Get a planner is the organizers’ anthem on how to stay organized.
But somehow this simple solution did not work for you.
You picked one that looked good to you or you got one as a gift. And you really committed to getting your act together with it.
Try as you may, it only became another piece of clutter in your house and, next thing you know, you’re basically over it.
You put a few alarms and calendar events in your phone and decided that you will just muddle through your other chaos as usual.
This does not have to be your life. You can learn how to plan effectively and how to use a planner effectively. But the key is to learn instead of picking up a random planner and believing it will work like magic for you.
Throw away that planner that never worked anyway. And read these tips on how to use a planner when starting fresh:
#1 DECIDE: What parts of your life require documented organization?
A planner specifically is a tool structured for documentation.
In order to be an effective tool, your planner must serve you well to document the parts of your life that are unorganized and that you want to make organized.
If your planner does not solve this fundamental problem, you likely will not use it, or at least not well.
A common planner will include a calendar and space for monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
This structure can be applied to almost anything, from your broad daily life to a specific subject, such as your formal studies, extra-curricular activities, or travel.
Alternatively, you may choose to select a planner for a specific project or subject.
Planners exist for things like weddings, event planning, childcare and entertainment, or work.
These types of specialty planners may include special lists and prompts to trigger more extensive thought on the subject(s).
Because of their customized structure, specialty planners can be of particular help because they are perfectly suited for the task at hand with minimal need for adjustments.
No matter what planner you choose, decide first on what your ultimate goal is for its use.
This should occur well before purchase, download, or installation.
Or you likely will have one more piece of clutter lending to your disorganization.
Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now
alan lakein
#2 CHOOSE: What planner style is your style?
You may think that it is a minor point, but a planner that matches your style compliments you more than just in its look.
The most common issue people have when starting to plan is that they do not use their planner. That said, any additional incentive that you can use to keep your planner in mind is worth consideration.
Planners come in all types of materials, colors, and sizes.
Even the weight of a planner will have an impact on whether or not you will carry it with you everywhere you go or only use it when sitting at your desk.
Consider that style will affect whether or not you:
Use it at work due to its formality or lack of formality
Carry it with you because of its size
Open it or store things in it regularly because of its durability
Use pen, pencil, or marker in it because of its pages, and more
It may seem like a lot of detail to put into a planner selection.
But in reality, any and all of these components can lead to a planner being ineffective or simply unused.
Before committing to a particular planner, it is worth considering your style and the planner that will match it.
Strategic planning is worthless – unless there is first a strategic vision
JOHN NAISBITT
#3 COMMIT: Do you have a plan on how to use a planner regularly?
Another consideration in your planner selection and process is when you will use your planner.
No matter if your planner is meant for daily use or regular use on special occasion, you want to ensure that you use it every time it is needed.
Your planner should be stationed wherever you have any other materials related to your organization of the subject.
If your planner is for daily use, then you may want to have it at your desk, in your workbag or purse, or on your nightstand.
For infrequent but specialty use, your planner storage may simply be a special drawer or shelf in your home or office.
The critical point is that the location lends to remembering the planner’s presence and encourages its use. And most importantly you are committed to both remembering and using it when you need to so that you stay organized.
A good rule of thumb is to keep a regular schedule related to using your planner, reviewing its contents, and updating its content.
Same times and same places tend to get the routine engrained in your life well.
Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort
paul j. meyer
#4 SET-UP: Do you have a place to plan?
In addition to storing your planner for use, you should also create a space conducive to planning.
Yes, it actually matters.
Planning in a space that is full of chaos, clutter, and distraction will likely lead to a poor process of creating order.
This does not mean that your space needs to be flawless, but it should be organized enough so that your mind is not pulled from your task of planning.
To use a planner effectively, you want to attempt to record as much detail as is valuable on the subject you intend to keep organized.
Distractions that lead to interrupted thought and inconsistent documenting will likely lead to an ineffective planning process.
Location, location, location is everything for a reason and it even applies to creating an effective planning process.
Plan for what it is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small
sun tzu
#5 DOCUMENT: Are your top priorities going into your planner?
To feel in better control of your life, you may be drawn to the idea of documenting every little detail in your planner.
If you have time to do this and it serves you well, then document, document, document.
However, more often than not, the practice of over-documenting leads to a labor-intensive process.
This then leads to an inconsistent practice in what you record or a total lack of use of your planner altogether.
It may sound fun to use every piece and part of what your planner has to offer.
