Annie Dillard said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

How do you spend your days?

I find managing my schedule is like trying to wrangle hippos.

In my ongoing quest to manage my life, here’s what I’ve learned:

Better planning makes better days. Better days makes a better life.

How can you plan your days better? Identify your true priorities. When you say yes to something, that means saying no to other things. Decide ahead of time what you can’t accomplish. This eliminates the frustration of beating yourself up for unrealistic expectations that weren’t accomplished.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by work and not prioritize relationships. It’s easy to be tyrannized by the to do list and not rest and refresh.

It’s easy to think that you have so much to do that you don’t have time to plan your days.

The investment you put into planning pays off.

One thing I like about really planning your day is deciding ahead of time that you can’t get something done. Like clean the fridge yesterday. I just moved it off my list. That helps you avoid the disappointment of getting to the end of the day and not accomplishing it.

You already knew you weren’t going to be able to get it done.

After a few days, you become more realistic about what you can accomplish in a day. The lists become manageable.

Prioritizing your to do list is a critical element in planning better days.

There’s always too much to do, isn’t there?  So every day there are decisions about what to do, but, also, what not do.

I’ve worked harder lately to prioritize my to do list.  It isn’t easy.  For one thing, we don’t always know which is the most important.  Sometimes a little, insignificant task results in a chance encounter that changes our lives.  But, we can’t predict that or prioritize that.

So, here’s what helps:  Choosing from the to do list which items are the most important.  Focus on getting those done first.  Let the rest go.

Also, you know if you don’t get very far down your list at least you did the most important things. You’ve spent some time thinking about what was most important. It gives you more focus.

It helps with that feeling of being overwhelmed. Of having too much to do and never being able to get to all of it.

Determining prioritities isn’t easy. It isn’t always easy to know which is more important. And when something unexpected comes up in your day, you have to make a judgment call about your list of things to do.

It comes back to juggling the glass balls and the rubber balls. Thinking through what are the consequences if I drop this ball?  Will it bounce back?  Or will it shatter?

Be willing to flex as circumstances change.

You have to plan some flexibility into your days. You have to have some margin to handle the unexpected.

That’s part of the planning. To be able to recognize when you need to flex and when to stick to the plan.

Here’s the other thing: Life is full of people.

People are unpredictable and impossible to schedule.

And, yet, we have to have some order in our lives.

So, we need a life management plan with enough flexibility to handle life’s unexpected turns.

Having unrealistic expectations is disappointing. Not following through on something you said you were going to do is an integrity problem, unless you make the decision to make something else priority instead. There has to be some flexibility for that.

You also have to have down time planned, so you don’t feel guilty when you need to rest and you are able to stay productive on the other days.

Prioritizing your to do list is the critical element in planning better days, with the caveat that you’re willing to flex when you need to. 

What have you learned lately that helps you manage life better?

As I type this, the outside temperature is -17 degrees F and wind chill is -42.

That’s insane.

Schools and businesses are closed.  Even mail delivery is suspended.

I’m hunkered down at home, thankful for a reliable furnace.

Overall, we’ve had a mild winter.  Today is an unusual extreme.

But winter in northern Indiana is no joke.

I scour all the winter survival strategies I can find to add to my bag of tricks. Modern Mrs Darcy makes it easy, by collecting lots of great advice in one place.

Here’s what’s working for me this year:

Email letters to my mom and dad

From August through April every year, my parents live and work in India.  For four months of the year, they live close by.

Long-distance relationships are an accepted part of my life.  Maybe too accepted.

In the natural rhythm of life, there’s no obvious time gaps to invest in long distance relationships.  For me, I found I had to be intentional.

My mom and dad both like to read, but their tastes in reading material differs. Fortunately, a lot of what they like overlaps with I like.

I decided every month I’d send them links to books I thought they’d enjoy.  Since they have a membership to our local library, I can send them the link to the ebook and they can check it out.

Game changer.

I like sharing books.  I love sharing free books.  And, twice a month I have an easy excuse to catch them up on family news.  It’s been so fun.

Who knew such a little tweak to my monthly rhythms could bring such joy?

Protein smoothies in the morning

I started drinking protein smoothies in the morning on the advice of Izabella Wentz, the thyroid pharmacist.   Her nutrition advice impacts my health in huge ways since I found out I have Hashimoto’s.

I still eat breakfast, but after a protein smoothie, morning cravings disappear.

I always put homemade kefir in my smoothies– until the day we accidentally ate the grain and couldn’t make more.

Then I stumbled onto my favorite smoothie hack.  Pour boiling water on frozen strawberries so they blend easily.  Now I do half boiling water and half homemade kefir for the liquid.

I buy my Pea Protein from Thrive Market, which seems to have the best price. I’m new to Thrive Market, but I’m pretty excited about the automatic shipments. I still need to work out a few bugs and get it tweaked to work for

Another favorite is adding Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder.  Chocolate strawberry smoothies for breakfast?  Yes, please.

Note:  Frozen fruit, boiling water and glass could be a hazardous combination.  Use caution. 

Jesus Always and 20 minutes a day focusing on a loving God

Non-religious studies have found that decision making is positively impacted when you spend 20 minutes a day focusing on a loving God.

It’s easy to believe that there’s so much to do you can’t spare 20 minutes, especially on rushed mornings.

But think for a minute about the returns on investing in eternity.  Taking time to Be still and know that I am God helps the rest of the day to fall in place.  There’s enough time for everything.  At least everything God has planned.

This winter, I’m reading both Jesus Calling and Jesus Always large print editions and I don’t limit myself to the daily selections.

