JESSICA F ISHER
5 Easy Ways to Get Your Act
Together
for NORMAL people
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Table of Contents Organization for Normal People:
5 Easy Ways to Get Your Act Together
Organize Your Days for Success
Organize your days with a planner.
Organize your days with a weekly routine.
Organize your days with a daily routine.
Organize Your Meal Prep
Have you got a meal plan?
Did you get the groceries?
What do you need to thaw?
What can you chop, shred, slice ahead of time?
What can you make ahead?
Get some help when you need it.
Organizing Your Paper
Purge ruthlessly.
Dedicate an office workspace.
File appropriately.
Tidy up regularly.
Manage Your Money
Be in agreement with your spouse.
Do an audit.
Set some financial goals.
Keep good records.
Give yourself a carrot.
Know that it’s okay to be weird.
Be visionary.
Make the Most of Your Leisure Time
Plan some good eats.
Check your calendar.
Plan for fun.
Plan for rest.
About the Author
Organization for Normal People:
5 Easy Ways to Get Your Act Together
Many of us live lives peppered with distractions. It’s the sign of our
age. If it’s not the phone ringing, beeping, or flashing, there’s the TV
email, and social media to draw us away from what’s most
important in our real lives in exchange for a glimpse of some
celebrity nonsense or a funny cat video.
“Keeping up” with virtual strangers is not hard. It’s keeping up with
the most important people and areas of our life that can be tricky.
We fall behind, miss appointments, and allow messes to pile up.
Getting organized is key to enjoying our lives.
I’ve found that when I keep my life a little more organized, I can
focus on – and enjoy -- the most important parts of it: God, my
husband, my children, my work, and my home.
Organization brings order to chaos and helps me be at peace with,
not overwhelmed by, the stuff of my life.
This little booklet is designed to give you a little taste of organizing
and that feeling like your act is just a little bit more polished. Martha
doesn’t live at my house, and I bet she doesn’t live at yours.
But, we normal people, we can still get it together, too.
Here we’re going to tackle 5 important areas of life:
our days
our meals
our paper
our money
our leisure time
Complete books have been written on all the above topics; there’s
no end to the help and research available. Right now, let’s dive in
and talk “quick and easy”. In the following pages, you’ll find quick
actionable tips to help you jump-start your organization so that you
feel more “with-it”.
Organize Your Days for Success
Organizing your days can bring great peace to your life. No matter
what your life is like, setting a pattern or schedule that works for you
can be key to good mental health and a smooth running home.
Kids thrive on routine, and I’d like to suggest, that adults do, too.
Provided it’s a routine that suits us, our personalities, and our current
season of life.
Over the years, I’ve had to organize and reorganize myself,
depending on my season of life and what our family is doing. That
year with hockey, ballet, and karate all going simultaneously while I
was writing a cookbook would have killed me if I hadn’t created
some serious organization.
There are a few different ways that I find to be super-duper helpful
when I need to organize my days:
Organize your days with a planner.
My favorite way to think through my days is with a planner. My
planner is like my brain on paper.
It contains a basic calendar that I use for planning purposes, goal-
setting worksheets where I can do my big dreaming, a
monthly/weekly/daily to do list, my weekly meal plans, and my
month’s project lists.
When I don’t know what to do, I turn to my planner and figure out
what to do next.
Maybe you don’t need something to direct your next steps, but I sure
do! Otherwise, I get distracted by all the sparklies.
Could a planner help you organize yourself a little more?
Organize your days with a weekly routine.
There are some days, however, when I don’t even pick up my
planner. I don’t always need to because I’ve blocked certain
activities into certain days in my brain. I assign certain activities to
certain days of the week.
For instance:
Monday through Friday: I know school and my kids are my
focus on these days.
At least one evening a week is set aside for dating my
husband.
Friday nights are “pizza and a movie” nights.
Most Saturdays I work on my blog and writing business.
