Episode 32 - Productivity Hacks for Every Busy Mama - Simple Changes to Streamline and Make the Most of Your Time - Intentional Edit

It doesn’t matter if it is the demands at work, a messy house, busy carpool schedule or being pulled in a million directions, the struggle is real! If you feel like burn out is right around the corner and want to streamline your daily tasks and the nonstop “to do” list, this episode is for you. Listen to Episode 32 and find out exactly what you can do to streamline and make the most of your time so that you can enjoy more and stress less.

Listen to this episode of the Intentional Edit Podcast now!

Full Episode Transcription:

It doesn’t matter if it’s the demands at work, a messy house, busy carpool schedule, or being pulled in a million directions. The struggle is real. And I hear you. If you feel like burnout is right around the corner and you want to streamline your daily tasks and nonstop to-do list. This episode is for you. Episode 32 is episode will find out exactly what you can do to streamline and make the most of your time so that you can enjoy more and stress less.

If you’re struggling with daily tasks, clutter organization, and finding any sort of work life balance, the intentional edit podcast is for you. It’s time to stop the chaos live with more intention. I am Lauren, and I’m here to help you declutter implement systems and maximize routines that remove the overwhelming unorganized parts of life. Bringing simplicity to your home. Come on. It’s time to create a life you love.

(00:59):

Hey friends, thank you for joining me for at the episode 32 of the intentional edit podcast. When I was thinking about starting a podcast, I took some classes and read a lot and did some research on the proper way to start a podcast and what you should do and what you should expect. And one thing that everyone said was sitting here and you don’t have any episodes today, but pretty soon you’ll be at a hundred episodes or 20 episodes or whatever the number is. And you won’t believe how many episodes that you have out quickly when you stick to this. And I can’t believe every week when I’m recording and here I am today, recording episode 32, it just, I feel like I just started last week. We already have 32 episodes out. So thank you so much for listening and being involved. Thank you for wanting to simplify your life and taking the steps to move forward, being intentional about what kind of a home you want, what kind of a atmosphere you want for your family.

(01:59):

I appreciate that you know that you can get valuable information here and that you’re coming back week after week, episode after episode listening, and the feedback that you are giving me is amazing. So thank you so much. I just wanted to say thank you for being up here. I appreciate you more than, you know, on that note. Last week, I mentioned that I mentioned that I started a FA Facebook group, which is not like me at all, because I’m not really active on Facebook. But now that this group is here, I plan to be the Facebook group is for the intentional edit podcast listeners. And it’s called declutter organize and create systems to simplify your home and life. The reason I went ahead and created this group is because I want a place where we can have conversations and a community where we can support each other and talk back and forth about the real life struggles that we’re having in our homes.

(02:55):

And what is overwhelming us? What is causing us stress. It’s not a place to complain about it. It’s a place to go and find solutions. I wanna help you. And the other people in the group that have started on this decluttering simplifying journey. And they’re ahead of you. A few steps ahead of you. They can help too head over there. You’re gonna be the first listeners to join the first people to join the group. It’s start starting from zero. So head over to Facebook and search declutter, organize and create systems to simplify your home and life, or just on the podcast apps, skip down in the description for the episode, you can click on the link right there and join the group. That’s a great way for us to talk back and forth and have conversation about what’s going on. When I am on social media, I am more of, I guess, an observer.

(03:44):

I just kind of see what’s going on. I’m not the person that likes and comments and really gets involved. What I’ve learned is you guys are, are like that a lot of the time too, because I get tons of direct messages on Instagram with questions or comments, even just feedback on the episodes where you like something, you learn something you’ve been using a tip in your house. Now you’re sharing that with me. I love that, but it’s so funny because when I’m asking you to record a question or something, you guys oftentimes say, I hit the record now button, and didn’t realize that I had to talk, or I don’t like my voice. So I’m just sending this to you in a message instead of recording, step out of your comfort zone and record, go to the, my website, intentional edit.com. That little record button that pops up.