Or you may be called to utilize every suggestion you have heard regarding planning.
In reality, less is more.
Choose the most critical priorities and the most frequently missed details and ensure you have a plan around keeping on top of them.
You can then decide if you have time or room for anything else.
Be a selective sifter of all the data you take in every day and try not to clutter the very tool that is meant to keep you organized.
If you are putting anything more in your planner than what you had planned to record when you bought it, then you should seriously consider if it really needs to be documented at all.
The more time you spend contemplating what you should have done… you lose valuable time planning what you can and will do
lil wayne
#6 EVALUATE: Before you throw out another one, do you know how to use a planner effectively?
A planner is effective when you say it is. No other input is more valuable than your own.
It is important to be honest with yourself. however, and determine if the planner is faulty or if it is user error.
Did you purchase the right planner for your needs?
Are you using the planner regularly?
Evaluate the tips in this post and see if you may need to reassess your effective planning strategy.
You may need to pick another tool or method to master your planning.
Also, consider if a planner is really the best method to solve your organization problems.
While planners are a common solution suggested by many, they do not work for everyone.
Bottomline, do not force the process.
If you have set yourself up well, selected well, and put an honest effort into regular use of your planner and still do not see results, it may be time for a totally new solution.
But if the planner has helped even in small ways, you may want to adjust for improvement where you can and keep moving forward.
Effective planning is definitely a circumstance where practice can make perfection in a planning process meaningful to you.
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail
benjamin franklin
Conclusion
Not everyone knows exactly how to use a planner even when they already have one.
The process may not be as simple as it looks. Before you decide that a planner will solve all of your organizing needs, take time to consider what specific needs you have.
Commit to the right planner, the right space, and even the right times to use your planner. And then embark on the journey to see if your decisions actually worked. With the right success plan in place, you may find that using a planner is a whole lot more effective than you originally thought.
Looking for more tools to make your life feel a little more balanced, subscribe to our newsletter today!
And if you have any suggestions for using a planner effectively, please share them in the Comments section below.
A good start of the day morning routine is worth your weight in gold if you can find one and keep it.
Problem is that there are so many choices, recommendations for best practice, and just so much to do. And taking in all that data can be completely overwhelming.
If you want to start a new morning routine and get the most out of it you may want to take a different direction.
Instead of trying to see what you can add to your morning, it may be time to look at what you can eliminate.
Some things you should actually NEVER DO!
If you can stop even one bad morning habit that you have and turn it around for the better, you may see that your morning routine was already in a pretty good place.
You just need the right tweak to make it a great morning routine.
Take a look at this list of morning routine no-no’s and start your day better:
Please note that this post contains affiliate or referral links where I receive a commission should you make a purchase from the vendor. This does not result in any increased cost to you as the consumer.
1. Stop Starving Yourself
Not every person is hungry in the morning.
Many people will intentionally fast for a certain number of hours before they take their first meal of the day.
You may have heard the word breakfast interpreted as “break fast” or a means of breaking the fasting period from one meal to the next.
That said, a “morning” meal is not critical to health, energy, or a good routine. But the importance of breakfast is well established.
Eating when your body requires it and eating well helps to improve your cognitive abilities, maintain your physical health, and boost your energy.
These are all key components that will contribute to you having a productively good day.
Your morning meal may not happen as soon as you wake up.
But be sure to prepare and have food available for whenever your first meal of the day should occur for you.
If you are looking to be both quick and healthy, then you may want to explore on-the-go snacks or frozen meals that you can heat up and then keep running. Thrive Market is an online food market that offers tons of healthy, organic, sustainable food options for all types of diets like Paleo, Vegan, Keto and more.
You don’ have to be on a speciality diet to enjoy their food, but it does give you a much better option than poor quality food or no food at all! Use my link for a discount to check them out first-hand.
No matter what you decide is the right meal for you, eating right is the best option for you. Starving yourself regularly can lead to fatigue, decreased mental clarity, and making poor food choices just to get by.
So it’s best not to make no food a practice if you want a good morning routine.
2. Don’t Move Before Your Body is Actually Ready to Move
Being stiff and sluggish in your movement after sleeping can happen to anybody.
But not every body can just spring into motion when in this condition.
If you sense that your body really rejects taking on your weight as you rise from bed or is particularly achy while you walk to the bathroom, maybe it’s time to consider other options.
And it doesn’t have to take more than 5 or 10 minutes in your schedule.
Allowing your muscles to wake up and building flexibility in your joints, just makes movement better.