Sundays I avoid work as much as possible so that I can rest. This
is when I read, watch a chick flick, or otherwise just chill.
Do you have a weekly routine for doing things so that your activities
can be put on auto-pilot sometimes?
Organize your days with a daily routine.
In addition to blocking out days, I also have certain times of the day
devoted to certain things. Here’s a sample week:
Sleep – I don’t always sleep well, so I have to start early (around
9pm) and try to sleep late (7am). I know that if I mess with this
routine, I’ll be a mess.
Work – Currently, I’m trying to sneak a few hours of work into
the mornings before I take my eldest son to the train in the
morning. The kids make their own breakfasts and do their
morning chores during this time while I get some work done.
Train Drop-off/Pick-up – My college son takes the train to work
and school, but needs me to drop him off at the station. This is a
great time for us to chat, and as I’m learning, to naturally
transition from work mode to school teacher mode.
School – It’s really hard to homeschool five kids all their subjects
in a day. If I don’t focus, it won’t happen. I know that the hours
between 8 and 3 are crucial to my kids’ education.
Evening Routine – When school’s done, I work on getting the
house picked up (read: make sure kids do their chores), make
dinner, run errands, finish laundry/dishes, read to the littles, etc. I
also try to unplug about 30 minutes before I want to sleep, so
that my brain can transition well to sleep.
You may not be a homeschool, work-at-home mom. You have your
own unique practices and responsibilities. You can still organize them
into a daily routine that works for you where you’re at.
How can you build in daily time blocks to help you focus on the
different areas of your life?
By creating these weekly and daily time blocks, I help myself to focus
and prioritize — without having my planner right there. However, if I
didn’t have my planner in the first place, I wouldn’t have been able
to map out all these different time blocks.
The three methods work in conjunction to help me remember what’s
important, work on the big things, and get places on time.
For more help on organizing your days, check out my ebooks:
Organizing Life as Mom and The Print & Go Planner.
Organize Your Meal Prep
Everybody has to eat, right? No matter who you are, where you
work, or how much money you make, you have to make time to eat.
And someone has to prepare that food.
Meal prep is a daily gig for most of us, but it can get harried. Maybe
you’re busy from morning right until dinner time. Maybe dinner time
rolls around and lo and behold! That’s when the baby will accept
nothing and no one, but to be held by YOU.
Organizing your meal prep can help you get a home cooked meal
on the table even on the craziest of nights. Ask yourself these
questions as you think about dinner tonight:
Have you got a meal plan?
Everyone plans their meals. Some just do it in line at McDonald’s right
before they place their order.
You and I both know that if you did it a little sooner than that, you
increase your chances of a healthy, economical meal. Savvy meal
planning can help you do that.
Did you get the groceries?
I love to grocery shop. It’s one of my favorite household chores.
However, that means I often need to hold myself back from buying
too much or shopping too often. Others struggle with making sure
they’ve got what they need.
Do as Goldilocks’ Mama Bear does: shop just right. Make sure you
make a thorough grocery list to get you through the week with
adequate groceries.
What do you need to thaw?
The freezer can be the home cook’s best friend — when we
remember to thaw things in time for dinner. Ahem.
Take a gander at your meal plan. What’s three days out that should
probably start thawing in the fridge NOW? Make that happen so
that in three days, your roast will be ready to cook. Thawing is an
essential part of your meal prep. Don’t forget it!
What can you chop, shred, slice ahead of
time?
Pre-slicing, chopping, and shredding vegetables, meats, and
cheeses can make meal assembly so much quicker and easier. Like
you might even be able to make dinner one-handed with a baby on
your hip if you don’t have to do all the slicing and dicing, right?
Create a quick list of things you’ll use in your meal prep this week:
chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, shredded cheese. Make use of
the baby’s nap time to knock these things out so dinner prep is really
just throwing things together. One-handed.
What can you make ahead?
