Photo by Lars Kristian Flem

Ah, email – a portal to the outside world for any stay-at-home parent. It’s such a helpful tool for communicating with friends and family near and far, for taking care of some household tasks with less transportation, and even providing endless opportunities for working from home.

But there’s a fine line between when you’re your own inbox master, and when you become its slave.

If you’re like me, you get a lot of email. And it can easily get overwhelming. So overwhelming, in fact, that you’ve found that if you put off replying long enough, the email’s topic then becomes old news, and you’re off the hook from communicating back. But you feel like a jerk.

I’ve written about email before, but it’s been awhile, and I’ve since further honed my inbox system. Here are a few tips for taming that inbox monster, and training it to serve you, not the other way around.

Transform Your Inbox Into a Thing of Beauty

Photo by Lee

• Set aside a set chunk of time to read, respond to, and archive your email inbox. Make it part of your daily routine to handle email at the most appropriate time of day. For parents, the “best” time of day can fall all over the clock, and sometimes, you don’t have more than five minutes at a time. But as much as you’re able, dedicate a set time of day when you do nothing but email. Right now, I set aside 30 minutes every morning, afternoon, and evening dedicated to my inbox (remember, I get a lot of email).

• Then close out your email client. This is something I definitely need to be better with, because I know first-hand how tempting it is to leave your inbox open, “just in case.” Closing out that tab can feel like cutting off a medium of communication with the world, but you know what? – that’s exactly what it is. By leaving it open, you’re making yourself available to anyone who beckons your call, even if you don’t actually open any emails. Very rarely is there an email emergency. When there’s nothing you’re waiting for, close your email client when you’re done. You’ll be more present in the world around you, and able to concentrate on your task at hand.

• Use Gmail. Yes, I’ve already waxed poetic about its benefits, and I know there are other email clients who do a good job. But I’ve found Gmail to be the most useful of them all, and I doubt I’ll change anytime soon. You don’t need to change your preferred email address and send out a notice to friends – you can simply filter your current email address into your Gmail account (you can import quite a few addresses), and use the Gmail interface for all your addresses.

• During your inbox focus time, take action immediately on every. single. email you open. Don’t just read it and leave it – do something with it.

How I Handle My Own Inbox

Photo by Patrick Rhone

• Most emails just require me to read them without a response – I quickly read and archive them. I also take full advantage of Gmail’s labeling system, and label most of my emails with things like potential advertisers, etsy orders, or post ideas (for those of you readers who write me questions).

• If it’s an email that requires a quick, three-sentence-or-less response, I reply to it immediately. Then I archive it. I know some people who put a link in their signature to sentenc.es, explaining their philosophy on having short replies, and possibly spreading the idea to others.

• If the email looks like it requires a longer reply, or if it requires me to look up a bit of info, I “star” it and then archive it. When I’ve gone through my inbox, I then click on the starred items (in the left-hand sidebar in Gmail) and work my way through replying, starting with the oldest email.

• I close out Gmail after my 30 minutes are up, regardless how many starred emails I have left. If they’re filtered with a star, then they’re not urgent, though they still need a response soon. This is why I have my contact form prefaced with an explanation that I probably won’t get to responding right away.

During my next email session, I repeat the whole process, starting with my inbox and then proceeding to the older starred items.

At the end of the day, there are always emails to which I haven’t yet replied. But I’m okay with that, because I’ve taken action on all of them. And because I close out Gmail, I don’t feel pulled and swayed by my emails that come all day – I just concentrate on them fully at one set time. This definitely aligns with my single-tasking philosophy.

I also use filters so that certain emails bypass my inbox altogether. For example, when I’m doing giveaways, I filter all my emails that have the right secret code in the subject line with the label giveaway, and archive them before they even hit my inbox.

What You Can Do Today

Inspired to organize your email system? Here’s a few simple things I encourage you to do today:

1. Read Inbox Heaven by Nick Cernis for inspiration, laughs, and helpful tips to get you started.
2. Create a Gmail account, and set up all your email addresses to go to there.
3. Dedicate time to first completely empty your inbox, whether it takes 30 minutes or several evenings.
4. Stop doing nothing with your already read emails – it’s stressful just to look at a full inbox. Archive them.
5. Just start doing something. Don’t wait to launch this perfectly – approaching your inbox with at least a plan is much better than haphazardly opening it and immediately feeling overwhelmed.

What are you going to do today to improve your email reading? Share your inbox tips and tricks below.

CURRENT SPONSORS:

• Plan to Eat - meal planning made simple.
• The Justice Conference - Justice hangs by a thread.
• Lil' Soak - Sewing hope with handmade goods.
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© 2008-2012 Simple Living Media, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Simple Mom subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please contact hello@simplemom.net to let us know. Thanks.

