Episode 45 - 3 Things EVERY Busy Mom Should Do at the Start of the Week to Simplify and Stress Less ALL Week Long! - Intentional Edit

What if someone shared a secret that you could do in less than 30 minutes…that would help to SIMPLIFY your entire week.

Would YOU do it – Would YOU want to give it a try?!?

This episode of The Intentional Edit Podcast has 3 strategies that you can do in less than 30 minutes per week to get ahead, feel prepared, and calm the chaos. These 3 things are strategies that every busy mom should implement to reduce stress and feel better with everything that goes on in every stage of busy mom life!

Listen to this episode of the Intentional Edit Podcast now!

Full Episode Transcription:

What if someone shared a secret that you could do in less than 30 minutes, that would help to simplify your entire week, would you do it? Would you want to give it a try? This episode of the intentional edit podcast is full of three ideas that you can do in less than 30 minutes per week to get ahead, feel prepared and calm. The chaos. These things are strategies that every busy mom should implement to reduce stress and feel better with everything that goes on in every stage of busy mom life. Hey moms, welcome to the intentional edit podcast. Do you want to stop feeling overwhelmed and finally get your home organized. Do you find yourself up late at night, worrying about how you are going to get everything done and not drop the ball? You are wondering where to start and what to do. There is never enough time in the day.

(00:47):

The piles of laundry are building up and it’s already time for after school activities, homework, snacks, and carpool. Again, I’m Lauren. I too want an organized, clean home where my family can make long lasting memories and be present in the moment. The like there’s never enough time to complete all the daily tasks is exhausting simplicity all around a healthy mule on the table at dinnertime and a family that contributes to the chores really is attainable. Stop telling yourself that you have to do it all, or it will never get done. Or that picky eaters will never allow for a complain free dinner. And this podcast, you will learn how to declutter implement systems and maximize routines that remove the overwhelming unorganized parts of life, bringing simplicity to your life and home. Come on. It’s time to create a life you love.

(01:38):

Hey friends, thank you for joining me for another episode of the intentional edit. I’m happy to have you here this week as busy moms. I know that you’re pulled in many directions and you often feel frazzled and exhausted, but you’re part of the intentional edit community. And you are here because you’re dreaming of simplicity and you’re longing for a little more calm in your life. And a moment to breathe. I know from the feedback that I get, that you love the actionable takeaways, where you can listen to an episode and implement something into your life in the next few days to make changes. I am giving you the three things today that you can do at the start of every week that will help you feel less chaotic and set your week up for success. Before I get into all that, I want to remind you about the intentional edit community.

(02:28):

If you are a podcast listener, you are already part of, but you can take it a step further. By heading over to Facebook, you could join the private Facebook group that I created just for podcast listeners and anyone who is wanting to, or who is on into this decluttering organizing, simplifying life journey. Then they can be part of the group and we can get a little bit of chit chat back and forth going with each other support, people that are in similar places in life, and really wanting to bring simplicity to life and home and learn how to maximize systems and create routines and strategies for decluttering and organizing and all the stuff we talk about here on the intentional edit podcast. The name of the group over on Facebook is declutter organize and create systems to sit amplify your home and life. You can head over there and join the group.

(03:22):

And I will chat with you. You can post things, questions, comments I love before and after pictures. So if you’re working on a project, definitely share that if you have questions that come up, share them there. And I will comment on the post that you make, just go to Facebook and search for the group name, or you can click on the link and go directly there from the podcast description either way. But I hope to see you over there in the Facebook group, again, it’s called declutter organize and create systems to simplify your home in life. And it’s for everyone on this journey. And of course is a great community for all of the podcast listeners. Today. I want to give you some strategies that will help you make your week be easier. What can you do to get ahead? And what can you do in a short amount of time?

(04:13):

30 minutes for the entire week will be a game changer for you to set your week up for six success. These three things you can start to do each week and it will help you feel less chaotic, and it will really set you up to have that successful week. The first thing that I want you to do this is the probably the most time consuming part of it is give yourself a few minutes to look over the calendars of every person in the family. Everyone you are responsible for anything to do with their calendar or that their calendar and schedules affect what you do. You’re going to check out those schedules, look at the calendars and have a little weekly planning session for what’s to come for the next seven days. What’s to come for the week ahead. During this planning session, you will notice if the are any events that are coming up that require you to bring something.

(05:05):

Maybe you have to make a food or pick something up, finish a project. If your kids have big projects do, or if you have older kids and they have like midterms or finals or big tests that they need to have time at home, where they can study or some type of study group, if you need to up supplies for projects or a birthday party, and you need to get a gift, something like that, anything that needs to be done ahead of time, you will now know about it so that you can, can be aware of it. And it can be part of your weekly schedule. Now you won’t be scrambling in the last minute because you all of a sudden the day of, or an hour before, when you take the time to plan and prepare for the week ahead, you’re now in the know, you know about what’s happening each day.