Are there meals you can just make ahead and stash in the fridge or
freezer? Lasagna or Cheese Enchiladas are awesome for this! Or how
about meal components like Seasoned Taco Meat or Homemade
Pinto Beans?
Do whatever meal prep ahead of time that you can. Cook when
you have the time, eat it without a fuss when you don’t.
Get some help when you need it.
Do you need help? We all do. No mom is an island. Ask your spouse
or children to help. When a friend asks what she can do, tell her. If
the budget allows, buy the meal prep help you need in the way of
some convenience ingredients or a purchased meal plan that does
all the thinking for you.
For more help on organizing your days, check out these resources:
Meal Planning 101, Life as Mom’s FREE meal plans, and A Month of
Meal Plans.
Organizing Your Paper
Whether you work from home, homeschool your kids, hunt down
teacher paperwork every school night, or simply manage the regular
bills, junk mail, and paper that comes with the life of a human, paper
is going to be something to deal with. It can bury you or it can serve
you. You get to choose.
Here are some quick tips to help you manage your paper:
Purge ruthlessly.
Get rid of everything that is unnecessary. Make some hard decisions
between keepsakes and junk, between papers necessary for taxes
and those that could be shredded.
Dedicate an office workspace.
Whether you have a full room to organize your household papers or
just a desk or file box, make sure you have a space for office supplies
and bookkeeping.
File appropriately.
There are lots of different ways to file paperwork. Choose the system
that works best for you. It shouldn’t be difficult if you don’t save more
than you need to.
I have working folders for every area of business and life. At the end
of the year those all get boxed into a box for that year. I know
exactly where to find documents from 2010.
Tidy up regularly.
If you deal with the paper every day, it can’t pile up on you. Tidy up
every night, filing papers and otherwise taming the beast that wants
to reappear, will help you keep the paper tiger at bay.
Manage Your Money
Money, if left to manage itself, will fly right out the window, leaving
you stressed and breathless, wondering what the heck happened to
all your hard work. I know. Been there. Done that.
Sometimes despite my best efforts, I still make money mistakes.
But, I know that I cannot throw up my hands. For years I told myself, “I
just can’t budget. We’re self-employed.” Well, I was wrong. You
can budget on a small business income, you can even pay off debt.
I justified my lack of money management by saying it was too hard
or I just wasn’t good enough, or we just didn’t make enough money.
Ha! No matter how much (or how little) money you make, you still
need to manage it. It will leave you quick if you don’t.
I’ve learned these money management tips the hard way.
Hopefully, that won’t be the same case for you.
Be in agreement with your spouse.
Differences in money management are often credited with causing
marital problems and divorce. Money is so stressful! I can’t tell you
how much stress has been removed from my marriage since we
started talking about our spending, got rid of debt, and began
setting financial goals together.
If you are not on the same page, I highly encourage you to pray,
talk, and seek counseling so that you can be in agreement on how
to spend (or not spend) your money. Not sure where you stand? See
these marks of a healthy financial relationship and see where you
land.
Do an audit.
Where are you spending your money? Are you saving each month?
Are you living within your means? Is there a slow leak that needs to
be stopped?
Audit yourself to find out the current status of your money
management. Everyone manages her money, just some do it better
than others. Where are you at?
Set some financial goals.
There are some seasons where breaking even is the best we can
hope for. Hopefully, you can see beyond that toward saving and
working toward financial goals and overall improved money
management.
A local bank recently offered a $200 bonus if you opened an
account with a certain amount of “new” money (funds not from
another account within the same bank) and left it alone for 90 days.
While it was a stretch to scrape together the amount, we did it. We
ate more beans and rice at home that month, had an instant
savings account, and made a really good return on that money
since interest rates do not currently favor savers.
Maybe your goal is to make it to the next payday without using your
credit card. Maybe you want to scrape together an emergency
fund, buy a new couch, or fund your IRA. These are all good goals,
so don’t compare to someone else.
