I loved all the comments last week on the “are you getting enough sleep” article.

It seems this is a problem we all share.

Not many people are getting enough sleep!

And we all wonder why we’re less productive than we want to be, or why we’re not quite happy and full of joy.

(Sleep is a huge part of happiness)

So then I got to thinking.

Why is it that we need to create bedtimes and routines to get us sleeping earlier?

My reason is that in the evenings, I somehow start thinking I’m a time optimist.

A time optimist is someone who thinks they can do more in a specific period of time than one can realistically do.

It’s really strange since I’m usually a time realist in my work life. I know how to organise my time.

- I know that things happen in the traffic so I need to leave extra time to get anywhere.
- I know that if I think I can run 5 errands in an hour, I’ll probably only be able to do 3 or 4 because of long queues, inefficient service, etc.
- I know that when arranging meetings, etc. people will typically not all arrive on time so I may have to leave off the least important agenda items if we run out of time.

A time realist is realistic about how long things take and buffers in time when necessary.

Back to my time optimism though.

I put 6 things on a list and get to only two of them even though I know full well I have a really busy day at work.

I’m a time optimist.

I think things will go quicker than they inevitably do, or that I’m Superwoman and can do those things quickly.

And yet I often tease my husband because he’s a true time optimist.

He always thinks he can get much more done on the weekends and is then disappointed when we only get to do one or two things.

Of course the time pessimist thinks there’s never enough time to do anything – read, organise, do fun things.

How about a quick example?

You have 15 minutes before a meeting.

Time optimist – “I can probably get 10 emails done if I do them really quickly”

Time realist – “I can answer 2 – 3 long emails or about 5 – 6 quick ones”

Time pessimist – “15 minutes? No point me starting an email. I’ll just get started and have to stop!”

So, are you a time optimist, realist, or pessimist?

I was interviewed late last year for Your Baby magazine. They compare mothers with different parenting styles – unsurprisingly, I’m the mother who likes routines

Download and read the article here.

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There’s been much ado all over the internet and especially, Pinterest, about chalkboard doors.

Actually, chalkboard doors, cupboard doors, chalkboard labels and gift tags, etc.

Like this.

In theory, I really like this idea. And I must admit, when they’re first done and they’re all neat and black, they do look gorgeous.

But practically, I keep thinking how I’ll have to rewrite the shopping list before going to the shop or rewrite the things to remember, which defeats the purpose.

What do you chalkboard people do? 

I know I’m certainly not brave enough to paint a wall with another colour, let alone chalkboard paint, but I thought I could get my little fix by buying a little chalkboard for the kitchen.

I saw one at my favourite South African home store (Mr P – they are not paying me to say that), hemmed and hawed, and I left it.

Because I have a personal rule – if it’s not a definite yes, it’s a no.

So then I saw a smaller, cuter, heart-shaped chalkboard at a fraction of the price, also at Mr P, and that one said, “take me home” so I did.

Only thing is… I forgot something really key.

I hate the sound of chalk on a chalkboard.

I wrote one thing on it (hello) and that was me. Done.

Dion then wrote “welcome” on the board at our babies’ 2nd birthday party (in July last year) and yes, that poor board is still sporting the welcome note. I think he added a due date for the library books below that in November and that is still how it looks.

Yes.

 So there’s the thing – when I gave in to the heart-shaped chalkboard, I wasn’t thinking about my preference for no noisy squeaks on a board.

I’ve seen these chalkboard markers though… which look like a fabulous idea for people like me who like the look of the labels but not the sound or the mess!

Over to you.

Do you like the look of chalkboards?

Do you have a decorative chalkboard in your home?

Do you use real chalk or chalkboard markers? And if you’re in South Africa, where did you buy your chalkboard marker? I would like to try it on some of those cute labels……………..

Whenever we used to travel overseas, I’d keep a little notebook with me and divide it into 3 sections:

1. things to do
2. day to day notes – there’s nothing worse than getting back and whole days of your holiday are blank because you didn’t take notes
3. budgets or what we spend daily (we like to have an average daily budget)

Sometime last year I saw a scrapbook travel journal and I was inspired. Hers was a lot more scrapbooky for my taste but I loved the idea of capturing memories on the day itself and just putting the photos in when you get back from your holiday.

After all, I was used to doing the daily writing anyway.

So eventually I had all the supplies and to be honest, I only assembled the book on our first night on holiday but at least everything was ready.

