I left you hangin' in the last episode as to what the mindset shift is that you must have so that you can be a productive person. It's Discipline. And discipline is my word for this year. "Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn

What is the definition?

-Some of you may have a negative knee jerk reaction to the word discipline. Ready for me to reframe discipline in you mind? It is…

-The act of gaining control with obedience and order (like holding yourself accountable to picking up after yourself.)

-Having behavior in accordance with rules (like the Sunday Basket®)

-Self Control - you can struggle or you can remove items from your environment that have you have effortless self control can't eat a cookie you didn't buy and bring home.

-An activity you engage in regularly to train or inspire ones self.

-A subject taught or field of study (like the study of home management.)

-An institution

If you are listening to the podcast, odds are that you are learning discipline in the area of home management. But you do not get the results from the work you do not do. You must do the work.

What Does Discipline Look Like?

Setting and achieving goals is changing your own actions and disciplining yourself to being the person who has already achieved what you want to achieve. So I gave the example of me working out. I used to want our whole family to get healthy and work out together. Not gonna happen. So I have decided to do it for myself to achieve the goals I have for myself. And along with working out, I have changed the way I eat. My husband would prefer a meal that "makes sense and 'matches.'" A lady at work introduced us all to ingredient eating. Basically you cook the protein, pull out all kinds of things from the fridge like fruits and veggies to compliment the protein and eat what you like. This would be my preference! So I workout and eat like the person who has already accomplished my goal and support my family in other areas rather than meal preparation and working out with them.

And the more you do those things, the easier that discipline is. If you ask a productive person how they became that way, they may not be able to tell you. Because they disciplined themselves in one area till it got easier and then moved on to another area. And know, once you get a system in place, it will change. It will change with your family and phase of life you are in.

Time Blocks = Confidence

So you see why you need to be disciplined in the time blocks if you want to be a productive person. Time blocks are just these guard rails to keep you on track and systematize your time and responsibilities. Discipline yourself to do the work and it will become easier. I shared some stats to help you see this is not a "you thing." This is a field of study, a discipline, to learn how to train ourselves, bring control to, and impose order in our housework and home management. Discipline yourself to process your Sunday Basket® so that you gain confidence in this area. Discipline yourself to start watching the videos to the programs you have purchased. Do you know people who are organized are perceived as more confident? And you know what else? People feel more confident when they are organized! Dave Ramsey said "You can wander into debt but you can't wander out of it." And the same is for disorganization you can wander into but you can't wander out of it…you must discipline yourself. You must have a mindset shift.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Productive Home Solution

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media

Who remembers defragging your computer to make it run more efficiently? I'm talking about defragging time confetti into time blocks today. "What is time confetti?" Yes, thank you for asking…it's all those little 2 or 5 minutes that are free and sprinkled throughout your day. How can you most effectively use your confetti time to conquer the never ending, always evolving list of essential time blocks that you must complete as the mom, wife, and/or household manager?

4 Essential Time Blocks

Let's start with what demands our time. We have some mandatory tasks (time blocks) that our homes and lives demand from us. After surveying 1000 people, it became very clear that Americans define housework as laundry, food, and cleaning. I explained how I like to defrag or consolidate my cleaning and laundry to the same day and time. Saturdays are great for this for me. I get my machines going and clean till about Noon. I auditioned being available for Abby and the grand kids on Saturdays. But, I have realized I like my Lisa time on Saturdays, so I'm keeping it that way to stay sane. And food, good Lord does it take a lot of time to tackle the food part of life. You gotta plan it, buy it, process it, and then prepare it! It takes time. How can you most efficiently schedule those housework tasks into time blocks? Consolidate like tasks in one time block to efficiently and productively conquer housework. And then there's a 4th essential time block that life requires out of us.

Block 4: Household Management

The 4th essential time block to this human experience is…household management. Thank God for the Sunday Basket® that's all I can say! On Sunday's I process all the administrative and actionable paperwork for the house including the mail. I look at all the communication for the kids, texts or DM and emails that are family related. Then, I decide where our money is going for the week. Instead of paying one bill here and one there and them each taking 3 minutes. I decide in one setting which ones need to be paid and when I'll do that. In the past, this has been a game changer. When we didn't have a lot of money, it really helped me to best manage our money. And then plan my week; my time blocks. I look at all the similar tasks and put them in one time block. Like an errand time block(s). The Sunday Basket® helps you to systematize your house management. The Sunday Basket™ allows delayed procrastination till Sunday and that allows you to productively cluster or consolidate like tasks into one time block. All those invisible tasks we do - we get to visualize them and then schedule them at the optimal time.

Time for Defragging All the Confetti

THIS is a skill set that is learned over time WITH a mindset shift. You must first make the mindset shift to start to practice time blocking. I hope after hearing all of this it makes sense why you would want to defrag your time to cluster like tasks into one time block. But you need time to learn how to do it right? Where will that time come from? Planned neglect and lowering your expectations of what clean and done means my friends. You are going to choose a suggestion or two that I offered to free up some precious time. Like how Saturdays used to be a free day and we ate fast food. You may want to consider outsourcing your cleaning or laundry. I know it costs money to do what you can technically do for free, but in really overwhelming seasons of life, it'll save your well being and sanity. It can also free up time for you to learn and begin to practice how to consolidate all the things and place them into time blocks. Productive people habitually think in time blocks. They have made a mindset shift and appreciate the time block "rigidity" over the chaos of time confetti and inefficiency.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• The Productive Home Solution

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media

Looking to be more purposeful, more planned, more organized and you don't know where to begin? Good news! Join me for the Piles to Productivity Webinar on Monday Jan. 19th @ 8AM ET!! Click the link below and get registered because there will be a replay sent to those who register (if you can't make it live.)

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Register for Piles to Productivity Webinar

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media.