A good morning routine is likely better with a good stretching routine.
3. Stop Trying to Multi-Task
Multi-tasking, or the art of fooling yourself into thinking that you are doing many things simultaneously, can prove to be a bad habit any time of day.
After you first wake up, it’s even more of a fool’s game.
Your brain does have the capacity to transition focus rapidly and even to set certain tasks to an almost auto-pilot state.
However, the more things that you give your attention, the less attention any one thing gets.
This equates to a lot of movement AND a lot of poor execution.
Make a habit of eliminating as many tasks as possible out of your morning.
Keep your start of day super simple.
Instead of starting a brand new practice of meditating, yoga, journaling, walking, AND making smoothies, try 1 new thing and keep everything else the same.
Doing too many things and doing too many things at once, can be the absolute opposite of a good morning routine.
4. Stop Doing Things That Make You Lose Track of Time
Time is precious, particularly in the morning.
The last thing that you would want to do is to lose the precious time that you have.
However, there are tons of things that can easily get you distracted. And they change depending on who you are and where your interests lie.
Examine and then eliminate your time killers in the morning. It could be cellphone alerts, your work email, the morning news, or even your kids’ cartoons.
Before you know it you have become so engrossed in this one thing (or several) that you no longer have time for what’s truly important.
Rushing, running, and scrambling are all components of a terrible morning and an unproductive start to your day.
A good morning routine gives time to the tasks that are key to starting off your day well in a seamless, organized way.
5. Stop Prepping EVERYTHING in the Morning
Another time killer is attempting to prep everything that you need in the morning actually in the morning.
Now, morning prep can happen if you have put the time in your schedule to accommodate this. However, you are also taking the risk that your plan is executed flawlessly every day.
The mother of a family should look upon her housekeeping and the planning of meals as a scientific occupation.
eleanor roosevelt
An alternative option for heavy morning prepping is to plan in advance.
This does not have to only occur the night before, though this is at least a start.
Clothes can be ironed days in advance, hung, and ready for whenever you want to wear them. Meals can be prepped ahead and placed in the fridge, frozen for reheating, or entail a bowl of grab-and-go fruit and healthy snacks.
School bags and work bags can be packed and readied on a Friday night and left in a ready-to-go space until Monday.
You can even make a morning routine toiletry caddy with your full-body prepping materials.
Basic items like toothpaste may not need special attention. But think of things that somehow get lost that you can’t afford to lose like deodorant, lotion, hair ties, or even your favorite perfume.
Make your morning routine seamless by prepping ahead for your day or your week and feel more in control of your mornings.
6. Stop Thinking You Can Muscle Through Too Little Sleep
Sleep is an important part of your morning routine. Most time you don’t even want to start your morning without it.
Alarms, kids, and pets aside, ideally you want to wake up all on your own, refreshed and ready to start the day.
Build a sleep routine the night before that is meant to support your morning routine. Being well rested makes the simple task of getting out of bed easier.
It can also provide you with a more optimistic outlook on your day instead of regretting having to leave your bed.
Even if you have reasons outside of your control such as your own health condition or a sick wakeful child that disrupts your sleeping pattern, take ownership of exploring ways to improve your sleeping ritual.
You want to be your best for yourself and for anyone else that you support in your life.
Start your morning routine with great momentum towards your goals by building a solid sleep routine.
7. Stop Losing Your Essentials
Does your morning start with a full house overhaul searching for your keys?
Did you somehow miss your first morning meeting because you spent 30 minutes searching for your child’s homework before you left the house?
Not only do you lose time but you can slowly start losing your mind when missing critical pieces are a part of your morning routine.
Likely every other suggestion in this post can assist with rectifying this issue.
But even if you do nothing else, take 5 minutes to consider all the things you may have misplaced, lost, or even accidentally destroyed in the last month and vow to never have it happen again.
Special things, important things, critical things all deserve a home.
Special things, important things, critical things all deserve a home!
Decide ONE place for important things to go and ensure anything labeled as “important” gets put there immediately.
This action accomplishes two things:
1) you know where to put the important things and
2) you know where to look for important things.
When you are first building this practice, put an important thing that you don’t regularly lose in the special spot. This will train your brain to use the “important things” location all the time.
If you plan on having many things, big and small, or everyone in the house’s things in one spot, make sure your location can easily accommodate necessary space needs.
But don’t make 100 different places!
Only ONE place and only ONE process: All Important Things GO HERE!