Supplies

1. Chipboard covers
2. Binder rings
3. Two-hole punch
4. Scrapbook paper
5. Cardstock or project board
6. Notebook paper – I used a graph book for the budget papers
7. Stamps
8. Glue
9. Photos
10. Number stickers (before I saw these, I was going to use plain circle stickers and write the numbers on them)

How to make

1. Decide how big you want your journal. I initially used one double spread per day we were away but then later after going through all the pics, added another four pages.
2. Lay everything out first to make sure what’s in your head works out visually too. I had to change some papers here and there because the colours didn’t look good together.
3. When you’re happy, punch the paper and bind with binder rings.
4. I saw the idea for the cover page ages ago (I think on Becky Higgins’s blog) so I made sure to take that photo on day 1.
5. I wrote in my book every night, sometimes I had to catch up two nights.
6. I made a separate folder within my Ballito folder called scrapbook and dragged the pics I needed to print. Sometimes I cheated and made collages when I couldn’t decide on one pic.
7. I tried various methods of sticking the photos to the pages – the one that worked best for me was putting glue on the page and then affixing the photo.
8. A normal glue stick works better than liquid glue, double-sided tape or those sticky dots. Nice to know cheaper is still best
9. And there it is – a quick way of capturing our memories – in all its imperfect glory.
10. We all LOVE it – me, D and the kids keep paging through it and best of all, because it’s not perfect, I’m not at all precious about people (two and a half year old twins!) touching it

bakers twine from In Good Company – I won’t tell you how much I spent when I went but it was three times what I’d budgeted.

examples of the extra pages I added

the “splash” card is a free download from Monika Wright

I had a little man wanting in on the photo action

this is what all the journalling pages look like – words on one side and pic on the other

 

This was undoubtedly one of the best ideas I’ve ever had and I will definitely be making more for gifts and for our future trips.

I still have not blogged or posted pics of half of our travels from 2008 and 2009 but if I’d had little books like these I know they would have been DONE by now! I used to blog ours but it got away from us.

How do you document your travel (international and domestic) adventures?

What do you think of my little book?

PS please spare a thought for my friend, Beth. It’s one year today since her son died so tragically.

Last year my coach asked me if I’d ever considered going to a speaking conference in the US.

The one we spoke about was She Speaks.

Well, I hadn’t really thought much about it but I put it on my mental list.

And this year it’s going to be in North Carolina.

So I made a few enquiries and…. gosh, the trip will cost about double what I was thinking of paying. It’s the airfare that’s so costly, not even the conference itself

Now there are two ways to approach this -

~ either dismiss the idea and say “oh, too bad” or
~ say “HOW can I do this?”

I’ve set myself a goal to get to so that I can see if it will all work out financially.

Here’s where you can help me if you’re so inclined:

1. pray for good ideas, sponsorship, inspiration and opportunities to align
2. send your friends my way
3. if you were thinking of getting something from the store , please avail yourself. And to thank you for your support, please use coupon code welcome to get 20% off

Thank you!

PS the more I read on the conference site, the more I want to go

I realised on Sunday night as I got into bed at 12:30 am that I’ve been slacking on my bedtime.

Yes, I’m a night owl so my natural tendency is to work late because my brain is most awake then.

However, I work full-time so I don’t have the luxury of living totally in tune with my body clock.

I used to have a rule about my bedtime and, to be honest, it still exists. I’m just not following it all that well.

I like to be sleeping by 12 so I need to be in bed by 11 since I read for an hour every night – bliss!

And here’s my rule – computer off by 10:30.

I found I’d be getting to bed at least 30 minutes later when I didn’t enforce my computer rule because I forgot about tidying the desk, doing my bedtime routine, etc.

So my question to you is this - are you getting enough sleep?

Most adults don’t get enough sleep and we’re all functioning (or not) at below-par levels of productivity and simply, life enjoyment.

I need 7 hours a night. On the weekends I get an extra hour and sometimes even an afternoon nap with the babies, also known as my two-year-old twins.

Do you know how much sleep your body needs?

The other day Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project, wrote a post asking about bedtimes.

She said something interesting in that once you set a bedtime (we now know mine is 11 or 12, depending how you look at it), if you ignore your bedtime, you’re then consciously choosing to do what you were doing instead of going to bed.

I love it!

So here’s this week’s coaching challenge:

- What is your wake-up time?
- Work back at least 7 hours. That is the time you have to be asleep by.
- How long do you need before falling asleep? Subtract that time.
- Also subtract time for your bedtime routine – face, teeth, reading, etc.
- For the next week, set an alarm or reminder in your phone or computer that says “go to bed”.
- Keep track of your productivity the following day as you start getting enough sleep and let me know how you feel by posting in the comments.
- If you need help getting control of your time, let me coach you! Email me now.

Let’s have some fun.

I have a confession – I have a number of secret organising fantasies.

Well, now that I’m telling the internets, it’s not-so-secret fantasies.

But look at this lovely cupboard.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

It actually houses an office. Yes, an office in a cupboard.

There are all these GORGEOUS offices on Pinterest and I’m not immune to the loveliness, trust me.

