We had a major emergency this morning.
The fire trucks were out, the police car sirens rang and my son sat with all his toy emergency vehicles with a cheeky grin.
We started the morning so perfectly, My Maximus leaned over as he was eating breakfast and said ‘Mister Maker…’ (I have become accustomed to answering to any title these days) ‘Mister Maker?’ I said slowly ‘Yes Max’. He replied ‘No, my name is Mini Maker.’
I shrugged my shoulders and played along. He smiled wryly and said ‘Mister Maker, can we make play dough please?’.
I felt like all my childhood mothering dreams had come true, it was our first play dough date together and I wanted it to be grand. Don’t worry we pulled that part off!
We gathered the ingredients and we thermo-played together. After we had made a big batch of blue and red, I left him happily making ice-cream and fire trucks and smooshing everything together again.
I went off to get ready as a friend was arriving soon for tea, when he ran in with a look of terror on his face. ‘Emergency, emergency, Mister Maker there has been an accident.’ I ran back into our kitchen to find red food colouring splashed over furniture, our floor, clothing and anything in near range.
Our morning had turned upside down with one sneaky visit to the pantry and the rest of my day has been scrubbing to try and lift food colouring from our of my mostly white and wood beach shack.
Despite mornings like today, I have realised I am learning a few life hacks to help keep our family bubbling and overwhelmedness at bay.
I have had a few people this last week ask me how I do what I do?
Maybe my instagram or blog has fooled you…I promise it’s not that pretty on this side of the fence.
In the midst of this though, I realised I have developed a few life hacks for anyone out there who wants to get more done and live purposed.
Here are 5 life hacks we have found that have helped us get more done and free ourselves up to live beyond our today.
1) The Between App My husband and I love this app, that is only for us two. It has a calendar, it has event reminders, it has messenger and it has moments we want to share. I was not that keen on having another something, face book, instagram, emails etc can be so overwhelming. This app though keeps everything we need to chat about and what is important between just us. It’s great and It’s free. Finding a system of communication whether you have children or not, whether it is for your flatmates or partner in a business is imperative to creating a platform for communication that works. A regular catch up, a process to communicate, really helps in keeping my days measured.
2) Email is my task list Many people would disagree with me on this one, but it has been the way I have worked when running events of 20,000 or the daily life of my family. Having a task list that is current is imperative to keep up with what is important. I email myself tasks and I am vigilant in deleting everything that is not important, the first time the email hits my face. As I sit down to work, I delete emails first and unsubscribe from everything that is not important. Then I work through what is urgent and what is not. When people face book message me, or leave voice mails or ask me to do something for them, I always reply with ‘Can you please email me.’ Therefore, organisations that spam or over email me, really frustrate me and are immediately deleted.
3) House work everyday No matter what day it is, even when it’s a rest day, I do house work everyday. I do one load of washing a day, I get up have a coffee and then make all the beds and sweep the floor, put on the washing every morning. Eat my breakfast and then hang out the washing. Just as dusk is falling, I take the washing off the line and fold. Everyday. I never let it pile up and it helps create House work routine. I also cull regularly, most months you will find me taking at least one bag of clothes/ shoes/ bits and bobs to the op shop. I loosely have the rule, every time something is added to our house, something is given away. The less clutter, the quicker the cleaning and the less time it takes. I am ruthless with clothes and my kids toys. The less in my house, the more I am able to do in my business and opportunities that come my way.
4) I cook bulk At the moment I have four kilos of chicken roasting. When I cook, I do in bulk, so that we have left overs, we have meals in the freezer and we have plenty. I also cook chicken or meat that can be used over a few days in different kinds of meals. I do the same when anything is on special. If I see something really cheap when doing my shop (online is the easiest way to do this), I buy bulk. Whether its washing up liquid or toilet paper, washing powder, deodorant. I often have bulk of all of these products stored away. When I shop, I shop big. So everything is packed into my house in one go and I’m not at the shops everyday.
5) I am careful what I say yes and no too Lately I have been much more aware of how much time is wasted. It doesn’t mean I say no to everything, I am just really intentional when I do say yes. I say yes to mentoring and building my business, I say yes to times of purpose, but I don’t say yes to everything. I have days where we do nothing but hang around the house and potter and other days where we are on business. I am careful not to commit myself to more than one big thing a day. I don’t line up meetings and people back to back, I am careful. This is a balance of allocating time to write, allocating time to hustle and allocating time to rest. I don’t need to find time to do things, I am completely in charge of what I say yes and no too. Often in this area I hear people talking like they are a slave to their diaries. You are not. If there is too many family activities, cut one. If there is too much happening in your week change it. I say yes to fun. I say yes to hanging out with people I want to. I make it happen.
These are just a few short ideas on how I stay fully focused at home but also live a life of contribution outside as well.
Have a happy Thursday friends,