(04:33):

Record a message for me. Give me your feedback on there. Ask a question on there. I would like to get a lot of the questions for the two hip Tuesday episodes right now, most of those are coming in from Instagram direct messages. If you join the Facebook group questions that you ask on there, I will answer those on future episodes. My intention is to be meaningful and intentional with every episode so that I’m providing you with quality information and not wasting your time. I need you to let me know what your struggles are, what you’re overwhelmed with. What’s stressing you out. What can’t you figure out like what is really going on in your homes that you want help with submit those things. Now you have a lot of options. Submit them on the Facebook, declutter, organize and create systems to simplify your home in life.

(05:21):

A group, go to intentional, edit on Instagram and message me on there. And you guys are already doing that. You love that one. That’s a great way to get in touch with me. And the easiest one is just click on the record. Now, button that pops up. When you go to intentional edit.com, it’s like a voicemail. It you’re just leaving me a message. Like you would leave a mail for a friend, go do any of those things, whatever stressing you out, whatever you are wanting to get out of this episode. Go ask me a question about that. I’ll answer it even more specifically on a future episode. Let’s move on. Why are we here today? I wanna talk about simplifying and streamlining and how you could make the most of your time. Because every time I talk to someone, whether it’s through direct message or an in a coaching call, the same issues are coming up.

(06:15):

It might not be exact specific thing, but the same types of issues come up. How can you use your time more efficiently? How can you stop wasting time? And for many of us, we don’t even realize that we’re wasting time. What can we do to not feel like we’re running ragged and stressed out all the time? And the answer to that, every single person I talk to the solution is systems. I will always tell you about good quality systems and routines and why, because good systems are the key to organization that functions for your home and your family. It simplifies your daily tasks and chores in order to have those simplified daily tax and chores. Those comes from setting up and implementing systems for almost every single thing that we do. Intentionality is the key to living the life you envision. And when you’re intentional with your systems, your home can be productive without even thinking about it.

(07:20):

Once you have put the effort into creating the systems, then things become simple. I was looking through some messages that have come in in the last week or so. And the theme is the same. It’s always the same. You’re struggling with laundry. Oh my gosh. Laundry is a huge one. If I took a pole laundry, whether it’s doing the laundry, getting a load out on time or folding and putting away the struggle with laundry is huge. Getting kids to not even to bed, but getting kids to bath time at night, they love the baths when they’re in, once they’re in the water, but getting them into the bathroom to get in the bathtub it’s causing you stress. You’re dreading that every night, working from home, where you’re working in your bedroom and the bedroom is messy. The bed is not made. Pillows are everywhere. You feel stressed out, just walking in and you dread going in there at nap time where you have an and a half, two hours, you have to get this work done.

(08:22):

It’s your job. And you’re already driving it before you even walk in there, not getting out of the house on time. Kids getting late to school, packing lunches, feeling like your house is never clean, feeling like you’re always decluttering and purging. You’re always asking your kids to get rid of stuff. You always have clothes to go or toys to go through too much stuff. But you also feel like you’ve just made donations, but there’s the house is still messy. It’s not staying clean toys. Aren’t staying put away kids. Aren’t contributing and you are exhausted at night. You can’t do one more thing. You come down the stairs in the morning, the kitchen’s a mess. The house is a mess and it starts all over again. It’s this vicious cycle. What do we do to stop it? How do we, how do we streamline? How do we simplify?

(09:13):

We create CIS stems. So you wanna know what simple changes can you make. I want you to start with the thing that you know, every single day is bothering you. It’s bugging you. It’s irritating. You it’s causing you to almost blow your top every single day, because it is so annoying. What is that? One thing, whatever that is, you are going to create a system around it and break it down to manageable tasks and simplify. Let’s talk about some examples. If you are struggling to get out the door and get your kids to school on time, get yourself to work on time. What do we need to do? We need to wake up earlier is easy. Create a system around that. If your kids are on tablets and TV and screen time before they have had breakfast and are dressed with their teeth, brushed and ready to go, you need to change the habit with the electronics that might mean putting remote controls and tablet at a charging station where they don’t come out until certain things are done.

