5 Things I do to stay organized when life gets busy…

October 24, 2017

Today we are experiencing such strong winds and an extreme heat wave! Where is fall ya’ll??! I probably say this everyday, but really I just wanna wear cute fall sweaters and leggings everyday! I wore this grey dress this past weekend when we went to Laguna Beach and the weather was a tad cooler! Laguna Beach is such a beautiful beach town here in Southern California, and they have the cutest shops, gelato shops, hotels, restaurants and the most beautiful beaches. Click “Read The Post” to continue reading…

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This long sleeve knit grey dress is so comfy and I love the flattering ruching in the front. I love it with these new peep toe booties I recently got. It is a great dress for a casual weekend look, church, a date night, or everyday with some sneakers and a cardigan! Prety much any occasion on your calendar! It comes in six colors and I am ordering the black and cream colors too!! I love how it isn’t skin tight, but it still hugs your body! Since having my baby, I haven’t liked wearing these types of dresses, but this is the only one I found that is so flattering and the ruching is so flattering! If you don’t want it skin tight or are in-between sizes, it would still look great if you ordered one size up. It is not see-through which I also love and always look for when buying dresses.

I get asked a lot by my reader, friends, and followers how I stay organized and what things I do that help me do so. So today I want to talk about how I stay organized and the five things i do that help me! Do you ever feel like life is moving SO fast and you just cannot keep up?! Everyone is demanding something from you all at the same time and you just can’t get ahead- like ever! That is how I started feeling this past year when I had Kennedy. I felt pulled in so many different directions, and I felt like my life was just getting busier and more things shoved into my days as the weeks went on. Life hasn’t slowed down, but I have learned some things along the way to help ease the stress and make it more manageable and organized. As a new mom, it was hard for me to suddenly have a routine and a schedule. I had to learn to like having my days be structured and do things a certain time in order to get them done. I am sharing with you shome things I have learned that help me now keep my life and my family’s life more organized!

1. Get a Planner

Having a great planner is a must if you want to get your life organized! For me, writing things down helps me remember them the most. I will write things in my phone or google calendar, but having a physical planner for me works best. I like open the new month and write down what I already know is planned. Once that is filled in, I go to the current week boxes and fill in things for the week ahead! I love this planner I got for this year. Not only is it super cute but I love the layout and how easy it is to see everything clearly. I also make lots of lists and to-do lists. It seems like my to-do lists are literally never ending! My poor hubby, I show him my to-do list and his eyes always get so big. He is such a supporter of mine and is always willing to help me with my blog in any way he can! This has been such a blessing and he actually loves encouraging me and supporting me with my dreams. Make sure to write everything down you need to do so you don’t forget! If you’re like me and get mom brain often, writing things down right when you hear it is SO important! Then you can go back and organize the list in order of importance. I usually have a to-do list for the day and then for the week and weekends. Don’t feel bad if you don’t get to everything that day or even that week. But getting the top 3 major things accomplished is what is important! Just keep trying your best and work on them the next day!

2. Do Things each Morning to Kick Start your Day

There are little things I have to do each morning in order to get my day going and to feel ready to take on the day! First, I always go to the bathroom and was my face and brush my teeth to “wake up.” Making the bed and just getting it done with also automaitcally makes the room look so much cleaner! Also quickly putting everything on the floor in a basket or bin and off the floor for the day will help de-clutter the room! Then I usually will go make a healthy breakfast such as oatmeal, a protein breakfast smoothie, whole wheat toast with avocado and smoked salmon, or greek yogurt with berries, granola and chia seeds! Starting my day off with a healthy and filling breakfast is SO important. I don’t drink any coffee and not really any tea, so I NEED a pick me up and some energy before Kennedy wakes up! I either take a small glass of amino acids for energy and focus or these caffeine packets mixed into my water (2 packets is equal to a cup of coffee). I like to do some stretches and get my body warmed up after that. Usually if the weather is good, I have been taking Kennedy on morning walks after she eats her breakfast. It is about 1-2 miles. Some days I run and some days I just walk. But just getting some cardio in while spending time with Kennedy is so important to me.