• Email: Transform This Tool from Stressful to Useful
• Transform Email from Stressful to Useful
• In box: Empty! Now – My 5-Steps to Email Efficiency

Photo by Andrea

Reader Alyssa asks, “I’m wondering – are you still going to do, or have you done the GTD for Home Managers? I’m sooo interested in that!”

Thanks for asking, Alyssa.  My short answer – No, I haven’t “done” the GTD for Home Managers yet.  Between getting my e-book out, keeping up with this blog, editing Digital Bliss, and getting our family ready to head to the States, I’ve been swamped.  It’s still very much on my radar, and I’m still mulling over ideas and thoughts.  I love the idea, and I feel like it needs to be done, if not by me, then by someone.

Some of you might be wondering – what is GTD? If you Google it, you’ll see that there’s quite a pseudo-cult following on the idea, even though GTD simply stands for “Getting Things Done.”  Coined by David Allen, his system of productivity spawned a whole generation of people embracing the idea of sticking with a simple system to – well, Get Things Done.

While I like a lot of his original ideas, as well as the many mutations of GTD that have since been created online, none of them are perfect and THE go-to for making your life productive – especially for home managers.  Hence, the evident need for something to be created, in my humble opinion.  Especially one that emphasizes the idea that productivity is not the most important thing in life!

The main idea I want to share today is the foundation for GTD, and it’s something I do happen to agree with.  And the idea is just as important for home managers as it is for Fortune 500 CEOs.

Write it down.

Write everything down.  Get it out of your brain and on to someplace else.  Whatever “it” is that’s on your mind – your to-do list, the chocolate chip recipe you just concocted, your need to call your husband and ask him to pick up milk on the way home – everything.  Leave nothing in your brain. Don’t make your brain the holding place for all those bits and pieces hovering around your day.

How often have you said to yourself, “I don’t need to jot down a reminder; I’ll remember this.”  And then how often have you forgotten that very thing?

Yeah, me too.

Forgetfulness is one of the main reasons you need to write stuff down.  Other reasons are:

• You’re more stressed when your brain is thinking about a thousand little things.
• You’re not able to fully concentrate on the task at hand.
• You overcommit, because you can’t clearly see what’s on your plate.
• You don’t have true, relaxing downtime because you hold on to that nagging feeling that you should always be doing something else – but you’re not sure what.

So for me, the cornerstone to even hoping for a productive day is to write everything down, and to leave nothing in my brain.  (Ha.)

What Does This Look Like?

To simply start a basic GTD pattern at home, you need to grab yourself a blank something – a piece of paper, a white board, a new text document on your computer, something.  I prefer paper because I like to doodle my thoughts in a more haphazard manner a la Todoodlist.
.

Photo by Brendan

Then, jot down every. little. thing. on your mind.  Everything.  Don’t worry about making sense of it or putting things in order just yet – simply transfer it from your brain to paper.  Don’t hold on to any of it - your body will physically react to it (stress, fatigue, not concentrating), and your soul will react emotionally (stress, frustration at innocent people, bitterness from having too much on your plate).

When you start seeing everything that’s been on your mind, it won’t take long for you to start seeing patterns, to begin making order of your agenda, or to simply file away ideas that you’ve held on to needlessly.

How It Works for Me

When I first started this idea in my life, there was a lot to write down.  I was floored with how much I let stay in my brain.  But since I’ve made it more of a regular routine in my life, doing this is not nearly as overwhelming.

Each morning, I expel everything from my brain to paper. I do this on the bottom half of my Daily Docket using the Todoodlist method.

From there, I start visually connecting the dots, and make my day’s to-do list on the Docket.

If there’s anything I need to remember while I’m on the computer (blog management, checking bank accounts, or browsing for a book I need, for example), I add it to my Remember the Milk list in my Gmail account.

If something involves a date, I add it to our family calendar, which I keep in my momAgenda.

Throughout the day, as I think of more things, I add it to my blank space on my Daily Docket as quickly as possible.

Designate One Place

The most important part of writing everything down is to do it all in one place.  If you have a separate sheet for your work to-do list, a different one relating to each family member, and another one for family finances, that’s too much.  You’re still adding stuff to your brain – keeping track of all of these papers and remembering where they go.  When you take the first step of emptying your brain, it needs to be all in one place. You can then organize from there, if you want.

Some people have a basic notepad or journal dedicated solely to their brain-emptying, and not using it for anything else.  That’s a pretty good idea, especially if you feel overwhelmed at first with how much you’ve been holding on to.