(10:21):

It might mean a simple chore chart or a task management system, which is just like a chore chart for older kids, where certain things have to be checked off the list before something else happens. One thing that truly can change your life. If you have a few kids, it takes a number of minutes to make lunches in the morning before getting out the door, make the lunches the night before. Sometimes that one thing, just making the lunches and packing them the night before filling up water bottles saves you 15, 20 minutes. And all of a sudden everybody’s on time, just because of that one thing. What are you trying to get done in the morning that you can do the night before? I have episodes that are specifically on morning routines and evening routines, go listen to those. If you can only do a couple routines and put those into your life evening, routines and morning routines, especially the evening routine will change your entire next day.

(11:25):

It makes life easier in the evening and it makes it so that you can start your day with your best foot forward and it carries through to your entire day. So go find that episode, listen to the one on evening routines. The other episode you should check out while I’m thinking about that is episode two. It’s the most downloaded episode of all the intentional edit podcast episodes. And it’s titled bringing balance and simplicity to your home strategies and solutions. Yes. Strategies and solutions to bring balance and simplicity to your home. Tell you four things that you can change. You can listen to that episode and walk away with four things that you can do that week to change, to simplify your life and bring some balance into your home. So go listen to episode two. When I go back to the things that you are struggling on and you want to streamline what system can you create around that to streamline it, to make it easier.

(12:23):

When you’re thinking about systems in your home, think about how can these things happen. Naturally. When is a natural time to unload the dishwasher, what is a way to have less dishes, dishes, and a messy kitchen are a huge one that comes in. There’s always dishes to be done. The sink is always full. The kitchen’s always messy. The counters are always cluttered. There’s a few things you can do here. Get in the habit of when you’re cooking to do the dishes. Another thing is, if your kids are not old enough, let’s back up. If your kids are old enough, allow them to unload the dishwasher. They can unload and put away dishes. If they’re not old enough, get in the habit of unloading the dishwasher at the same time each day, if your family is not producing enough dirty dish, that it has to be washed.

(13:16):

A load has to be done every day and unloaded. Then you just gained five or six minutes of free time. On the days that there aren’t clean dishes to unload, have your kids get in the habit of taking their dishes to the sink. When they’re done eating, if they’re old enough, they can take them to the sink, wash them off and put them in the dishwasher. When we have good systems in our home, they are so easy to modify based on the stage of life we’re in. And as the phases of our lives change, and our kids are more capable of, of doing harder projects or a little bit more difficult tasks. Then we alter the system and some the responsibilities that are falling on you as the parent can fall to them, it relieves you of those duties and it helps instill responsibility in them. So it’s a double positive. As kids get older, maybe they’re not home as much, or they’re working a job outside of the home. Then you adjust what are, what are their home duties? You adjust, maybe it falls on another kid. Maybe it goes back to you. Nothing is permanent. Ages and stages are constantly changing. So what happens in our home are changing and good quality systems make for easy changes. It’s not a big deal to change a system when it is a working good quality system.

(14:36):

What happens if you are listening to the episodes and you understand about systems, you understand the importance. You want to put them into your home, but you are struggling to actually make the changes or you don’t know what changes to make, identify the problem. What is the problem? We just, we just gave a couple examples with the dishes and some other things identify the problem. And then what are the solutions for that? What could you do? What small changes could you do when it’s around a dirty dishes, you can wash the dishes as you’re cooking the meals. As you’re making the dirty dishes, you can have the kids contribute to putting the dishes in the dishwasher, or at least in the sink, things like that become routine. And then you don’t think about them anymore. It’s not something that will even bother you because it’s no longer an issue you because the good systems are in place.

(15:33):

What are some other examples? All kinds of things. And most of them are simple little things. And by like, this is a good one. When we come in the house, we have things with us. We have keys, a purse bags. If you have kids, they have backpacks, maybe sporting equipments school projects. When the things are addressed right away, keys go in a bowl. Purse goes on a hook, backpack goes in a basket. Maybe you don’t have a mud room area or a designated like drop zone spot yet. And you need to create a drop zone. It might just mean that once the homework is done, backpacks are lined up next to the door. They don’t even have a hook or a basket to live in. That’s fine. They have a place to go implement these things. And you talk to your family about what the new expectation is.

