5 Tips for Getting Organized

It's no secret that as the new year is upon us, everyone is wanting to get more organized. Just today in fact, I was in line at Target to get a few things, and I saw at least three other people in line with a planner or calendar in hand. Ready to take on the world, one page at a time.

I myself have gone through phases of using a planner, using a calendar, using my phone, going by my memory, having a million post its and to do lists crammed in my purse, and any number of other "methods" I tried to use to stay organized.

But over this past year especially, I have found that I am actually a pen and paper gal, through and through. Writing things down concretely on paper helps me to gather my thoughts, lay out a plan, manage my time, and most importantly, stay organized.

So I became one of those people, planner and three other notebooks in hand, and began to plan and write. I actually had my goals written out, in several places. But I wanted all of my plans, to dos and ideas in one place (or between a notebook and a planner), in an effort to keep life simple.

From all of my experiments, I have a few tips to share with you if you are looking to get your calendar and life organized this year and are determined to stick to it. I could write a whole series of blogs on how to stick with things, but we will start with some organizing tips for now.

1. KISS. Keep It Super Simple!! Whether you are tech savvy and love your apps, or you need a pen and paper, remember above all to keep it simple! The fewer amount of places you have all of your information stored, the better. Try and keep everything in one or two locations to keep you sane. This will also aid in consistency!

2. Write it down. Over the course of your year, you are going to have parties, appointments, to dos, gatherings, meetings, and an endless gamut of things with a deadline. Write it down. Again, whether on your phone or in a planner, write it down. It may seem simple, but sometimes the simple things are easily overlooked.

3. Take one day a week to plan. This may take some time to get in the habit of if you are not used to it. But truly I am telling you, if you take even just 20 minutes one time a week to look ahead at your week and plan out what you need to do, spread it across your week, I promise it's going to take some stress out of your life.

4. Use your planner! Okay, I'm going to break the mold and encourage you to do something that might make you a little uncomfortable. Put the phone down, get your planner (or calendar, or go get one) and a pen, and WRITE. The art of keeping a planner and a hand written calendar has been lost on our culture for a few years. Some people help keep it alive, but the benefits are much overlooked. I'm going to challenge you to try using an actual physical planner for at least one month to see what you think!

5. Prioritize. When you are looking at your calendar and planner, and comparing them to your goals for the year, take each day and each week and see what you need to prioritize to make your goals and "to do's" happen. Breaking your goals down over the entire year makes them much more manageable. So take some time to prioritize your schedule!

There you have it, a few simple tips to get organized in your calendar and life this year as we start off 2015 strong. Stay tuned on my blog and keep following me on Facebook  and on Instagram as I share more tips on how I keep my planner up to date and how I'm working smart to stay organized!

Let me hear YOU weigh in, do you prefer technology to keep your schedule, or are you old fashioned pen and paper like me?

My Holiday Health Goals

Thanksgiving is a mere 20 days away. How is that even possible? I don’t know about you, but for me this year has just flown by, and now that Halloween is out, Thanksgiving and Christmas are fast upon us.

And I have a confession to make: this is the time of year that I struggle most with my health.

That’s pretty common, I feel. Cooler weather makes us bundle up in layers, makes us want to sleep in a little longer. The holiday parties are stacked with an amazing spread of food as all the family chefs come out to play and create their tasty dishes. And of course there’s the Christmas cookies!

Can anyone else relate to me?

I know some of you can! On average, most people will put on weight over the holidays, and I was no exception. This past holiday season I put on a ton of weight. I honestly don’t even know how much I put on. I had just gotten married, so worrying about fitting into my dress was no longer a concern, it was Christmas, then New Years, and a newlywed life.

That meant I packed on the pounds, and quickly. Fortunately, I began getting on track with my health in February, and I don’t plan on slowing down this holiday! In fact, I’m setting some big goals to reach over this holiday season so I stay on track, can enjoy the meals, but not over do it!

And to keep myself accountable, I’m sharing my goals with you! When I speak out a goal, I know I’m much more likely to stick to it. So this is me, telling YOU my goals, and inviting you into this journey!

November health and fitness goals:

1.    Lose 10 pounds. This is my big goal. And normally I am not all about the scale. In fact, we still don’t have one in our house. But, I am bound and determined to reach this goal, because I know that I am going to FEEL healthier for it. This is a way for me to tangibly measure that goal!

2.    Complete the 21 Day Fix. I am currently on Day 3, and going strong! I intend on going through one round of the 21 Day Fix before Thanksgiving, and once again before Christmas.

3.    Workout every day! I know that I personally need to be active every day to reach my goal of losing 10 pounds this month.

4.    Drink one gallon of water every day! That equals to just a little over five of my shaker cups full of water. This helps keep my hydrated, I’ve been slacking on my water intake and that’s going to change!

5.    Lower my Yellow container intake (carbs) and make sure I am getting all of my Green (veggie), Purple (fruit), and Red (protein) containers in every day! These color containers are from the 21 Day Fix program, and have taught me SO MUCH about portion control. Carbs are still my weakness, and so I’m really honing in on staying low on carbs, high on fruits, veggies and protein!

6.    Do one three day cleanse. This is going to help flush my body of toxins, and set it on track to really make sure I’m getting the best results. I struggle with cleanses and temptation, so this will be a good growing experience for me!

7.    Only one plate of Thanksgiving dinner! This has been a BIG struggle for me in the past. I love Thanksgiving food…especially the high carb stuffing and mashed potatoes. This year, I told my hubby that he has to keep me accountable to only one plate of food this year, and I will enjoy that to the max!

There you have it. These are my seven health and fitness goals for the month of November. I have to be honest, I’ve rocked my workouts so far, but I’m still not completely on point with nutrition yet. I am buckling in, and going all in for my goals!