So, Alyssa, to get back to your question – even though I haven’t yet developed a GTD for Home Managers just yet, if I were to, this is where I’d start.  Having you write down every last thing that’s on your mind, so that you don’t have to cart it with you wherever you take your brain. Allow your brain cells to know something else.

Do you make a habit of writing everything down?  Has it helped? If you’ve never done this before, I recommend taking five minutes right now and starting, just to see how it feels.  Then comment below on how it felt to you.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

CURRENT SPONSORS:

• Plan to Eat - meal planning made simple.
• The Justice Conference - Justice hangs by a thread.
• Lil' Soak - Sewing hope with handmade goods.
• Treed - A simple, flexible, effective project planning tool.

© 2008-2012 Simple Living Media, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Simple Mom subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please contact hello@simplemom.net to let us know. Thanks.

• Get Things Done at Home By Getting Stuff Out of Your Brain
• Empty Your Brain: The Key to Productivity
• Paper or Plastic?

My Daily Docket is a personalized form I made to help me manage my day at home. It’s my most often-used form in my home management notebook, and it really works for me.

There’s a lot of info on the internet about scheduling your day as a stay-at-home mom, and I’ve tried to apply a lot of these different tactics. They never worked for me. They were too rigid — a system would encourage me to write out a specific timetable for my day, and rotate weekly jobs set in stone on different days of the week. By writing this schedule out and hanging it visibly, I’d know what to do next.

It’s a great idea, but my life’s a lot more… unpredictable. When I tried to make Thursdays my Laundry Day, or One-On-One Time With My Daughter at 11 o’clock Monday through Friday, I was trapped.

I was trapped because life happened — one week I’d have an abnormally large amount of laundry, so by trying to do it all in one day, I set myself up for failure because I just couldn’t do it all. Time with my daughter would get pushed back because we really needed to run errands at 11 a.m., or she needed an earlier nap and 11 just wouldn’t do.

I wanted to throw any semblance of routine out the window. But I really didn’t want to do that, because a routine helps me. I love checking things off a list. I’m visual, so it helps to see my day’s plan.

What has evolved as my Daily Docket is a marriage of scheduled routine and flexibility. It provides the skeleton for me to hang my agenda, but it allows for wiggle room because I fill out a new sheet each day.

Instead of a set routine for Mondays, I fill out a fresh sheet for that very day, using a Weekly Checklist as my resource (also found on the downloads page). My week’s goal is to get everything done I need to do by that week, but I’m flexible as to when specifically I should do it..

Let me show you how this works.

The night before, I take one of these and fill it out for the next day. It helps if I fill it out in pencil because things are so unpredictable in our home that I have to be flexible.

The smaller categories on the page are as follows:

• My MITs – The three most important things on my agenda today.
• Current Scripture I’m working on memorizing/meditating over.
• What’s for Dinner? – When I write it down, I remember way in advance what the dinner plans are, and what I need to do in advance for preparation, so I’m not scrambling at 5:45.
• Health stuff – I’m trying to log my water and my food choices, so I like checking off that I’ve done that. And by writing down my work out plans, I’m more apt to do it.
• Blog and/or Graphic Design stuff – To-do items for my blogs and my graphic design business.

The bigger items are my day’s to-do list and my day’s general plan.

Photo by Jessica F.

My to-do list: it’s short.

I limit myself to 10 things, because I know I realistically can’t get more than that checked off. I’ve actually almost never gotten all 10 accomplished in one day. By keeping it short, I’m making success – finishing my list – more of a reality. If I remember additional things throughout the day, I jot them down in my notes section, possibly for tomorrow’s list. I like Jamie’s idea of sticking with six items.

My day’s general plan: it’s general.

General is the key word here. The Docket looks a lot more structured than it is, but I don’t write out every last thing I have to do that day. I only assign a time and slot to those things I want to get done at a time of day. I want to get computer work during my kid’s nap time, so I remind myself that it’s a 2 o’clock job. I want to get breakfast on the table by 8, so I make a note of that. And most importantly for me, I want to get to bed by 10:30. Seeing it on paper reminds me that it’s important.

Here’s an example of what a Daily Docket looks like filled out (click to enlarge it):

Application Time

Feel free to download this Daily Docket (or the smaller one) for free. But you don’t have to use this — use what works for you. The point is to have a plan for your day, and to approach it proactively.

Whatever you use, keep it simple, easy-to-read, very easily accessible throughout your day, and thorough enough to manage your whole day on one sheet.

What do you use to get you focused on the day? If you use the Docket, do you have any suggestions or feedback? I know several of you have asked for an even smaller one than the Pocket Docket… I might get to that. Someday.