Create an Important Things space in your home and eliminate the morning frenzy from your morning routine.
Conclusion
There are many things that you can do to create a good morning routine, but sometimes it’s easier to stop doing a thing.
Streamline your morning routine by reducing unnecessary actions, prepping what you can, and catering to your body so it is ready for your day ahead.
The big goal is to do less and focus on the most critical objectives that start off your day the best.
Your morning routine is important so eliminate anything that isn’t important and elevate your day.
Looking for more ways to make life feel a little more in balance, Subscribe for our newsletter today! Have you discovered the key to your sanity but eliminating something from your morning?? Share it in the Comments section. We all can use a new idea to have a good morning routine!
Why is it that we can become the master of complaining about what is and can never seem to master where we would rather be?
The days are too long.
The money is not enough.
The boss is a jerk.
The commute is for-ev-er!
Nothing is right and we just confirm it to ourselves over and over again.
And you can always find a person to listen or to join in on your song because misery loves company. But how do you begin to sing a new tune??
There is a way!
You can wake up and step into the job that you always wanted and sing the praises of how happy you are to do it.
You can have a job that you want to have and love everything about it.
Follow these 3 steps to self mastery and change your work life for the better NOW. It’s time to live your work life differently.
Self Mastery Step #1: Embrace Being the Master of Your Life
Do not be a novice in living your life. Master living how you choose to live.
Far too often we find fault in the lives that we live. And then we take minimal accountability for our life’s outcome. You do what you have to do. Or, you play the hand that life has dealt you. You say that you do the best with what you have.
These statements may be fact. But in stating facts and in acknowledging stark realities, you relinquish your power. To transition from novice to true self mastery of your life’s goals you must feel comfortable taking claim of your ability to command your life.
To affirm is to self-empower.
Instead of stating that you do what you have to do, proclaim that I do what I want to do. You do not play the hand that you are dealt. Instead state, I play to win and I win often.
And when you take on this new frame of mind, you start making subtle changes. Shifting the way you see and live your life is the path to creating powerful change.
How Do You Know When You Have Mastered Self Mastery?
You are the sole decision-maker of what a good life to live is.
As it relates to your work life, you alone decide what is the acceptable standard. Where you work, what you do for work, and how you perform your work is fulfilling based on your opinion.
You may say that others have an influence on your definition of work fulfilled. But others’ influence is only of substance if you permit their opinion to hold importance. Again, you are the master and you are the only one who can be.
Shifting your mindset to one of ultimate accountability, primary responsibility, and singular and final say, is the utmost wielding of personal power. When you accept this, now you are in the position to evaluate and make decisions from a new perspective.
You may not like the job you have today. But you are the person with ultimate accountability, primary responsibility, and singular and final say to change it.
If you do not change it, know that you have chosen to stay where you are. You have no other person to be accountable to in your decision other than yourself.
If you do not know what to do about it, you have ultimate accountability, primary responsibility, and singular and final say to figure out what to do.
And, by the way, you don’t have to leave a job to be empowered.
You can also take accountability, in creating your work environment, work content, and even your commute to be the best that you have ever experienced.
Once you take command of how you want to live, you are in the perfect position to make it happen.
But mastering your life is not the only step in the process. You must also believe…
Self Mastery Step #2: Believe in What You Want to Believe in
Your belief system is the foundation by which you live.
Some beliefs are consciously acknowledged in your mind; others are subconscious and even feel automatically derived.
You may not know what you believe on any given subject until someone asks you for your opinion. But once brought to focus, your beliefs can empower you with passion and conviction. And when you hold a belief with conviction it can dictate the standard by which you live.
Knowing your beliefs is knowing your core values.
If you are looking for ways to know your beliefs and core values in a more meaningful way, take a look at My Core Values Journal. You can work to define your core values, understand their origins, and define your beliefs with clarity.
A strongly held belief can act as a framework for how you conduct yourself, how you interact with others, and the decisions you make on a daily basis. To manage your beliefs is a form of self mastery.
For this reason, beliefs are critically important in propelling forward the actions you take. Beliefs create motivation, focus, passion, and meaning.
How Do Your Beliefs Impact Your Work Life?
Your work is an outcome of your beliefs. You could say that your job is the manifestation of your beliefs around your capabilities, your talents, and your potential for earnings.
When you apply for a job, you believe that you will get hired. You perform your job duties based on beliefs that you can perform them. Or you believe that you have the ability to learn.