3. Be able to say no and get negativity out of your life (wasted time)

I guess you would say I am a more passive person, and tend to just say yes to everything. I heard in a talk once that us moms always tend to say to everything we are invited to, yes to every play date, yes to a request to do something for someone, yes to everything! I felt like people wouldn’t like me if I said no to them or I wouldn’t be invited to things anymore if I said no just once. Of course, don’t get me wrong those things are so fun and also so important. But spreading yourself thin and saying yes just to not be seen as rude or not social to others isn’t a good thing, in my opinion. Sometimes being able to say no and try to fit it in another time is perfectly fine! Overfilling my schedule gives me such bad anxiety and getting in the habit of always feeling like I have to say yes really took a toll on me. So try to say no just even once in a while, and you will see how much more manageable your schedule becomes!

Another thing I learned this year is to get rid of all types of negativity. Negativity is such a BIG waste of our time girls!!! This realization has happened just recently in my life. Also, just thinking negative thoughts about myself and comparing myself to others is no way to live life. Seeing all the horrible tragedies in the news recently, I am realizing how short life is and how everyday should not be taken for granted. I am wasting my precious time here on earth on negative things when I can be using that time to help others, serve my family, and accomplish my dreams. Since my job is in social media, and I have to be on it a lot, I catch myself comparing myself to other girls. I realized that everybody is probably comparing themselves to the next person, but you will never be satisfied or happy unless you are grateful for what you already have! I also don’t want my daughter to be this way, so stopping those bad thoughts about myself and really this bad habit is important to do now. Teaching her to think good thoughts about herself is so important to us. We want Kennedy to grow up to be happy with herself, confident, and to not worry what other people think. Also, getting rid of negative people and toxic relationships that take a toll on your spirit and well-being is also important. I have had a few toxic relationships that I have struggled to come to terms with in the past year. I have always been the one putting in 99% of the effort, reaching out, trying to extend my love, and trying my hardest to maintain a closeness and some sort of relationship. I have learned that people will reach out and want to be in your life if they WANT to. Trying to make a relationship flourish with people who don’t care to have one is a waste of my energy and is a negative force bringing me down. SOO realizing what is negative, whether it is your own thoughts, a toxic relationship that has been hanging around for a while, just try to get rid of it all! Freeing up that space in your mind and heart will make your life and family’s life a positive, happy, and safe space where love can grow and flourish!

4. Block out a time each day to get a task done

I came across this awesome mom’s Instagram last week and I loved the messages she shares about parenting! She does great IG stories and podcasts! Anyways, she did an IG story one day about how in today’s world we always feel like a computer with a million tabs open. We are just keeping each tab open and constantly jumping from one thing to the other throughout the day. We are juggling a million different tasks, but why is it taking SOO long just to get one thing done?! And why can we never seem to get rid of these open tabs in our lives?! This is how I feel most days as a mom. I feel like I wear a bunch of different hats- mom, wife, friend, blogger, sister, daughter-in-law, etc. And under each of these hats I wear, there are so many little things that need to get done. One thing I recently learned is to just put on ONE hat and get those things done FIRST, then move onto the next thing. Not only will you get those tasks done quicker, it will be completely crossed off your to-do list for the day. Now, isn’t it better to have just one thing completely crossed off then a bunch of semi-done tasks at the end of the day. So, for example, block out 30 minutes to only fold the laundry. Turn off the TV, turn off your phone, and have no distractions. I bet in those 30 minutes all the laundry will be folded and even maybe put away. It is hard in today’s world to turn off our distractions we reply on to keep us entertained, but they really only distract us and make it slower to get things accomplished. So every evening after Kennedy goes to bed, usually I block 1-2 hours to respond to emails, edit photos from shoots, and finish blog posts for the next day. That means door shut, no phone, no TV or any distractions. It is hard but it is the fastest and only way I can get my work done. Sometimes it all gets done and sometimes it doesn’t that night. But I cherish my time with Alex, so I will stop and make sure I spend quality time with him the rest of the night. I will then block out time during Kennedy’s nap the next day to make sure I get the rest of the work done!

5. Turn off electronics and social media

This is something I try to do while Kennedy is with me, besides snapping photos and videos of her doing cute things! 😉 I want to make sure my time with her is spent wisely and she doesn’t see mommy glued to her phone. I don’t want her thinking that my phone or social media or whatever I am doing on my phone is ever more important to her. I am learning to put my phone away (but on) and focus my energy solely on teaching her, loving on her, and having teaching moments when we are together! So set amount of time, say 20 minutes, to go though your social media all at once. It can be 20 minutes 3 times a day, if you are needing to be on social media. But it is much more efficient than checking it all throughout the day.