CURRENT SPONSORS:

• Plan to Eat - meal planning made simple.
• The Justice Conference - Justice hangs by a thread.
• Lil' Soak - Sewing hope with handmade goods.
• Treed - A simple, flexible, effective project planning tool.

© 2008-2012 Simple Living Media, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Simple Mom subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please contact hello@simplemom.net to let us know. Thanks.

• My Daily Docket is My Daily Lifesaver
• My Daily Docket is my Daily Lifesaver
• Introducing: the Daily Docket’s Little Sister

Mamas are busy. And by default, we’re multi-taskers. There’s no other way we can do a load of laundry and pay bills and buy groceries and make dinner and spend quality time with our kids.

But I’d say the number one enemy of productivity in a mom’s life – especially when she has very small children at home – is trying to do too much.

Photo by Lizhenry

Don’t get me wrong – we have more than tons to do, and I for one have never accomplished everything I’d ever need to do in one day. But that’s the very reason why trying to do too much will set us up for failure. To put it bluntly, if we think we’ll successfully check off a 20-item to-do list within 24 hours, we’re kidding ourselves.

Life happens. We want to organize our kids’ clothes, but then our husbands will need such-and-such done for his work project. We hope to get the weeding done, but our neighbor’s mom just died, and it’s really more important to bring her a meal (remember – relationships are more important than to-do lists).

For my sanity, for my clarity, for my goal-oriented self, I’ve employed the concept of Most Important Tasks.

It’s not a new concept, and it’s almost too simple to need explanation. But it’s been revolutionary in my life.

I make my daily to-do list, and I keep my scratch pad visible and easy to reach so that I can jot things down as they come to me (both these things are part of my Home Management Notebook). But at the top of my day’s page in my Notebook, above my to-do list and menu agenda and even Scripture memory – are my Most Important Tasks.

My MITs are my top three things I want to accomplish that day. If nothing else gets done, I’d say my day was a success if those three things happen. They usually pertain to my home management job, but often they focus on a personal habit I’m working on. For example, my MITs today are:

1. read my Bible for 15 minutes.
2. wash, dry, fold, and put up one load of laundry.
3. spend quality time with my husband and kiddos.

The first task is personal and aimed towards a habit – I’m trying to reinvigorate my daily habit of reading the Bible (set aside on the shelf of sporadic-ness since my son was born four months ago). The second item is purely home management – we’ve gotta have clothes to wear. And the third one is important for the relationships that matter most to me – my in-laws just left this morning after almost a month of visiting, and I know my family’s a bit sad. We need some good together time.

I’ll focus on these three things, knowing I’ve got much more to do than just these. But now that I’m focusing my energy on these three things, so I’ll feel really accomplished when they happen. When I finish these things and get some things checked off on my day’s to-do list, then that’s an added bonus. What a great day!

I should clarify that my MITs are already part of my to-do list. They’re not a separate entity – otherwise, it just becomes an additional to-do list. For example, here’s today’s to-do list:

1. read Bible for 15 minutes
2. finish organizing craft cabinet
3. talk to Mom?
4. finish one load of laundry
5. declutter desk
6. spend time as a family – picnic?
7. collate receipts to update April’s budget
8. work on e-book
9. write two blog posts
10. make grocery list

In short, my MITs are the three top things on my 10-item to-do list.

I’m speaking of all this regarding productivity, but that’s not the only definition of a good day. I’m a list maker, but it is essential not to worship my day’s list. As I said, life happens. When those three MITs don’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. I just wake up and start a new day.

Application Time

So, my first essential item in my Home Management Notebook is my MIT list. I write them down every day on my Daily Docket. If you already have some sort of home management journal, would adding MITs help you? Or would they add more stress?

If you don’t yet have a notebook, I’d encourage you to start with this. You don’t even need a notebook or journal yet – just grab a piece of paper, write down three (or two, or four, or whatever is best for you) MITs and put them somewhere visible. Even if you make a to-do list, add a separate list of MITs. Try it out for a week, and see how it works for your productivity, your attitude, and your energy level.

• Next up in Home Management Notebooks: What’s on your day’s docket?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

• Plan to Eat - meal planning made simple.
• The Justice Conference - Justice hangs by a thread.
• Lil' Soak - Sewing hope with handmade goods.
• Treed - A simple, flexible, effective project planning tool.

© 2008-2012 Simple Living Media, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Simple Mom subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please contact hello@simplemom.net to let us know. Thanks.

• Today’s Most Important Tasks
• Home Management Notebooks are a great idea.
• My Brain – aka, my Home Management Notebook