You fear losing a job when you no longer believe that you are capable to perform it. Or you may believe that someone else is better. You may even believe that your company is no longer able to secure your employment.
No matter the direction, you are surrounded by your own beliefs as it relates to your work. Therefore, when you want a change in your work, you must first believe that the change is possible.
You may have mastered living your life in accordance with your own definition. But if you do not believe that the future you conceive is possible, you will remain standing still. This is why you must act on what you say you believe in.
If you say you believe you can be in management one day, you must treat this belief as fact. When you claim that you will get promoted in a year, you must take on this belief with conviction.
And if you determine that what you believe as your future is not reality today, you must be comfortable in knowing that reality shifts and so can you.
This is how you create change in your work life. You believe.
Permit yourself to believe without evidence in the current moment and open yourself to opportunities to let a new reality into your life.
Explore different conversations.
Connect with different people.
Expose yourself to new possibilities.
With these steps in place, you will be inspired to new actions.
Belief is how you awaken the power of self mastery and walk an inspired path toward what you want in your life.
Self Mastery Step #3: Be Inspired to Follow Your Inspired Action
Inspired action can appear to come from nowhere. You can be busy in living your daily life and, seemingly from the cosmos, an idea comes into your mind.
But it can also come directly from another source.
In the midst of a conversation, you come up with solutions.
Listening to someone else’s conversation, you gain a spark of influence that simply resonates with you.
Seeing someone else’s accomplishments you see a new way of thinking.
The spark of creation that moves you from thought to action and jolts positive emotion through you a the same time is your Gift of Inspiration.
We all have had the experience of an inspired motivation to move in a certain direction or to take a certain action. But all too often we have also had the experience where we received inspiration but rationalized our way from it.
On your quest for change, you can be driven to live a new life of your choosing. And you can believe fervently in your dreams for more.
Big Dreams Can Inspire Big Doubt
Every dream does not come easy.
It is okay and usual to find fault in the path laid out in front of you, particularly if it is brand new. Brand new, different, never-before-experienced dreams can feel foreign and create insecurity and fear. But facing this insecurity and following your inspired thoughts can bring much needed change.
How do you do change from what you do not want to what you want by only permitting yourself to do the same things you have always done?
The comfort of conformity can seem as if it is the same as doing the right thing. Conformity can feel good in its familiarity and security. It can feel as if coming home.
Newness on the other hand can feel challenging, risky, uncomfortable, and utterly terrifying. How can you follow a path of discomfort and know that it is taking you in the right direction?
How Do You Know When Your Inspiration Is Right?
The inspired path can be tough to follow when you are unfamiliar with the road it leads you on.
And beyond this, when you are taking new roads as it relates to your work, it can make you feel very insecure.
Today you have a job, but what if you are inspired to leave?
You have a great relationship with your boss, but what if you are inspired to try for a new role in a different department?
How about the perfect job that pays you half your current salary? Is this inspired action or insanity?
To know your inspiration, you must first know yourself.
Remember, that you have mastered listening to your own voice and understanding your own decisions. You also have created a relationship with what is important to you by way of your beliefs.
When you are given an idea for something new, no matter how strange or uncomfortable, take time to evaluate it. Does this idea feel right to you?
Examine if you find it personally off-putting or if, instead, you are more concerned over another person’s perception.
Do you believe that the idea will benefit you? It is important to stay true to your beliefs and not to take action in conflict with the foundation of who you are.
Is this idea challenging you? It’s okay to be challenged. But beyond the challenge will you be in a better state overall?
Trust in your ability to do what is best for you. And further, trust that should you falter, you have the ability to recover and thrive by learning from your mistakes.
Every action that you take will not be perfect. But it may be the perfect path that leads you to become stronger in yourself, better in living your beliefs, and more skilled in interpreting your inspiration.
You will develop the gift of knowing when your inspiration is right. But you can only become skilled in following your inspiration if you take every opportunity to follow it.
Conclusion
You do not have to stand still in a job you do not want and repetitively live a work life that you cannot stand.
You can have a job that you love and that you are excited to go to every day. To have the work life you desire, you first have to be willing to take command of yourself and master your life.
The power to make the job you desire your reality lies within you and can become yours today.
Embrace being the master of your life. Take ownership of your definition of what you want in life and what satisfies you. Take time to know yourself better. Learn self mastery. Then live in accordance with who you really are every chance that you get.
