June: Maximizing your summer EARLY BIRD BONUS #3: home habits that make your vision a reality IN THIS BONUS, you ll choose actionable steps to help you: q Set up efficient habits and automated systems now to save time later q Choose ideas for streamlining and automating meal planning & prep, household cleaning/organization, and errands & appts q Bring your family on board with your End of Summer Vision and delegate to them 1
Everyone in the club has a unique household situation. The solutions for making your home run more smoothly will be highly individual. But there s one thing that I think all of us should focus on when we re creating efficient routines for home, and that s automation. We all want to put as many tasks as possible on auto-pilot so that we don t have to spend as much time thinking about them and getting them done. As you read or listen to this week s material, be on the lookout for ways to create more time through eliminating, automating, or delegating tasks. The goal is to move things off your plate by getting rid of them, automating them (so you don t think about them as much), or delegating them to other people. Set up efficient habits & automated systems now to save time later This is the time to get your household in order. Once school starts again, the majority of your time and energy will be focused on getting your classroom in order. If you haven t planned ahead, this is when your household systems will start to fall apart, and you ll begin to feel like you are neglecting things at home. Getting your household in order is NOT about cleaning and tidying up. You can spend the whole week on that, and a few weeks later, your home will look exactly the way it did before. Our goal here is to create efficient habits and automated systems. This is an investment of time now that will free up more time for you later. Vacuuming gets the carpet clean right now. Buying a Roomba robot that vacuums for you and familiarizing yourself with it now means that your carpet will continue to be clean for months to come. Picking all the shoes up off the floor and placing them on the shoe rack by your front door cleans up your entrance way right now. Deciding with your family how many pairs of shoes each person should place on an easily accessible rack and planning where and how to store the rest means that you ll have fewer shoes to pick up every day from now on. Filing all your old papers means your to file bin will be empty for today. Deciding to replace your filing system with simpler folders (perhaps labeled only with each month of the year) so that you can slip all your papers in one folder as soon as you re done with them means you don t have to spend time filing later. 2
These are just three examples which illustrate how automation can help free up time for you later. Look at every time-consuming, tiring, and annoying household task and ask yourself: How can I automate this so I ll spend less time on it from now on? Can I eliminate all or part of the task? Can I delegate all or part of it to another family member? Ideas for streamlining and automating at home You can probably think of your most dreaded tasks right now off the top of your head. How can you invest time now in figuring out a better way to streamline and automate those tasks so you can spend less time on them later? Below are some ideas to get you started. Underneath each section are some ways you can make a financial investment to automate the process in place of a time investment. I realize this isn t feasible for everyone, but the value of the time you save may be worth it to your family. Before you decide you can t afford help, I encourage you to do some research about which services and products are available in your area, and be innovative. A weekly housekeeper might be out of the question, but hiring a family friend to deep clean every 6-8 weeks might be affordable and would save you several hours of exhausting work. Get creative--if you want something bad enough, we can help you think of a way to make it work! Pop over to the Facebook group and see how other teachers are handling it. Ideas for meal planning and prep Plan out your meals for the week in advance Assign each family member one night per week to plan and prepare dinner Have the same thing for breakfast each weekday morning so you don t have to think about it Store lunch and snack items on a special fridge shelf and cabinet so family members can grab what they want and pack their own lunches (for younger kids, organize according to food category and specify that they should choose one thing from this place and one from that so the meal is balanced) Grocery shop once a week with a smaller trip in between for more fresh produce Shop for pantry and bulk items like paper towels on Amazon and have them shipped free Do your meal prep when unpacking the groceries (chop veggies before putting them away) Store ingredients for the coming week s meals together (Monday shelf section, Tuesday section, etc.) so you can grab and go Cook enough of a main ingredient for multiple meals (ie when sauteing meat and veggies for tonight s meal, make extra to throw into a pot of soup for tomorrow s dinner) 3
Look for creative ways to serve the same meal multiple ways (ie chili can be served alone, with leftovers served over a baked potato the following day and as a chili/taco salad the third day) Keep a running grocery list on your phone and immediately add things when you re running low so you know what you re out of If you can make the financial investment...use a service like emeals to send you the week s recipes and grocery list. I love emeals because everything is customizable and the grocery list is right in the app. I check off ingredients as I shop and never have to worry about forgetting something important. I also get to try new recipes and don t have to spend more than a few minutes deciding what to prepare for the week. Grocery delivery services are also wonderful. I prefer that to meal delivery services such as Blue Apron where the raw ingredients are pre-portioned and you simply cook them. These services are expensive, yet you have little or no choice in what you re going to eat, have to cook all the food yourself, and then do the dishes afterward! I think your money and time will go further with takeout from local restaurants. However, many club members LOVE these services! Ideas for household cleaning and organization Designate all cleaning tasks to specific family members so you don t have to discuss who was supposed to do what; re-evaluate and redistribute jobs as needed once a month Assign specific days for specific tasks (laundry on Mondays, clean bathrooms on Tuesdays, etc.) or batch it (all cleaning is done on Saturday mornings) Roll up clothes rather than folding them to save time (and drawer space) when putting them away Put each family member in charge of putting away his or her own clothes (even preschoolers can sort by clothing types into designated drawers--don t worry about the folding!) Help kids create a daily to-do list rather than a chore list, so they get in the habit of list-making/prioritizing Designate one day a week or month to tidying or re-organizing areas of your home that have gotten messy Set up a command center in a central location with organization for incoming and outgoing papers, mail, etc. Rather than setting up organizational systems that make it easy to find things, create systems that make it easy to put things back where they belong (which is the real challenge of maintaining organization) If you can make the financial investment...have someone clean or deep clean on occasion (check Groupon for local deals.) You can also consider purchasing appliances that automate or eliminate work. For example, robot vacuums and mops will do those tasks for you (though you do have to clean them periodically.) You can 4