Whatever you do toward better money management is good. Don’t
knock your goals, just make sure you have some! When we don’t
have goals, we get really lackadaisical in our spending. Later we see
that if we’d had more purpose, we could have made wiser choices.
Need help thinking through financial goals?
Our Money Goals for 2015
Setting Financial Goals
Designate Separate Accounts for Different Financial Goals
Keep good records.
Keeping good financial records is an important part of money
management. If you don’t know where your money went, you can
get in big trouble — with the government and with yourself. Being
aware of your spending can help you avoid debt, save more, and
reach your goals.
Give yourself a carrot.
Reward yourself for growth in your money management. So often it’s
a thankless job. Oh yay, I paid off a debt…. I’d rather have a latte.
Well, let yourself have a latte once you take care of business! When I
reward myself for good money management, I’m more likely to do it.
Know that it’s okay to be weird.
I suppose some people may think we’re odd that we pay cash and
don’t use credit cards. We don’t have a mortgage or car loans. We
have no debt. We make some money each month; we pay for rent,
groceries, and utilities, and then we have a little leftover. This was not
always the case, but man! does it feel good!
And I suppose it’s weird.
But, I don’t really care. The feeling of freedom is amazing.
Be visionary.
Money management isn’t all spreadsheets and calculators —
though those do help. It’s about using what you have to your best
advantage. Every day we’re faced with choices that involve money.
Those of us who’ve been in debt know what it feels like to be so
stressed you can’t see straight. It affects your decision-making
capabilities, too.
Good money management is an exercise in being visionary, really.
Sure, self-control is involved but so is dreaming a big dream and
thinking beyond your current money problems.
You can do this. And it will be good.
Make the Most of Your Leisure Time
It’s seems weird that leisure time would even be considered
something you need to organize. But, planning for fun, making it a
priority, and getting the work stuff out of the way, are key to really
enjoying this life.
If you organize your weekends or your vacation time, you can
prioritize as well as party. Here are some strategies to organize your
leisure time and make the most of the time you have:
Plan some good eats.
Organize your weekend by making sure you’ll eat well. Write up a
quick list of fun foods to make and be sure to shop accordingly. Plan
out which restaurants you want to visit or what easy meals you can
throw together.
Check your calendar.
What’s on the docket? Little league? Piano recital? Company
coming? Take a good look at your calendar to make sure that you
are aware of what’s coming. You can avoid snafus and the oh-
yeah-we’re-supposed-to-be-two-places-at-once thing.
If there’s some blank space on the calendar, consider if you want to
leave well enough alone. Too often we try to squeeze more in than
we can do with grace. Make the most of your free time by pacing
yourself.
Plan for fun.
How can you organize your weekend to include some fun? Watch a
movie. Play a game. Take a hike. There are plenty of practically free
things you can do for fun.
Plan for rest.
Make sleep and rest a priority. Sure, you could clean out the garage
on your day off, and that’s well and good. But, be sure that you take
some time to rest and refresh.
Making the most of your free time doesn’t mean you have to map
out every minute and put post-its on everything. It just means you
prioritize and make room for the important things.
About the Author
Jessica Fisher is a wife and busy mom
of six young children, aged 5 to 16.
(Homeschool) mom by day, she
moonlights as a freelance writer,
blogger, and cookbook author.
Published in over 95 regional
parenting publications, Jessica enjoys
writing for periodicals as well as the
web. She writes about ways to
manage a home and family and still
keep a smile on your face at LifeasMOM.com and posts “delicious
ways to act your wage” at GoodCheapEats.com.
Jessica is the author of four cookbooks: Best 100 Juices for Kids, Not
Your Mother’s Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook, Good Cheap
Eats: Everyday Dinners and Fantastic Feasts for $10 or Less, and
Good Cheap Eats: Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less.
For more information about Jessica, visit FishMama.com.