Intentional Gratitude

Maybe because I’m  glass-half-empty sorta girl, I have a hard time seeing the positives.

I have to regularly remind myself of the blessings.

Top of the list these days is our first grandchild, Caroline.  I might be biased, but I think she’s the sweetest baby ever.

What’s saving your life this winter?

PS Just for fun, I’m adding links to past posts.

What’s saving my life 2018

What’s saving my life 2017

What’s saving my life 2016

I spent my birthday money on an overpriced planner.

It hasn’t changed my life for two simple reasons:

1. My life changed before I bought it.  That’s why I bought it.

2.  I let go of an unrealistic expectation that one purchase would be the magic bullet that made my life uber amazing.

Life is messy.

There’s no way a planner is going to clean all that up.

Even if your schedule and your budget and your home organization is on target, you will still have other problems. That’s the way life is.

There is no magic bullet that is going to solve all your problems.

We buy things hoping they can do more than they can do.

Tools are only as good as the people using them. But, in the right hands, they can be powerful.

In order for a planner to work, the first step is a desperation to change.

A second step is a commitment to do things differently.

The fact of the matter is that we can’t see the future. We don’t know what’s coming down the pike.

We can plan for an uncertain future.

We can also trust in the one who holds the future.

What I love about the Living Well planner

It’s undated.  Affix the included stickers to the tabs to begin whichever month you want.

Having a separate spot for meal planning.

Even though I haven’t been able to keep up with the budget pages, I’m glad they’re there.

I love the Ruth Soukup’s goal crushing system and the breakdown on how to accomplish big goals.

Her online videos come with the planner purchase.

It’s so easy for me to dream big and want to skip to the end, without the messy middle.  It’s great to think through all the steps and obstacles to really accomplish the big goals.

What I don’t love about the Living Well Planner

I wish there were some place to work on quarterly goals. I see a lot of value in looking at the future 90 days at a time.

The budget pages feel a little restrictive. In the three months that I’ve been using the planner, I haven’t been consistent with the budget pages, so I still might be able to tweak them to make them work for me.

An overpriced planner isn’t going to change your life . . . unless it does.

I had low expectations for this planner. Because it’s not really a system or strategy or program that changes you: it takes a determination and motivation and “want to”.

No planner is going to work without that.

The truth is, there’s a long, hard road to success. You have to be willing to pay the price.

The other truth is, you have to wait for God’s vision. It is not ready and accessible on demand. It is ready when He reveals it to you, maybe only one step at a time.

There will be obstacles. There will be setbacks.

It will take dedication, determination and grit.

A system, program or strategy is not enough.

You need to do the work.

You have to have the motivation to see it through. You have to have the “want to”.

You also have to be paired up with the right system, program or strategy.

What you put in is just as important or more so than what you’re using.

That is why buying a planner isn’t going to change your life.

But that is why buying a planner could change your life.

If you are ready.

If you have the fire in your belly and you’re ready to change.

Then it could.

But, putting your hope in the program, system or strategy will never work if you’re not ready to do the work.

Here it is: are you ready?

The secret is do it daily.

Make it part of your daily routine.

It’s simple, but certainly not easy.

Decide what will be part of your morning routine and what will be part of your evening routine to stay on top.

There’s always something, isn’t there?

Always roadblocks and obstacles.

Always a reason to reach down and do hard things.

So, back to piles.

This is something that I still struggle with. It’s hard to be consistent. Even when you have a routine figured out.

I’ve been working for years on a workable system to keep on top of the papers that pile up around here. Mail. Receipts. Random paperwork brought home from random places.

My first “aha” moment was when I realized I suffered from decision fatigue and couldn’t process papers at the end of the day. I just didn’t have what it took.

So, I started doing it in the morning.

I’d set the timer for 2 or 3 minutes and sort, purge and process the papers.

Knowing that it was for such a short time and knowing that I could stop when the timer went off helped. Doing it the morning when I still had some mental capacity to make the decisions was a must.

Staying consistent, every single day has been a problem. Doing the extra catch up on weekends to handle the difficult decisions has also been a problem.

But, applying the daily routine to dishes and laundry helped me realize the power of daily.

When something piles up, it feels harder than it is and is so tempting to procrastinate.

Taking it one little bite at a time feels manageable.

Making it part of a routine means you don’t have to think about whether or when to tackle it.

What can you do to make laundry part of your daily routine? Put a load of clothes in the washer at night? Or wash them at night, dry, fold and put away in the morning?

Don’t wait till you have a full load. Do a load every day, regardless.

How about dishes?

They have to be done in the evening. There’s no way around it, unless you’re committed to paper products every suppertime.

But, you can incorporate as much as possible into your morning routine: unloading the dishwasher, cleaning the sink, wiping down counters and the stove.

If you have a good morning routine, the evening routine is easier.

Keeping on top of food planning and grocery shopping also helps.

So, the secret is simple, but it’s not easy.

One challenging part is figuring out what’s going to work best for you.

Another is being consistent.

When you’re establishing a new habit, it helps to keep a calendar where you can mark off every day you’ve been successful. Seeing a string of unbroken days is motivating.

Rosemarie Groner of the Busy Budgeter suggests 28 days in a row of a successful dishes routine to establish a habit.

There’s a lot of debate these days on how many times you need to repeat something before it becomes a habit. Some say it’s not 21. Some say it’s 66.

There’s a lot of factors that influence it, but you can count on at least 21, depending on what it is and what your resistance is to it.

Do you have trouble keeping up with your piles?  Try tweaking your daily routines to get them under control.