It’s the end of June and we’re half way through the year.

• How are you doing on your goals?
• Are you on track?
• Where do you need help?
• Which ones do you need to let go of?
• Which ones do you want to add?

I’m feeling frustrated with my business (I want to be speaking more so watch this space), good about my health & fitness, self-care and boundaries, and fantastic about the babies (they are the cutest they’ve ever been although they’re very sassy).

How are you feeling – frustrated, triumphant, indifferent?

Share in the comments.

In the last 6 weeks 90% of the women who have contacted me have said they feel like they have no time for themselves.

This is by no means unusual.

We all have many roles in life – if you’re a married woman and have children, you’re a wife, mother, homemaker, daughter, sister, friend, business owner, employee or boss, etc, etc.

What often happens is that you always tend to the more urgent roles and you and your personal time is usually the last thing on the list.

As a result, you start feeling resentful but also very soon you may burn out.

That’s the point when people usually contact me.

Which is great because I love working with people who are ready to take action and make changes in their lives.

So what do you do?

Do you just accept this as your lot in life while you have young kids in the house or what do you do?

1. Decide that you are also important

I never ever believe that we need to sacrifice the parts of us that make us feel most alive.

This is a mindshift change from mothers being the martyrs so take your time and work on this mental adjustment.

2. Identify a couple of activities that will work for you

Everybody is different so this is a personal exercise.

Some of my clients like to do pamper-type activities like a manicure, pedicure, hair appointment or massage.

Some others like to do creative things like sewing, mosaics, scrapbooking, painting and decorating.

Still others just want time, either by themselves to recharge (often the introverts) or with a couple of close girl friends to connect with their pre-mom selves again.

Are you seeing which group you fit into?

3. Choose the minimum response that will yield results

In my bestselling “break out of overwhelm” audio and handbook (sold as part of the Organise your Time system), I talk about always knowing your minimum responses.

When my twins were newborns, life was crazy. I felt like I had no time to do anything for myself as I was running around washing bottles, making bottles, feeding, burping, bathing, changing, getting the baby to sleep, and then the other one would wake!

During those crazy times, I was happy if I could have just 5 minutes to sit, drink a hot cup of tea in peace and eat breakfast. Seriously, my expectations were that low.

That was my minimum response.

Now, I expect hours every day to “do my thing” and I have it because I’ve set things up that way.

But I started very, very small.

See?

So what is the minimum response for you?

Now that you have those questions sorted out, start creating the time for yourself.

If you’re not sure what to do next or you can’t see a way out of your fog, I can help you.

This is my “thing” - I will help you intentionally craft out time for you to feel valued, honoured and fulfilled.

My free time is Very Important to me and I get that yours is too.

Contact me for a f.ree no-obligation, 15-min chat to see how I can help you feel human again

Otherwise, if your style is to do things by yourself, have a look at the Organise your Time system .

In just a few minutes you could be on your way to more peace and sanity in your life.

What are some of the things that you most need to feel fulfilled and happy?

How stressed am I?

On a scale of 1 – 10 I would say my stress level is around a 7.

I do worry a lot about paying bills and our financial organisation.

My other stress is my kids. They are both still very little and trying to keep them amused each day whilst getting things done is a huge task.

Sometimes it is all too much.

They can be very loud and disruptive, not to mention the mess they make. I guess I am just an average stay-at-home mum who is struggling to maintain a balance amongst the chaos.

The things I do to de-stress are:-

* Go to the gym 3 times a week
* Relaxing baths
* Time-outs, shopping
* Cooking
* Journalling
* Organising

We all have to deal with some sort of stress in our lives.

The thing that makes the difference is making sure we are aware of how the stress is affecting our lives and do the things we love to do in order to cope.

Absolutely great pointers, Samantha.

The gym one is the most effective for me but alas, the one I find hardest to do, esp now in winter

The other thing I like doing is cleaning and organising when I’m cross, so when the house is sparkling, watch out

If you had to rate your stress levels on a scale of 1 – 10, with 1 being not stressed and 10 being “I’m about to crack”, where would you be?

What are the most effective ways for you to deal with stress?

I’ve got to take a moment here to give a shout-out to Kierste (don’t you love her name?)

Her blog is one of the most organised blogs out there and has such a fresh, uncluttered feel.

I sigh with pleasure when I go visit.

And this is the makeover version – the previous one was just as organised and gorgeous.

I saw this post on Kierste’s blog a few weeks ago and I so, so love it.

Why?

• Everything is labelled.
• The labels are big and clear so no squinting to read.
• Those storage boxes happen to be some of my favourites (I store my baking pans in one of them) and I love how uniform everything looks. (you don’t need cute to be organised but it does help keep it that way)

Have a look at another pic

Click to see even more pictures of all the labelling goodness.

As an aside which is not really an aside, Kierste has TWO sets of twins plus a singleton, AND she has a pre-school at home!

Being organised has freed her up to do all that and add in some crafty goodness too.

Kierste, here’s a button for your blog!

Copy and paste code

<a href=”http://takechargesolutions.org/blog/” target=”_blank”><img border=”0″ src=”http://takechargesolutions.org/blogjjd/Organising%20Queen%20Button4.png” /></a>

What do you most love about Kierste’s space?

I love corralling things – it just looks neater and feels more organised to me.

This is my bedside table with a little tray I got from Home, Etc (for the South Africans).