I am determined to make this my healthiest holidays ever. I will absolutely enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, and not want to roll away from the table because I’m so full. I am going to have more energy, and life to devote to my family and friends and really focus on all of the things I have to be thankful for!

What are your health and fitness goals for this month? Share below and let’s keep each other accountable!

Fall Bucket List for a Married Couple

Some of your may remember that Zach and I wrote down some goals and “to do’s” for our fall back in September! We take time every once in a while over coffee or dinner to write down and intentionally talk about what we want the next season to look like. Whether that’s a literal season (like fall) or a season of life.

It is SO important to write down your goals, especially as a couple! It gives you direction and you both are on the same page about where you want to go, and what you want to do. The goals that you set can cover a whole variety of things!

For us, it looked like fun fall activities we wanted to do, things we need to save for, places we want to go, and other priorities that are important to us! We have actually made a pretty good dent in our list, and I am excited to check off the remainder of our items.

Here are a few of the things that we have done so far:

Visited Elijay and picked our own apples. This was a TON of fun. I haven’t been to an apple orchard since I was kid. Zach surprised me with this one as our date day a few weeks ago, and we drove up to the mountains to an apple orchard! We got to pick a whole peck of apples (and taste test a few as well). We visited B. J. Reece’s Apple Orchard, and it was a fun time!

Bake two apple pies with the apples we pick. Keep one and give one away!  This was also a lot of fun, because I love to bake! We picked a total of 23 apples, which was a plentiful amount for two pies (we didn’t use them all). But we baked up two delicious apple pies (you can find my recipe for apple pie here, it’s super tasty for a special treat), and shared one with Zach’s parents!

Have three different couples over for dinner. Zach and I have a big heart for hosting people in our home, and especially cooking for them! It’s our goal to have at least one couple over a month in our home for dinner. We actually have already met our goal of three couples, and each one has been such a joy to have in our home. It’s a wonderfully special thing to gather around a table of good food together, and share good conversation.

Watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” I hadn’t seen this movie in a while, so it was a great one to watch on the first day of fall! The air was cooler, so we had the windows open and made some pumpkin cookies to go along with the festivities.

Visit Burt’s Pumpkin Farm in Dawsonville, Georgia. This wasn’t too far from where we went apple picking, actually! And it was a blast as well. There were a ton of families there, and it was adorable to see some kids riding in wheelbarrows with pumpkins bigger than them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many pumpkin costumes in my life! But they had some great fun there, and I definitely recommend the hay ride! It was my favorite part, the view is gorgeous. You can even see Amicalola Falls from the hay ride!

We still have a few things to check off of our list by Thanksgiving, but that’s just a short look at some fall fun that we have had as a couple so far. We’ve even made a few of them our designated “date nights” or date days, and it was so fun!

A few of the things we are still looking forward to crossing off of our list: going on vacation, having a Thanksgiving dinner (before or after Thanksgiving for the two of us), taking a few hikes, carving pumpkins, making hot apple cider, visiting Helen, GA and Dahlonega, GA, and finishing up the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University series (it is fabulous and I definitely recommend it).

What are some of your fall bucket list items? What have you done so far?

Time Management Tips

“He’s making a list, checking it twice! Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.”

While Santa may still be getting his list ready for Christmas time, he isn’t the only one who should have a list and check it twice. Today we are going to talk about how keeping a list is going to help you with time management.

Do you ever feel like you just have too much to do at the end of each day, or every task you thought you were going to do got piled on at the end of the week? I know I have gone through seasons of disorganization where I let life happen to me instead of taking just a minute to sort out my priorities.

When I started my fitness journey, I was a busy person. I had just recently gotten married, was working, and keeping up with daily life in general. It was absolutely hard to carve out the time to workout and make my health a priority. I had to make a new routine.

Then in April I started coaching with Beachbody while still working my regular job. I didn’t drop any duties, but picked up something new. Now it wasn’t something that I have gone into lightly, and I have actually found that my time is more organized now than it was before I started my journey.

How is that possible? A list, my friends. A list.

Every week I create a list of tasks that I need to get accomplished. They range from simple, like grocery shopping and cleaning, to more complex tasks that have to do with my business.

Let’s try a simple activity, shall we? Grab a piece of paper (or if you are more technologically inclined, open up a notepad on your phone), and write out all the tasks you need to accomplish this coming week. This could be chores, appointments, projects, etc.

For me, I put down things like: meal plan, meal prep, grocery shop, write three blogs, vacuum, clean the bathroom, clean the kitchen, do laundry, call three people, create a new curriculum, and send someone an encouraging note, plan a surprise for my husband.

These tasks are actually fairly regular tasks in my week, and are things that must be done outside of my regular daily routine (quiet time, working out, spending time with my husband, working my business, etc). Now, imagine if you had let all of these tasks slip by until your weekend. You would feel overwhelmed, wouldn’t you? I know I would, and have!

Now, your next step is to break it down over your entire week. When you divide and conquer and make each day have it’s own goals, I have found that a lot more can be accomplished.

What I do is grab a piece of notebook paper and put seven small post it notes across the paper, each representing a different day. I take the tasks from my list and divide it up, and usually end up with about 2-4 tasks per day, depending on the week.

This simple exercise allows you to have a plan and a goal for how you want your week to go, and what you want to accomplish. Now don’t get hung up on the list. Life will happen, and some things may need to be switched around. But at least you have a plan, and you know written in front of you what you want to accomplish every single day.

Every day I check my list in the morning so I know what my intentions need to be set to, and I check it at night to make sure I finished what I needed to. I encourage you to give it a try for a full week and see what happens!

What are some of your regular tasks for the week? Let’s hear them below!