home habits that make your vision a reality also automate the care of your pets! Purchase a pet drinking fountain and automatic feeder which dispenses the appropriate amount of food at the right time (as well as a self-cleaning litter box for cats), all which only need to be cleaned/refilled about once per week and will last for several years. Ideas for errands, shopping, and appointments Display printed or shared digital lists where you and family members can add needed supplies as you start running low Keep extras of staples like soap and toothpaste and store them in one spot so you can pull from reserves rather than make unexpected trips List out errands in advance so you can plan them by proximity Look for errands you can combine (instead of going to the grocery store and home improvement store, can you just go to Target?) Designate one weekday and one weekend day for all errands so you re not constantly running around Do as much shopping as you can online (Amazon Prime is well worth the investment) Delegate errands to family members: be sure to automate this so the same person is ALWAYS in charge of the task Batch your appointments whenever possible rather than spreading them out over multiple days or weeks Build in lots of margin in between appointments in case you have to wait (plan to run errands in between them) Plan something constructive to do while you wait (a book to read, social media time, papers to grade, etc.) Have a book on your phone or in your car at all times so you can feel good about using your time while waiting for last-minute and unexpected appointments The best daily productivity hacks and creative systems I ve found Because it s impossible for me to recommend systems that work for every management aspect of every household, I thought it would be best to offer you a collection of resources so you can choose things that work for you. So, I ve created a 40 Hour Club Pinterest board to share resources as I find them. 5
In addition to motivational quotes and productivity tips for teaching, I ve also used this Pinterest account to curate ideas for streamlining things at home. You ll find tips for meal prep, household organization, and more, all organized into specific boards so you can get what you need quickly. You can click follow for the whole account or just for specific boards you re interested in. However, you do NOT need a Pinterest account in order to use these boards: just visit the link on a computer (not a mobile device) and you ll be able to see all the ideas and click through to read more about the ones you re interested in. Be sure to check out the Tech Tools board where I recommend specific apps and websites that can help you organize household tasks and streamline communication with your family. How to bring your family on board with your vision & delegate to them 1. Explain the purpose and the benefit to them. Every person in your household needs to understand your goal to automate more household tasks. Let them know that part of your vision for the end of summer is to not only have the house in order, but to have figured out easier and faster ways to maintain that order. Emphasize that this will require some time to get set up now, but will ultimately create less work for them and put you in a better mood because you won t be as stressed out. 2. Gently help them see tasks they don t even realize you do. Chances are good that your family members don t even realize how much you do around the house: you fix problems before they even realize the problem existed, and you prevent overwhelming disasters by doing lots of small tasks on a daily basis. Draw their attention to the tasks they don t realize you do--not in a nagging way, but as part of your discussion about the changes you ll be making in the household. For example, you might say, When I say I m getting ready for bed, I don t just brush my teeth and hop in bed. I actually turn off all the inside lights, turn on the outside lights, fill up the coffee machine, wash the cups in the sink (etc etc) and THEN go to bed. These are things I do automatically so no one else in the family has to worry about it. Can you help me out by making sure and are done so I can take those off my mental to-do list at night? 6
This way, it doesn t sound like you re pushing a big pile of tasks onto everyone else: when they understand how many things need to be done, their share doesn't seem unreasonable. 3. Get their input so they have ownership over the process, too. If you want your family members to take care of their responsibilities automatically, don t do all the planning for them. Instead, involve them in the process so they have ownership and choice. Design a system together that they believe in, too, and that works for their personalities and schedules. You may even want to teach them list-making and priority-listing skills so they practice figuring out their own focus and Main Thing each day. 4. Start slowly and get everyone used to the routines before school starts again. Get your family members used to doing more around the house and following organizational systems so your school day mornings and evenings will go more smoothly. A habit as simple as picking out outfits the night before can save incredible amounts of time and stress in the mornings, so initiate that habit now when you may have a little more flexibility in your schedule. Use this summer to train your children (and maybe even other adults in your household--ha!) in exactly how you need household tasks done. Remember that 80% done by them is better than 100% done by you, so don t be a perfectionist and allow them some grace and flexibility. This is the time to teach dishwasher loading skills, closet organization, how to wipe down the shower when you get out, and so on. Anything that you ve been doing yourself because it s faster than teaching someone else to do it? That stops now. Get your family in the habit of cleaning up after themselves and contributing more to the household this summer, and you ll be amazed at how much more smoothly things run at back-to-school time. Your goal this week Start with the most time-consuming or tiring household task that you just dread doing. How can you invest time now in figuring out a better way to streamline and automate that task so you can spend less time on it later? Check out some of the ideas on the club s productivity Pinterest boards. Then head over to the Facebook group and let us know what you d like to automate so you can get tips from other teachers in similar situations. 7