(05:52):

If your kids have something like an early release day, a half day, or maybe there’s an extra game or practice, or the location of one of those things changes, or just the time changes, you can figure that situation out ahead of time. So again, it eliminates the scrambling and the panic of the last minute realization that it change. If you need to make accommodations with a carpool schedule or modify your schedule, you can make these changes ahead of time when you’re not stressed out. And it’s easy. It is so much simpler to make the changes and be prepared that it is to be scrambling and stressed out last minute, because you’re just now figuring out that this happening. And it’s a problem for you. When you can do a weekly planning session, you eliminate these problems. You get rid of them. They’re problems that you never even have to deal with.

(06:46):

You’re basically strategizing to simplify and make your week run smoothly because you’re getting a glimpse of what is to come. You’re getting a glimpse of the next seven days. You’ll be prepared and ready to take on the week after just a few minutes, spent with your calendars and getting everyone on the same page and knowing what’s happening for the week ahead. If you find that you look at the calendars and schedules and the week is going to be more crazy than usual, usual, and there’s a lot of extra stuff going on. A lot of changes, a out of things that make it crazier than a normal week. You can make the necessary accommodations for this, but it also goes the other way around. If you find that the week isn’t going to be as busy as a normal week, and there are some gaps of free time, or there’s not an activity, or maybe it’s me in a sports season.

(07:39):

So your kids have a few extra days off and you weren’t looking that far ahead. So you didn’t know, you could fill in this extra time with things that need to be done. You can make it a time where you’re checking things off the list, and you can look further into the future to get ahead or even add things in that you wanna do, but you rarely get to do, if your kids also have extra time, then maybe you can do a fun activity together. You can add something in a place that you’ve been wanting to go, something you’ve been wanting to see, or it’s a great time to do things like take them to try on new shoes, go get a haircut. Things that don’t fit into the regular schedule easily. If it’s just you, that has the extra time think about doing something nice for yourself.

(08:26):

Most moms are caregivers first and put themselves last. So a self care act lunch with a friend, or even if it’s just an extra 15 minutes and you can make a phone call, a simple long awaited call with someone you haven’t talked to in a long time can be very refreshing and good for you. Remember you are in charge and you get to manage your time. Why not do it to the best of your ability with a weekly planning session where you get to have the advantage, it will enhance your life rather than leave you feeling stressed and overwhelmed all week long. These little weekly planning sessions help you to become more efficient with your time. And the more you do them, once you’ve done one week, two week, three week, four week, the further into it, you get the more efficient you will be.

(09:15):

And the faster that you will go when you’re doing weekly planning sessions, it’s a long term benefit helps you each week, but it reduces the stress overall every day. The second tip I have for you, the second thing that I want you to do during this weekly planning session, it’s part of the weekly planning session, but I want you to use the information that you’ve gathered. You gathered the information with the schedules and calendars. You make the assessments of what needs to happen, what needs to change and make decisions. So making decisions during this time is significant. You’re making decisions for little things that have been lingering on your to-do list. Anything that takes than five minutes should be done during this time, you can check it off the list and stop thinking about it, having it on the list and knowing it needs to be done is making you tired.

(10:05):

It’s increasing your stress because you’re thinking about it over and over again. And it’s just another thing hanging over your head that needs to be done. If you’ve ever heard the term decision, if you fatigue that phrase, decision fatigue, it’s real. As moms busy moms, especially you are making hundreds of decisions a day, maybe even thousands of decisions a day. I know I’ve heard statistics on decision fatigue before. I can’t remember what the number is, but we are making decisions every minute. Most days you have to make decisions about absolutely everything you do. And when you have young children around, you are making decision for them too. So you have all these decisions every single day, take some time to eliminate some of those bigger decisions and make decisions. Now make decisions in this 30 minutes that you’re going to spend to get ready for the week and cross some things off of your list.

(11:02):

If there are appointments that need to be made or a birthday party that’s coming up and you need to place an order for a birthday gift or go pick up a birthday gift. If you need to send a quick text or email, because you have a question about something or something of someone do those things now, and they’re done, you don’t have to think about them anymore. These are all simple things that can easily be put off and things that we commonly put off and think, oh yeah, I’ll do that tomorrow. I’ll do that later. And they just move down the list. If it’s something that needs to be done and it can take less than five minutes fit these things into this 30 minute planning session each week, if they’re things that will take a bit longer, and this is a week where you have extra time, then plug them into the calendar, give yourself 30 minutes or an hour, whatever time you have to tackle some of these things.

