Coat: Abbey Glass / Dagne Dover Bag c/o
Instead of writing goals for 2017, I decided to write about what was more at the top of my mind. Making the every day occurrences a little more streamlined in the new year.
Everyone is always chasing the idea of an effortless everyday, right? Insert visions of perfectly groomed family heading out the door every morning, after being fed a home-cooked breakfast & wearing fabulous pre-selected outfits. (Also insert here: the laughing emoji.) We can dream, right?
None of these “simple” ideas listed below are rocket science, it’s pretty common sense. However, it’s still a struggle, so I thought I’d round ’em up as a little reminder, mostly for myself!
I think we could set ourselves up to achieve many of our big 2017 goals more easily, if we made everything else in life, the mundane stuff, a little simpler. Right? Ok, here we go.
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Batch process.
Batch process. Batch process. Ooh can you tell I love this one? Responding to emails / laundry / meal planning & prep / brainstorming sessions at work … anything that you have to do on a consistent basis for work or life, do it in a “batch” and then BE DONE for that day or week, or month! I LOVE it when I make time to do this. (Especially if I cook a few things on Sunday for the week & finish all the laundry. I can tackle Monday like nobody’s biz!)
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Don’t multi-task.
They say multi-tasking isn’t so great after all, and I agree. For example, I’ve realized that bouncing between client work, blog work, and OOH an email about a sale at Net-a-porter just popped into my inbox! See how quickly that sentence got derailed? I’ve learned that if I work on one specific project at a time, it is a lot more productive. BONUS: When I leave the office, I feel much less scatter-brained & exhausted because my brain hasn’t been going in 100 directions. Plus I’m much more able to really get creative on the one project because I’m focused only on it. This brings me to …
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Schedule everything.
Schedule a specific time to work on each client/project/etc. on your calendar so everything has it’s own spot. Schedule workouts. Schedule in person lunch dates. OR realize when you need to NOT schedule anything else when your calendar is too booked. Guard days/time slots on your calendar for the important things for YOU. I’ve realized lately that if I don’t schedule something in advance (whether it be work, or play), it simply will not happen. Schedule it. Do it. Pat self on back. If that still doesn’t work, move on to #4.
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Task it out.
AKA, get someone else to do it. For work, you can hire a Virtual Assistant to handle the things that just aren’t getting done. For home tasks, ask your spouse or a family member for help, or look into hiring someone to complete the task. Speaking of things that just aren’t getting done ….
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Be realistic.
If there is a chore or work item that is consistently getting pushed to next week’s to do list, and then next week’s, and then next week’s … AKA never going to happen, figure out a way to go ahead and just take it off your list. See #4. Get help, or decide that maybe this thing just is not going to happen. Free up that nagging space in your brain.
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Grace.
Lastly, give yourself, your partner, your friends, errrbody, a little more grace this year. I’m reading this book right now and I’m all in for this giving more grace thing. We’re not perfect and hey, sometimes we’re even wrong, or change our minds or need to change directions, or just have an off day, or week! Decide now that wrapping everything in a “grace hug” is the way to go, and it’s guaranteed that you’ll have a more graceful 2017. ;)
Speaking of grace, hopefully you’ll give me a little grace for the fact that these pics are actually from fall but I’m just now getting around to posting them! Whoops! It’s been a busy 2017 so far, getting everything situated to move into our new house next week, and taking on some new (really exciting) clients! I’m stoked for everything this year has in store!
What ways are you keeping things simple in 2017? Honestly I think I could have kept writing like 10 more ways I want to streamline my everyday things this year, but in the effort of keeping this post, well, simple, I tried to keep it short!
Thank you for stopping by today!
Photos by Erin
