I’m a mum. I’m a fiancé. I own two businesses. I take care of myself (physically and mentally). I am always enrolled in some kind of study, whether that is for business or for self-development. All while dealing with my own mental health. My life would seem pretty chaotic, right? But don’t get me wrong, I may wear a lot of hats, I’m always doing things and always have a huge to-do list but I have my shit sorted. I know what I’m doing each day and it really isn’t as chaotic as it would seem.
I totally know that you’re wondering how the hell I do it all, so let me share my secrets with you so you can live a non-chaotic life too.
♡ Schedule in your self-care
When we're living in chaos, we tend to put everything before ourselves. We put other people first. We put our to-do list first. We put work first. We put cleaning first. Literally everything is put before ourselves which is actually the worst thing we can do.
When we stop caring for ourselves, we stop caring for the people around us and the lives we’re creating for ourselves.
Whether you’re busy or literally have all of the time in the world because you’re in between jobs, commit to your self-care. Schedule it into your diary and don’t let it go because you don’t have time because trust me, you have time.
As a Mum, I used to find it hard to have time for myself, so I started waking up one hour before my son usually would, I call it my hour of power. In that hour, I journal, meditate and practise yoga or stretch.
♡ To-do lists
I would be no-where without my lists. I have to-do lists for everything. A personal to-do list, a home to-do list, a to-do list for every day (literally), a to-do list for each business. I love my to-do lists!
♡ Declutter
Where there is clutter, there is chaos.
Declutter your spaces! Your home, your car, your office, your backyard, your wardrobe. Start somewhere small but where you will notice a difference, like your bathroom cabinet. Throw out, donate or sell the things you don’t want or need anymore and you’ll notice extremely quickly how relaxing it is.
♡ Delegate and ask for help
I am a recovering do-it-all-er (I'm not sure if that's a thing but it is now!). I honestly used to live my life thinking that I was the ONLY person who could do certain things and certain tasks.
Living like that was draining, mentally and physically. It was stressful and I don’t know why I did it for so long.
When we begin to delegate, we allow more space in our lives for the things we enjoy doing and for the things we’re actually good at.
You can delegate by hiring a cleaner or taking your laundry to the dry cleaner but remember, delegating doesn’t always have to be hiring somebody to do something. I don’t know about you, but there are some tasks which I do for my family simply because I’m good at them and I get them done quickly (and usually I do them quicker than my partner, Karl). BUT, that doesn’t mean Karl, can’t do them.
If I need more time in my day or week, I delegate by asking Karl to do things that I usually would. For example, picking our son up from daycare or calling our financial advisor to give the information they asked for.
It can also mean asking your family or friends if they can watch the kids for an hour while you quickly clean the house.
There is no shame in asking for help and delegating.
♡ Do one thing at a time
I am actually a pretty good multitasker and when I say that I mean that I can focus on multiple things at once and I usually get them done properly and well, but multitasking, usually isn’t time-efficient.
By focusing on one task or one set of similar tasks at a time, you will find that you get things done faster than if you were to do multiple things at once.