(11:52):

So they’re not hanging over your head, adding to the decision fatigue, because a lot of our daily decisions, we can’t do anything about they happen every day and it’s just part of life. But these things that are tasks that we can finish either take care of them right now, or schedule them on the calendar where you can have a designated time to actually get them done. The third thing that is imperative to have a successful smooth sailing week is to communicate your needs and communicate what is going on. It’s the third part of this three step process that you can do when you have looked at the schedule and you’ve made the decisions, you know, what is coming, a head, communicate these things with everyone, that’s involved, let your family know what’s going on. If there’s a change to normal events, even if it’s a small change, whether it’s a location or a time or a different person will be picking up or dropping off, let everyone know that’s involved.

(12:49):

So everyone can stay on the same page. When we know what to expect, we feel better prepared. And it makes us feel more at ease. That is how adults feel. Kids do this too. Kids can, depending on your kids, some might be worriers. And if you can prepare them a little bit with just giving them a heads up of what’s going on, you reduce their stress and you put them at ease too. Be sure to include your kids in this, your spouse or anyone else that needs to be aware of what’s going on. Maybe you have a nanny or a babysitter or a relative that helps with your kids. Give them a heads up. If there’s anything that is irregular in the schedule, something new, something that’s not happening anymore. If you have a meeting and you are going to be late one night and you have a seventh or eighth grader, that’s going to be in charge of dinner that night, give them the heads up, let them know what’s happening.

(13:41):

What time you’ll be expected to be home and what they’re making for dinner, where the groceries are, what they need to do to have success with that. You eliminate the frustration for you. And then you eliminate the frustration and frantic phone calls that might happen if they don’t know what’s going on and they’re not prepared when you have open communication, it really helps everyone. Everyone can be on the same page and it encourages the lines of communication to stay open for things moving into the future. Or when there are problems, it’s not a big deal because you communicate back and forth and everyone can be on the same page together, helping each other and working together as a team to make all the things that we have going on in our busy lives, be easier to manage, easier to get done so that we can have more fun and spend more time doing the things that we actually enjoy with the people that are the most important to us.

(14:36):

Us. If you could incorporate these three things into a 30 minute planning session each week, it will really set you up for success and it will help your family have a successful week with less stress and less chaos. So remember that each week, give yourself a block of time. 30 minutes before the week starts, have this weekly planning session and make sure that you are making the decisions that help to get things done across those little five minute tasks or five minute or less tasks off the to-do list and communicate your needs. Everyone communicate with the entire family what’s going on and anyone involved so that everyone can be on the same page. Moving forward to get things done and have a smooth week ahead, a little prep and plan for 30 minutes, or even less than 30 minutes each week, each week helps to make it so that you have less stress and scrambling and overhaul.

(15:32):

It just makes things easier. It really makes things much easier. Try it this week and see how it goes. Then set a reminder on your phone to try it next week too, and keep going after you’ve done it a few weeks in a row, it will just become part of your weekly routine. It will be something that you do out of habit. It, because there is a great benefit to it. And it’s making your life easier. It’s helping you to come up with solutions, simplify to make every day of the week easier. And it truly takes less than 30 minutes a week. Now that I’ve sent that, I want to remind you that you are going over to the Facebook group and you’re joining the Facebook group for the intentional edit podcast community. It’s declutter organize and create systems to simplify your home and life.

(16:18):

If you can’t remember that long group name, then just head over to the description of the podcast and scroll down and you can click on a link in there that will take you directly to the Facebook group. Join the group. And I want you to take action on, on the three things that I told you about in today’s episode. So the three steps that I shared this week, you’re going to do them this week. You’re going to have a planning session. And then after the week, I want you to share how it went with the Facebook group. I want you to share what happened did it was your week easier? What did the planning session take longer than you thought? What happened? And be honest with that. And I will give you feedback and I will help you. If you want feedback, we can encourage each other to keep going to make these small, simple changes that will make a big impact in your home and life.

(17:07):

Thank you for joining me for another episode of the intentional edit podcast. Don’t forget to join the Facebook group and share how your first weekly prep session went. I can’t wait to hear how it’s going and see how you continue with these in the future. Thank you for listening to the intentional edit podcast. If you found today’s episode valuable, tell your friends about it by taking a screenshot, sharing it on social and tagging me at intentional edit. I’ll be back to 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 am grateful 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 future.

Listen to other episodes of The Intentional Edit Podcast.

You can listen to THE INTENTIONAL EDIT PODCAST anywhere you listen to podcasts!

If you have questions please send me a DM on Instagram. I do my best to reply to all the messages I receive.

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!

Intentional Edit participates in select affiliate advertising programs. If you click and/or make a purchase through certain links on this site or any related social media platforms, Intentional Edit may make a commission. All opinions are my own.