Just Getting Things Done

Helping overwhelmed and exhausted moms break free from the chaos and feel like themselves again.

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Moms: Eliminate Your To-Do List in 4 Mins

Even if you're exhausted after a full day at work and have no energy to play with your kids. Get my FREE Empowered Mom's Guide to Getting Things Done, a simple 2-part strategy you can apply automatically to get your To-Do List out of your head and done.
- Stop feeling like you're failing as a wife and mom even if you can't remember the last time you mopped the kitchen floor.
- Find the energy to get things done even when your toddler wakes you up at 3:31 am and you don't want to get out of bed in the morning.
- Take back control of your life even though you only have 3 waking hours a day at home with your kids.

 
 

Decluttering With Kids

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Stuff just seems to accumulate when you have kids. Everywhere you go, everywhere you turn, there’s more stuff. They come home with goodie bags from birthday parties, the dentist, the grandparents. They have a treasure box and a million art projects at daycare. Someone’s bringing over hand-me-downs. It’s just an overload of stuff. So how do you declutter your kids’ stuff?

Decluttering With Kids - Just Getting Things Done

Let’s get to it.

Cheap toys

Throw them away. Don’t just toss them in the trash right away though.  This is how we do it. We hang onto the toy for a couple days while they’re still interested in it. Once they stop playing with it and we find it lying around the house, we put it on the mantle. That way we’ve still got it in case they suddenly need their spider ring again. Usually it doesn’t happen, but sometimes it does. Then, after a couple days on the mantle, we toss it into the trash.

So far our kids have not noticed we use this tactic, even when they get attached to the most ridiculous things, like cheap yo-yos they don’t know how to use. You could use a bin of some kind or a drawer. Either way, keep it out of sight for a couple of days and if they don’t ask for it, then you can get rid of it. [Read more…] about Decluttering With Kids

Going Back to Work After Maternity Leave – Week 1

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As a working mom, returning to work after maternity leave is a time of major changes and major emotions. There are so many thoughts and feelings that go through my head, I wanted to chronicle it because, well, it may never happen again. I hope my journey can provide some comfort to other women that are going through the same thing. (This is the second post in this series, the first post is here)

Returning to Work After Maternity Leave - Week 1
Coming home from daycare pick-up with the big girls

Weekend

Sunday night I feel totally unprepared. I don’t know if I even have enough clothes to get through a whole week. Sean doesn’t know what to do at drop off with Clara. He doesn’t know what she has at school already and what she doesn’t because I’ve done it all on my own. (Of course, he’s done this before too.) We discussed who was going to drop off who, but that was awhile ago. Don’t we need to talk about it again to make sure we’re on the same page?

I got my clothes for Monday morning ready and put them in the bathroom. I packed my breakfast, lunch, snack. I put my computer and pump in the Gathering Place. I put my phone in my purse (instead of sitting right by it) so I wouldn’t forget it. I’m doing my best to make sure I have everything I need when I leave the house tomorrow. [Read more…] about Going Back to Work After Maternity Leave – Week 1

Going Back to Work After Maternity Leave – 1 Week To Go

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As a working mom, returning to work after maternity leave is a time of major changes and major emotions. There are so many thoughts and feelings that go through my head, I wanted to chronicle it because, well, it may never happen again. I hope my journey can provide some comfort to other women that are going through the same thing.

Going Back to Work After Maternity Leave - 1 Week To Go
Clara on my lap our last day home together

The weekend

Over the weekend I said more than once, “I don’t want to go back to work.” But it’s not as simple as that statement makes it seem. I don’t want to go back to work because right now I get to stay home all day and snuggle my sweet baby. I don’t think I’m going to care at all about work. It’s not going to seem important compared to my baby.

I also know that I can’t stay home with (just) the baby forever. We have two other kids and we couldn’t keep sending them to daycare if I wasn’t working. I wouldn’t want to. But I also know that I wouldn’t want to stay home with all three kids every day.

I don’t really like saying that, because in some ways it makes me feel bad. I feel like I have to justify it by saying they’ve been in daycare and they’re used to spending all day with other kids their age in an environment that is tailored to them. Our house isn’t like that. I also just don’t think I’d be great at it. I love my kids so much and I think they’re amazing and beautiful. I know myself, though, and at some point that just wouldn’t be enough for me. [Read more…] about Going Back to Work After Maternity Leave – 1 Week To Go

How Do Working Moms Get It All Done?

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Working Moms Get It All Done - Working Mom
© Meredith Moran Photography www.meredithkmoran.com

I remember when I went back to work after my first daughter, Emma, was born. I was overwhelmed with questions. How do I focus on work when I left my baby with someone else? How do I know if I did the right thing by coming back to work? How am I supposed to remember everything? Am I a bad mom because I’m excited to only be responsible for myself for the next 8 hours?

So I did what anyone does these days when they have a question. I turned to Google.

One of the biggest questions I had was “How do working moms get it all done?”

So I googled that and “How do working moms do it all?” The search results were filled with articles telling me that I couldn’t do it all. They said things like “just accept that you’ll have dirty dishes” or that “your laundry will never be done.” They told me I would just have to lower my standards. That was the only way I would be able to get by as a working mom.

But that didn’t work for me. What if it makes me happy to cook dinner every night and to make sure we don’t ever have piles of dirty laundry laying around the house? What if mountains of dirty dishes would make me unhappy? As a working mom, what am I supposed to do then?

There was no good answer that I could find.

[Read more…] about How Do Working Moms Get It All Done?

Reflections on Mental Clutter

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Reflecting on Mental Clutter

I think mental clutter is a lot like physical clutter. Something lying around in an inconvenient place that requires some action by you. It starts with the thoughts that fly through your head all day. You know the ones.

  • I have to make a well-check appointment for my little one.
  • I need to remember to bring my computer home from work today.
  • I need to call my mom.
  • I signed up for a conference at school, I wonder when that is.
  • I really need new shoes.
  • My purse is a mess, I should clean it out.
  • The kids got flu shots but I haven’t yet.
  • And on and on.

If you’ve read my guide or some of my other articles, you know my strategy when I have those thoughts is to act on them right away. That way I’m not adding to the mental clutter. If I don’t do them or schedule them, they will just be in my mind until I finally take care of them. Like the physical clutter, I may not notice it but it’s there. When I try to think about it, it doesn’t immediately come to mind. It just hangs out there in the back of my mind causing stress. [Read more…] about Reflections on Mental Clutter