As you can see, it houses my spectacle case, one of my watches and my rings when I go to bed.

I love simple and easy organising!

Do you use anything to corral your bedside table goodies?

P.S. If you haven’t yet taken the survey, please go here and at the end you can download a special freebie.

Saying ‘no’.

I am not one of those people to say ‘Yes’ to everything.  The problem I encounter is saying no to myself.  Sometimes I can get so caught up with doing the things that I think need to be done and then I forget about the things I want to get done.

For example some days I can spend the whole day doing housework without resting or taking time out to recharge.  This is my saying ‘no’ problem.

I am going to try to work on keeping a good pace when it comes to housework and looking after the family.  If I fall apart then the rest of the family suffers.

Being organised helps with this problem.  When I say being organised I mean preparing meals ahead of time and freezing them to make sure that there are emergency meals on hand for when I am unwell, or want to take some time out to rest or recharge.

Also doing things over the course of the week in smaller doses, rather then having to achieve it all at once helps too.

I am aware of the power of 15 minutes.  I like to get up and work for 15 minutes and then rest for 15 minutes.  I find that I get so much more done when I am not trying to achieve everything at once.

Samantha, fantastic insights – good for recognising that the person you most have trouble saying no to is YOU!

I also love how you know that if you’re not okay and taken care of, your family will also suffer.

Go easy on yourself and say no more

I need your help please.

I’ve designed a survey to find out more about who you are and where I can improve things around here.

I’d so appreciate you taking just a few minutes to complete it for me.

Here’s the link

I usually pick 5 – 10 people to receive something from me as a thank-you gift but this time around EVERYBODY gets a f.ree gift to help you organise the most used house in the home, the kitchen

Have fun and please be 100% honest as the survey is anonymous

This week’s theme is very dear to my heart since I started my organisational journey with FlyLady 4 or 5 years ago: routines. At first I thought “Routines? Pffff, I’m too creative for routines, how boring!”. Well, that rebel side had to admit that routines are the best tool to maintain order in your life without spending your days trying to catch up! It’s the first tool I adopted and the one I try to maintain even when my life goes crazy and everything else goes out of the window (like… uh, right now!)

Here’s what my daily routines look like:
Morning:

• Wake up around 6:45
• Go to bathroom, weigh in, shower, clean shower’s walls (if I don’t do it immediately they get stained by the hard water!), hair, face, make up.
• Clothes and jewelry
• Check calendar and menus of the day
• Feed cat and change his water
• Breakfast (Don’t forget to drink too!)
• Dishes in the washer
• Brush teeth
• Take water bottle for the day and leave by 7:55, go to work

Midday:

• Make bed
• Eat
• Dishes
• Check menus for dinner: do I have to buy something fresh?
• If I have to do laudry, load it and programm the washer to finish when I come home

Evening (starting right after dinner):

• Do the dinner’s dishes
• Take care of the dog
• Pick up house, scoop cat’s litter
• Prepare for tomorrow: calendar and menus, clothes, jewelry, bottle of water
• Quick clean in the bathroom
• Clean face, brush teeth, moisturize
• Plug cell phone or PDA if needed
• Go to bed before 11PM
• Moisturize feet
• Journal
• Read a little and sleep!!!

I also have weekly or monthly routines, for example for changing the cat’s litter, changing the beddings, deep cleaning the dishwasher, etc. I use my beloved PDA, aka my second brain, for those. My friends joke about it because it beeps all the time to remind me of anything and everything, but seriously, my brain have much better things to do than remember when I have to clean the microwave, right? I don’t have that many unused braincells that I can waste them on such things! LOL

Please, share your routines, I love being inspired by others for routines!

I came across a craft room while blog-surfing a few months ago and somehow lost it when click, click, clicking through.

But last week I found this blog again and I must confess, I spent all my blog reading time that night reading her entire blog.

It’s called Little Lovelies and it is really just lovely.

Clean, fresh, uncluttered, simple… I could go on and on.

Her craft room has been causing gasps of wonder and delight all around the internet so let me show you why.

and then her sewing area…

(I must admit I’m dreaming of a sewing machine even though I can’t sew and haven’t used a sewing machine since I was about 14 )

I love all the desk space, the colours are so soothing and my favourite, you really get a sense of who Allison is by the way she’s done it.

It’s beautiful but you still feel like a “real person” lives there.

Click on over to see Allison’s craft room and then come tell me what your favourite part of this space is.

Allison, here’s a button for your blog!

Copy and paste code

<a href=”http://takechargesolutions.org/blog/” target=”_blank”><img border=”0″ src=”http://takechargesolutions.org/blogjjd/Organising%20Queen%20Button4.png” /></a>

If you normally read my blog in a reader, click through and come on over.

Organising Queen has had a makeover.

As with any makeover, there’s a story…

I got another blog redesigned on blogger and wanted the same designer to do this one but she doesn’t do WordPress so I said, “no problem, do the designing of the little bits and pieces and I’ll get someone to add it on later”

Not such a little problem.

My usual person has been moving and whatnot so has been unavailable and eventually I begged and begged some more and the lovely Jayme (who is a rockstar mom also with twins) agreed to do it for me.

(thank you to all the others who also offered to do the work)

What do you think?

What should I move around? How can I make things easier for you to find?

BTW, what is the difference between tags and categories, and when do you use one vs the other? (in blogger, it’s so easy – there’s one thing, and it’s called labels)