Day 7: The Most Important Strategy to Conquer Everyday Stress

How long is your to-do list for today? If you’re like me, you cram it full in the hopes that you can get to all these things that really should get done. And then you get done about three.

And then all the others are still staring at you for the next several days.

And staring.

For today’s organizing tip I want to encourage you to keep your numbers small.

To reduce everyday stress in your life, keep small numbers for just about everything. Keep the number of things you own small (we will revisit this on Day 14), keep your to-do list to a small number of tasks (gonna also hit this one again in more detail on Day 23), and keep the number of your commitments small.

Welcome to 31 Days of Practical Organizing Tips for a Homeschool Mom’s Life!
Every day there is a new organization hack to help calm the chaos.
Find links to 31 days here: 31 Days of Organizing Tips.

Everyone needs margin in their lives. Everyone needs time to breathe and reconnect with themselves. That won’t happen if we cram our lives with large numbers of things, tasks, and commitments.

One great way to do this is to just STAY HOME. Instead of running around all day driving hither and yon, stay home ALL DAY. Let the hours stretch in front of you. Take a nap in the afternoon.

I know we can’t do this every day, but some days it’s a good idea. And the less commitments we have, the more possible it is to not have to go somewhere every. single. day. And staying home is incidentally a great way to quickly round up some cash when you need it, hello.

Pick only 3-5 things for your to-do list each day. NO MORE. Even five is probably too many, in reality. Pick the ones that absolutely must get done TODAY. If you finish them, I know you’ll be able to come up with other things to do with your extra time. You don’t need them listed on there to drag you down when you don’t complete them. (P.S. TOMORROW we’re gonna talk about a great way to get ALL the items on your daily to-do list done EVERY day. So come back! :-) )

Also, when your day is not so crammed with stuff to do or physical items to maintain, you’ll feel freer to stop and hug the kids and share some time with them. Or to give them a full answer to that question they are asking you about their history lesson that day. Or to read aloud. Or to make a nice lunch rather than the usual PB&J.

Or to smooch your husband when he walks through the door. Just sayin’.

Think about ways to TRIM DOWN. Less material things, less commitments, less tasks on your to-do list. You will LOVE how this reduces your everyday stress and how much more organized you feel.

Look at me; I’m keeping the number of words in this post small. Cuz when you’ve said what needs to be said, there’s no need for more. :-)

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