(16:22):

And at first you, there are gentle reminders, maybe depending on the ages of your kids, you do some kind of a reward system for these things, gentle reminders and having basic responsibilities to contribute to the overall wellness. Wellness of the family is just part of being the, a member of the family, putting the backpack by the door. It’s packed, it’s ready for school. The next day, that’s saving you time. Just like when I mentioned a few minutes ago, packing lunches the night before all of those things are creating systems. A system doesn’t have to be a, a big, huge thing or this big ritual. Don’t overthink it, break it down to the most small steps that you can think of. What is the problem and what is the solution when you’re struggling with coming up with systems in your house, but you feel overwhelmed. You feel like you’re at the end of your rope and you just don’t know what to do anymore.

(17:15):

If you can’t do this on your own, reach out to me and schedule a coaching session with me. You can always go over to the Facebook group. We can chat back and forth. And if it’s too much in there, do a quick session with me, then 30, 45 minutes on a coaching call and I will help you narrow down exactly what you need to do to create these routines in your house so that they can become good quality efficient systems. So you can bring your stress level down. You can’t be stressed out all the time. You can’t be overwhelmed all the time. If you’re listening to this podcast, you know, something better is out there. You’re craving less simplicity. You’re that is your desire. Let me help you get there. A lot of this you can do on your own, but if you’re too overwhelmed and you can’t figure it out, jump on a coaching call with me and I am happy to help you.

(18:07):

What we can knock out in less than an hour for your family is a good quality system or a few systems that you can implement in your house. And then you do the work over the next week or two implementing those systems. And you benefit from the changes right away, walk away from this episode, knowing that you are going to identify the biggest, the biggest frustrations in your home right now, and what are the solutions, what are solutions that you can do to solve those problems so that they are not irritating you anymore. Now, these are not going to happen overnight. Usually you might need some reminders or a sticky note to make sure that you’re staying on task with these, especially if you have little kids involved and you’re making a change, talk about it, make it a positive experience. When the whole family is involved with something and working together, it’s beneficial for everyone.

(19:04):

And it doesn’t become like a dreaded new chore or something in the end when you put these systems in place. And when you have these time saving things in place, you are streamlining the things that have to be done. Whatever is on your to-do list. Many of those things can be knocked out with good quality systems. Do you know what the result of that is? The result of good systems is free time, time to do more of what you want, less time wasted and more time to spend with the people that matter to you doing the things that you enjoy. Let’s simplify your life and home. If you’re struggling and you can’t figure this out on your own, reach out to me on Instagram at intentional, edit on Facebook, through the Facebook group to clutter, organize and create systems to simplify your home and life.

(19:59):

Leave me a message on the record. Now, button with a question or comment or something you want me to address on future podcast episodes. Find a way to get in touch with me. I just gave you three easy ways. And if you want a coaching session with me, I would be happy to help you with that. And we can knock out some specific systems for your home. But I believe in you. And I know that you can come up with some solutions just based on the fact that if you identify the problem and what is the most stressful come up with some solutions for that. If you cannot think of anything, send me a message or all you have to do when you want to want me to answer the question. If you have figured out what the problem is, but you can’t figure out the solution, go to intentional, edit.com, click on the record now button and say, this is what I’m struggling with.

(20:49):

This is my problem. And I don’t know what the solution is for it. Could you do an episode where you tell me some solutions or give me some options? That would be a good solution when this is my problem. And tell me what the problem is and promise you. I will cover that in a future episode. Thank you so much for joining me for episode 30, two of the intentional edit podcast. I hope that you are motivated to create systems that are routines and that become healthy habits in your home to streamline your life and home and make the most of your time. So where you feel like you’re an not wasting time anymore, but you’re getting to enjoy every minute with the people that matter most to you. I will meet you back here for another episode of the intentional edit podcast next week. Have a great weekend.

(21:41):

Thank you for listening to the intentional edit podcast. If you found today’s episode valuable, tell your friends about it by a screenshot, sharing it on social and tagging me at intentional edit. I’ll be back soon with another episode in the meantime, find me@intentionaledit.com and be sure to follow intentional edit on social platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, to ensure you catch future episodes, click the subscribe or follow button. Now I have for a five star rating and review from you. Be sure to let me know what you liked about this episode and what you want me to cover in the.

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Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!

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