go bag. And in fact, I’m going to put one together now and just hang it in the hall. What will I put in it? I’m glad you asked. I’ll make sure there’s my protein and fig bars so I can have healthy food if I am in a hospital or something. I like to have water bottles in there so I don’t have to leave the person I am caring for, as well as a brush, hair clip, socks, sweatshirt or blanket (I’m always cold), battery to charge my phone and watch, and probably a notebook. You know, the things I like to have to keep me comfortable. It’s a form of self care as you are pouring yourself into someone else. 

Being Overprepared

Truly productive people like to have a month or better lead time in their supply chain. Greg and I recently got sick for 7-10 days. But our house was fine because it is always stocked for about a month. I replace the last one before it becomes the last one. At this point we’d be ok for about 2 weeks before we ran out of necessities.There’s plenty of crackers, ice pops, and other foods in the event we are sick or can’t get to the store; the staples. Snow storms or ice on the roads here in Cincinnati? No problem because we are stocked. There’s no need for my family or I to panic. When snow days or storms hit, truly productive people are prepared. They have anticipated unexpected life events and prepared as best as one can. The more prepared you are, the higher level of problems you can handle. Because you are prepared, you can handle a level 5 issue. But be unprepared and most problems can feel pretty chaotic. And truly productive people know their obligations, have them on their calendar, and can manipulate time and obligations to fulfill new responsibilities due to an unexpected event. If you aren’t running at this level, I suggest you participate in the 21 Day Household Manager Bootcamp next month. 

The Power of Paper

I cannot share enough times when paper has come in to save the day. You cannot use your recollection as proof of what you are saying. Doctors, professors, and the general population want physical paper/literature to back up what you are saying. It’s tricky because you know if you are out of milk or bread. But no one knows if your paper is not organized and prepared. You want to be at a point when important papers are required, you can grab them quickly. Recently, I needed OLD paperwork for one of the kids. The doctor was saying he didn’t have documentation that far back. I was able to locate it and provide it. I thought for sure that such a big medical group would have had it, but no. Guess who did? Lisa. Me. I did. That’s the power of paper. 

Truly productive people feel that whatever they are working on right now, their business, home, homeschool role, parenting, or their marriage, they decide to commit to it 100% for a productive outcome. Where is your focus? What is your mindset in these areas? Next? We’re digging into a 4-part series on the building blocks of organization. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• The Productive Home Solution

• Podcast 10 Year Anniversary Giveaway

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Truly productive people are always producing due to systems and routines they have established; I call these trains. They have their trains humming along which allows work-life balance. And balance means motion. If you are riding your bike, you are in motion while balancing. But when you slow down, you may lean to one side taking you out of balance. The same is true in life. But truly productive people can spot that imbalance and pivot and iterate to get back to balanced. 

It’s a lot harder to start a stopped train…

It’s a lot easier on your balance if you iterate, opposed to stopping and then trying to get the trains up and running again. Let me refresh your memory of March 2020 when all of our trains stopped. It took almost three years to get all the trains running again. Do you remember how much energy it took? Some trains slowed down too much and had to permanently pull into the station, going out of business. 

And recently with CrowdStrike going down for the airlines. It’s just not easy to get the planes back up in the air. There is a trickle down stacking effect. The earlier flights didn’t go out so they needed to get those people on their way before they could accommodate current time flights. It took a lot of manpower to get those planes back in the air and caught up on their scheduled flight times.

And the next likely time we can anticipate our trains stopping is the election…EEK!  You can choose to get tunnel vision and focus solely on the election and possible outcomes. And then get emotional for the few days that follow. You know what productive people will be doing? They will produce until election day, go vote, and go back to producing. Truly productive people recognize what is worth the investment of their time and money. They want to effectively and productively use their time. 

What took me out of balance

There I was chugging along with my trains. I survived Greg’s surgery in December, the quest to solve Grayson’s eczema for a while now, and other family needs for my time. I prepared the trains for the time I’d be gone in England. We had a fabulous trip and I jumped right into work when I got back. But something funny happened. You know I have told you your house will feel off and that is when it’s time to iterate or reset, because organization and balance is a feeling? Well, I didn’t do my normal summer reset. By the end of August, I had to take time off just to get the house back to normal. Why had my systems failed me? 

They did not fail me but I wasn’t accounting for how much my family had needed me, not to mention all the time I gave to the remodels of Joey’s condo and Abby’s downstairs apartment. I realized I was completely over committed. Productive people can look at their systems and routines and pivot due to recognizing something like being over committed. I started to lean towards home and needed to get back in balance. I made three big decisions to put me back in balance. I have altered some plans at work to allow more home time. I have decided to take one less class to again free up more time to give to my family who have been in a season of needing more of me. This will lighten my load and allow me to stay in balance. You have to know when to take some cars off the train and send them to the yard until you can maintain them again. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• The Productive Home Solution

• Podcast 10 Year Anniversary Giveaway

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Welcome to the 10 most productive weeks of the year! About 4-5 years ago, I was able to identify this natural productivity energy cadence in America due to the years of routine from school. Summer is relaxed but when we head back to school, September to December is fast and furious! And once we get into business, it’s the same because businesses are ready to get out of the red and into the black regarding profits, hence Black Friday. 

Mindset

My family and other people have always given me a hard time about how productive I strive to be. I am happy when I am producing. I can’t stop and I don’t want to stop. I am where work comes from in Organize 365® and my home runs off my productivity. I do sleep and make time for my family, but my “normal” is being productive. And I have recently decided I am no longer apologetic for being productive. In fact, I’ve gone pro.

Going pro means being a truly productive person that is always effortlessly producing. It’s not that you are just going to run a marathon, but that you are going to finish that marathon. And when you go pro as the home manager, you and your family benefit. What is there to apologize for? I mean, if you hired an actual home manager, would you want them to sit around or would you be thinking, “The house isn’t going to take care of itself!” As a professional home manager, you give 100% effort and produce as a person striving for excellence not this pie in the sky idea or aesthetics of perfection. 

Be A Scientist Observing Yourself

You can learn so much if you just track where you spend your time. If you are running your marathon and feel the need for more time on a specific project, I encourage you to be a scientist of your own life. In my observation, I have decided I will not be getting extra productivity time by staying up late or getting up early. So where else could I gain time? I realized the other day how much time I could save if I didn’t do my hair everyday. Bun hair days mean I get almost an extra hour each day. That’s an extra hour to be more productive. At the same time, I felt something was off. After observing where my time was going, it became apparent that I was spending too much time in CFO tasks. I decided to knock them out in one Saturday to stop taking time away from my weekly objectives. That is what truly productive people do! Observe and iterate.

Marathon Energy

I am a big fan of Jesse Itzler. Jesse does all kinds of crazy athletic challenges. When I know Jesse is trying to complete one of these challenges, man, I watch him like it’s my job. I am so impressed with his mindset. It’s not a matter of if he’ll finish, just how. Athletes are such a good example of someone who has observed their performance and constantly makes slight improvements. They account for all variables like the best weather conditions, energy they need to be in, court or track or pool conditions to result in their best performance. We applaud it in athletics and we should applaud it in our work and homes. We are in the thick of marathon energy right now. Capitalize on it! Get your Sunday Basket® in order so you can be present because you know every thought or idea is accounted for and planned. Now own that you want to be a truly productive person and focus on your marathon. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• The Productive Home Solution

• Podcast 10 Year Anniversary Giveaway

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!