Believe in what you want to believe in. Commit to your beliefs as the charter of your life’s framework. Take courage to actively practice the way that you want to live and what you want to do in your life’s experience. Let your life and your beliefs stay aligned, regardless of others’ opinion. Your beliefs will always serve as your guiding light on your life’s journey.
Be inspired to follow your inspired action. When you know yourself enough to know what you want and have the foundation of beliefs that guide your decisions, you will be presented again and again with inspiration for the next steps to take. Be ready, be mindful, and be diligent to move. Trust that you can make the right call for the right move that takes you on the right path for your best life.
Your work is a manifestation of the beliefs of your perceived talent and the value exchange received for your talents.
You decide what you earn, how you spend your time, and who you share your assets with. You set the terms of what is acceptable or unacceptable, and most importantly what you truly want. Live as master of your life and permit your work life to be the best it can ever be.
Do you know someone who could use a little motivation to live their work life as they choose? Share this post today!
Home organization can seem perfect in theory, but be a tedious chore in reality. Using home organization affirmations as part of your decluttering and cleaning process can be a big part of keeping the right focus.
All too often you lose the momentum of cleaning your home even before you start. When you look around your home at what seems like an endless sea of mini-projects, papers, and random paraphernalia, it is daunting. And when nothing has a home in your home, you can feel like everything has taken over your house.
This may be the perfect motivation to have a beautiful home. But it may not necessarily be the motivation to organize your way there.
When you don’t feel like cleaning or organizing, before you push through and do it anyway, pause and get mentally prepared. Don’t let your mental energy be yet another hurdle to jump. Instead, let your mind align with your goal to get your to-do list done. And feel good all the way through your organization journey.
Affirmations are an excellent way to focus and build intention with your thoughts. So often the mind will run from topic to topic seemingly without pause. And scattered between subjects there can be a number of negative and demotivating thoughts.
Allowing the negative thoughts to run without borders can cause your energy to run away with it. And when you are looking to build your inspiration for action, you find that you are already mentally drained.
Affirmations can replace a negative train of thought and energize your mind with positive momentum. With the right words in mind, you can find yourself hopeful, inspired, optimistic, and generally in a good mood. This revitalized mental status can be the perfect frame of mind to make your vision and your actions come to life.
Why Are Home Organization Affirmations Useful?
Affirmations for home organization can infuse power thoughts and actions into an otherwise mentally draining project.
Declutter, cleaning, and organizing can result in a ton of thinking and overthinking. What do you want to do with this? How do you create a home for that? Will we need this one day?
To organize well you are:
being intentional and thoughtful about your needs
creating the flow of your home, and
making long-lasting changes for order and harmony for you and your family
But if all of this is new for you, you are also organizing a brand new train of thought!
With new trains of thought, come even more thinking, and therefore even more opportunity for negativity and self-sabotage. As soon as you are unable to create an immediate solution for your clutter and chaos, you could be faced with thoughts of your ineptness for the entire project.
Home organization affirmations help you to keep the right thoughts about your abilities and capabilities at the forefront of your mind. You can create a new order for your home. You are completely capable of creating or researching new ideas for order and putting them into action.
Home organization affirmations help to sustain the right thoughts in your mind regardless if you are at the easiest or toughest part of your project.
Keep Your Home Organization Benefits in Mind
More than having a picture-perfect home, home organization helps to reduce the clutter in your mind.
Your surroundings are a reflection of you and your thinking. When you are disorganized in your home, you likely are carrying clutter and disorganization within you. Your true home base is within. Lacking organization in your home and personal mental clarity day after day can cause you to suffer from stress, anxiety, and mental fatigue.
When you are constantly in search of something you have lost or you find your eyes land on a project to be done, you are simultaneously exerting mental energy. Mental energy or attention on unnecessary subjects can be significantly reduced when you know where things are, know where to put them, or lay eyes on empty spaces instead of clutter. With a less taxed mind, you can then have opportunity to enjoy the peace within your home and in your thoughts.
Less distraction, less stress, and less wasted mental energy all contribute to your peaceful, focused, and clear mind.
And with a positive mental state, you have room to be more creative, more innovative, more inspired, or simply more relaxed. But you knew this already, which is why you began your decluttering project in the first place!
How Do You Use Affirmations?
Affirmations have many applications. Be open to experimenting and find what works for you when using them.
The simplest method is to find or create a statement that has positive meaning to you and to read or say the statement aloud. You can repeat the statement once or repeatedly. The number of times said is not as important as the statement becoming your focus in the moment.