But my secret fantasy is to scale down to such an extent that everything fits inside a cupboard like this. Bliss!

What is your secret office organising fantasy?

Here’s a link to organise your home office

So, I’ve been going through stuff the last couple of weeks.

Not just going through stuff but throwing out quite a lot.

A pillow and a doormat

unnecessary plastics

tons of hangers and miscellaneous plastic things (the children took the plastic containers)

Look at all those lovely empty hangers

7 pairs of pants

What’s on your weekend organising to-do list?
Any special areas you need to declutter?

I’ve recently got into crafting.

I use the word “crafting” very loosely, by the way, but I do love playing around and getting creative.

As many of you know, I do love lists and so I’ve made two lists – “things to make” and “things to make this year with supplies I already have“.

See, there’s a distinction.

One is more “pie in the sky” and very much on the nice to have list whereas the other list is more grounded in reality. I already have the supplies at home so all I have to do is take them out and CREATE.

When I was making the second list last week, I thought about how it’s the same with organising.

We have these tv/ blog/ Pinterest-like visions of what our organised homes should look like, complete with state-of-the-art organising systems, the most beautiful containers and worthy to appear on a tv show.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with dreaming, and dreaming big, but when we become paralysed and not motivated by the dream, there’s something wrong.

The thing is that those visions of perfection often leave us demotivated and uninspired to even start because you think, “what’s the point? I could never have it look like that”.

Why not rather look at your home realistically?

See what you can and are able to do and take it from there. Use what you have in the time you have available and just do the best you can do.

Read that paragraph again…

Here are some action steps for your organising REALITY list:

1. Take a piece of paper and a pen (I like a clipboard) and write down the rooms in your home that need some work. Leave space under each room heading.

2. Now walk around your house and make a list under each heading of what you want to do. For example, in the study/ home office

* tidy desk

* do filing

*put photos in photo albums/ frames, etc.

3. Choose a room to start and pick your first project.

4. Here’s the important part – use things you DO have to help you organise. The most important thing is simply a bin/ wastepaper basket.

5. Don’t let the idea of pretty stop you from having things function well. Remember a shoebox works just as well to store things as a fancy box from The Container Store.

Tell me honestly, do you get paralysed and overwhelmed by all the perfect organising solutions out there?

(I do when I let myself dwell on them!)

PS  Contact me if you need any help coming up with an organising strategy for your space. The wonders of Skype mean we can very easily consult virtually.

So I have this pile of books I never get around to reading because I’m not disciplined enough.

It could also be because they’re non-fiction.

You see, when I typically start reading a non-fiction book, I find I can’t get swept along by it as easily as I can by fiction. The act of reading feels like torture even though I’m learning and the subject matter is interesting.

This year I’ve decided to read just one of those non-fiction books every month. Just one.

These are the ones on my list for the year:

1. Goals – Brian Tracey
2. I thought it was just me – Brene Brown (I’ve also read The gifts of imperfection – fantastic!)
3. The five love languages for children – Chapman and Campbell
4. Do more great work – Michael Bungay Stanier
5. Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti – Bill and Pam Farrel
6. It’s all too much – Peter Walsh
7. Organizing magic – Sandra Felton
8. The encore effect – Mark Sanborn (I loved the Fred book)
9. Secrets to getting more done in less time – Donna Otto
10. First-time mom – Kevin Leman
11. Have a new you by Friday – Kevin Leman
12. When your best is not good enough – Kevin Leman (might as well read 11 & 12 after each other – they came in a 3 in 1 and I read the Birth Order one years ago – yes, I thoroughly recommend it)

I just recently discovered something really cool that’s working well for me and so I thought I’d share it with you too.

Nothing earth-shattering, but a small change of habit.

I read just one chapter every day.

That’s it.

The Goals book has 21 chapters and I’m further with it this year than I was when I started reading it about 4 years ago. By the way, I started over so I could get a proper sense of the book.

Back to my old habits…

You see, before I’d think I need to only read one book at a time.

This time, I read my one non-fiction chapter in the morning or when the kids nap on the weekend days, and at night, I indulge in my fiction.

It’s working really, really well.

If I continue with this practice, I will complete those 12 much earlier than December and then I can tackle the rest of my bookshelf.

What is your reading style?

Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?

Which books are in your pile that you’re just not getting around to reading?Any of the ones on my list?

PS yes, that bookshelf needs to be decluttered in a major way

I found these cleaning caddies at a gigantic homewares store and immediately had to have some.

Not for cleaning, mind, but for crafting.

They’re so useful because you can easily carry your stuff to wherever you want to play.

These pictures are from when Kendra was in the hospital over Christmas.

I took lots of stuff with me to make some mini books, washi tape books, notecards, etc. 

Where do you re-use containers for other purposes like organising?