Episode 4: Today I want to talk about 5 things that I don’t do.

1. This first one may seem kind of silly, but I thought we would start out with an easy one. I don’t check the mail every day. I might wait a week. So, once a week I will go out and grab the mail and that day is mail organization day. We have a recycle bin, a woodstove and a “mail organizer” that I put my mail in and my husband’s mail in. I pay all the household bills and he pays the credit cards. You have to remember that I don’t see my husband every day. I see him 2-3 days a week, tops. In the past 3 weeks, I got to spend like 48 hours with my husband (and that included sleeping – and I wasn’t teaching because it was winter break). Now that is not typical, but it is what it is and we make it work. Mail used to stress me out but it doesn’t anymore. I just don’t have time or brain capacity to check it every day, and let me tell you why. On Mail organization day, I can do more at one time and just get everything done at once rather than getting into “bill paying” mindset every day. I could take 5 minutes every day to go through the mail or I could take 5-10 minutes on ONE day a week and I’ve saved about a half hour of time that week. It’s amazing what compartmentalizing our brains and our lives will do. It will save you time because your brain isn’t multi-tasking. This is something that men can do really well. They can compartmentalize.

2. I don’t do chores. My kids help me put away dishes and laundry, I have a Roomba vacuum cleaner and I have a housekeeper that comes in once a month to deep clean. That’s right – I don’t clean. I don’t vacuum, I don’t sweep and I don’t do toilets. She comes in while I’m at work and my house is clean when I get home. IT. IS. WORTH. IT. My husband takes care of the outside of the house and the kids help me take out the trash once a week. Now, my children are 5 and 9 and I can hear people saying “You don’t get it – I have a 2 year old.” Oh – believe me – I get it. I was just there. And that 2 year old is going to grow up into your helper, as long as you START NOW. Habits take awhile to create. Our family did not get this way over night.

3. I don’t shower every day. Sorry if that’s gross, but I am an every other day person. So, every other day, I either get to sleep in a half hour or I take more time for myself in the morning. And sometimes, you need that.

4. I don’t grocery shop. Once the kids are in bed, I go on our Google home app and transfer our shopping list over to click list and I order the items that I told my phone we needed while I was in the kitchen. “Hey Google – add chicken nuggets to my shopping list.” I always set my pick up time for the hour that I am done working and just pick it up on the way home. How much time did I just save there? The cool thing about Click List is it saves all your previous orders so if your kids are creatures of habit like mine, you can just go back a week or two and add those to this week’s list. The first couple of times you shop it’s free and after that, it’s $5. Totally worth your time for that amount of money.

5. I don’t wait until the last minute. I talked about this on the evening/morning routine VLOG. My kids and I all plan ahead. We pack ahead for trips. We set our clothes out the night before. That includes me. I set my clothes out the night before. That saves me time in the morning because my brain is working faster at night. In the morning, I haven’t had my coffee and I’m not fully awake. I could sit in my closet for 20 minutes before deciding what to wear. Putting your clothes out the night before is a power move, even if you work from home. I also plan out my calendar months in advance, but I’ll leave that for another time since these are supposed to be short and sweet.

What are some things that you feel you “have” to do that stress you out or take too much time out of your day. Please leave a comment down below on whatever platform you are watching this on and let’s brainstorm how we can take more off your plate!