When you have a list of affirmations, you can read them all at once. You can also choose to take one or two from the list and repeat them as if a mantra. When doing difficult or tedious tasks, it can be helpful to repeat your chosen affirmations while performing your task to keep maintain positive mental energy aligned with what you are doing.
You can also choose to create a project initiation with your affirmations, for each day or each segment of your decluttering and home organization project. Choose to consciously and intentionally clear your mind before taking any action. Close your eyes and perform a few deep breaths. Once you find yourself centered, you can light a candle or take a moment to write your affirmations to signify a start to your new thinking.
Then take time to read your affirmations, settling on every word, and purposefully aligning yourself with the meaning to you behind each statement. Allow the vision of your completed project to be your focus and your home organization affirmations to compliment this vision. When you have completed this, you are now ready to take on your tasks with the proper mental energy with your mind and actions in full alignment.
Take time to learn what works for you and practice using your home organization affirmations when creating the environment you aspire to have.
Home Organization Affirmations
10 Home Organization Affirmations for When YouDon’t Feel Like Organizing
Conclusion
Keeping a positive state of mind and being kind to yourself as you live your life’s journey can be tough at times. But the rewards can be significant. When doing tough projects like home organization, keep yourself motivated with positive affirmations every step of the way.
Looking for more ways to create a clear mind, positive atmosphere, and enjoy more personal balance. Take a look at these posts:
Do you have a sleep ritual? Are you looking to sleep better?
Sleep provides rejuvenation of the body and clarity to the mind. This mental, physical and spiritual daily cleansing is vital to your wholeness and healthfulness.
A sleep ritual blends the consistency and expectation of regimen together with the sanctity and reverence of ceremony.
You may want to explore creating a sleep ritual and unlocking the power of deep rest and its impact on your life.
An optimal sleep ritual involves preparation, participation, and reflection on your process.
Particularly through the preparation and reflection processes, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the ritual can be determined. If your sleep ritual is not effective then you have no true ritual to follow.
But if you are able to create a strong and consistent sleep ritual, you can reap all the benefits that deep, restful sleep can provide.
How to Prepare for Your Sleep Ritual
The ultimate goal is restful and rejuvenating sleep that, when achieved on a regular basis, creates the foundation for a strong wakeful day ahead.
Taking the time to be planful in creating your best sleeping conditions can go far in creating a successful sleep ritual.
If your goal is better sleep, the means to obtain it must include improvements in the atmosphere and conditions conducive to your best sleep environment.
Every person has different conditions that support their ability to fall asleep productively.
And these conditions may change based on individual preferences, the sleeping area available, and the bodily conditions of the person.
For these reasons, it is important to evaluate your specific needs to create an environment conducive to restful sleep for you.
1. Preparing Your Body for Sleep
The body performs many different functions throughout your wakeful day. For this reason, it is necessary to move away from wakeful activity and to trigger the transition that signals sleep preparation has begun.
Take a hot bath or hot shower. The use of heat can signal muscle relaxation and induce a calming feeling throughout the body.
Use warmed oils or lotions after bathing. These too can support calm, relaxation, and, if used only at bedtime, can help to reinforce defining sleep readiness.
Wear clothing that is comfortable and that helps you to maintain your preferred body temperature. Whether too hot or too cold, sleeping in discomfort can lead to wakefulness. Be mindful of room temperature and dress accordingly.
Perform a massage on yourself as a means to relax and release tension. If possible, receive a massage from your partner with an agreement that falling asleep mid-session is permissible and encouraged.
Engage in a yoga practice specifically designed for the evening. Preview this one by Boho Beautiful as an example. A less rigorous set of movements, a bedtime yoga practice will focus on stretching the body, loosening tight muscles, and creating an overall relaxing sensation for the body. Performing a bedtime stretch routine can have a similar effect.
Any or all of these steps can create an expectation that you have moved from an active body state to a still or calm physical state. Conducting this regimen regularly will ritualize the process of relaxation before bed as a means of preparation for sleep.
2. Sleep Environment Preparation
To ensure a restful, full night of sleep, you want to create a soothing and comfortable environment.
The steps to create this may change from one night to the next based on the exact place, time, and other occupants in your space.
Confirm that your room temperature is warm or cool enough for your personal comfort.
Address any ambient noises that are in your space. If these sounds cannot be controlled, consider using earplugs or finding access to white noise to camouflage the unwanted.
If you sleep with another person, attempt to coordinate in advance if you will sleep on the same schedule as your mate. The movement of another person in or out of your bed can cause interruption to your sleep continuity. If this cannot be avoided, you may consider sleeping in an alternative space until you create a consistent sleep routine, particularly if you have had significant prior sleep concerns.
Lights, cellphones, a television, and other electronics can cause disruption or unwanted alertness. Remove or turn off any items that signal wakefulness to your mind and body and engage only with those that will signal restfulness.
You may want to use a diffuser or a candle warmer to engage in aromatherapy as a means to trigger relaxation. Scents such as lavender, chamomile, sandalwood, or cedarwood can well-compliment a soothing atmosphere.
Your sleep ritual can be heavily influenced by your environment but when mastered your environment preparation can be the ideal catalyst for deep sleep.
3. Nighttime Activity Before Sleep Preparation
Your sleep ritual is focused on the relaxation of your mind and body but does not only include relaxing activity.
In order to settle an overactive body and mind, it can be helpful to engage in preparational activities that signal a wind-down towards relaxation. Think of this as a prep for your sleep ritual preparation.
If you initiate the activity several hours before sleep, you can engage in a rigorous exercise routine. While this may stimulate alertness soon after completion, over time your body will look to replenish and recover and can then create strong signals for rest.
A less intensive activity is home cleaning and organization. To ensure that you feel mentally settled, you may want to engage in 30 to 60 minutes of house cleaning. Removing clutter and setting your space in order can be a form of mental calming and anxiety reduction.
An even lighter activity that can stimulate a pre-rest status is to read a book or engage in watching television. While either can stimulate your wakeful attention, the key is to choose lightly stimulating content. Feel-good storylines, laughter, and hopeful and positive plots can improve mood and serve as an easy transition point towards relaxation.
While it can seem to have the opposite effect, engaging in activity hours before you intend to sleep can help to take you on your path of relaxation.
Setting your space in order, de-escalating after a long day at work, laughing or learning, can each provide you a sense of peace and remove tension from your mind.
4. Evaluate Your Mental Status Before Sleep
Creating the mental space for sleep is as important as all the other elements. The pressures of the day can build anxiety, stress, racing thoughts, and hyperactivity.
These high-intensity mental states can be counterproductive to sleeping or achieving levels of deep sleep. Taking steps to slow the mind and settle the flow of thoughts that you generate can lay the groundwork for sleep readiness.
Journaling can serve to relieve the mind of any burdensome thoughts. It can also be used to focus on the good within your day, elevating your spirits, and setting a tone of gratitude.
Listening to soft music or intentionally using binaural beats can help to ready and stimulate sleep. This form of sound healing can work in partnership with your relaxation practices and set expectation for your mind to rest.
There are also many forms of meditation that can serve to ready the mind and body for sleep. If experienced with a meditation practice you may simply sit in silence for 10 or 15 minutes using your breath as your focal point. Alternatively, guided meditation can walk you through a path toward internal downshifting and thought cleansing, calming active thought, and introducing mental silence.
This shift towards mental cleansing and intentional positive experience can melt your stresses and signal transition toward relaxation and sleep preparedness.
Initiation of Your Sleep Ritual
Now that you have considered all elements of your sleep ritual preparedness, you can initiate your sleep ritual.
1. Plan Your Sleep Ritual in Advance
Examining all the details collected from your preparation steps, incorporate those most meaningful to you into your sleep ritual.
Especially when creating a new sleep ritual, take time to put all the important steps to your ritual in writing. Use a special notebook, writing paper, or even scroll to capture your process.
You can note your ideal room temperature. Gather your ceremonial bedtime clothing. You may even have a set towel to use after bathing or certain bed linen to commemorate the initiation of your sleep ritual practice.
Structure your process so that you build consistency.
Make all steps achievable and repeatable.
Do not feel that you must try everything.
And certainly, do not cause yourself stress when establishing your process.
When you have all steps outlined, silently set the intention of regular restful sleep.
You can even light a candle or close your eyes and take a healing breath to signify your commitment to your intention.
2. Undergo Your Sleep Ritual as Sacred Ceremony
Follow your sleep ritual with reverence and loyalty to each step.
Elevating the importance of your sleep ritual is an indication of self-care and self-love by way of honoring your sleep.
As you step from one action to the next, be mindful that all actions you are taking are in support of your sleep and self-preservation.
Take time to ensure that you have the proper materials for each action or, if not, pause to gather them. There is no need to rush as the goal is to slow down and come to rest.
Be flexible as you are developing this ritual. All things may not be perfectly smooth from the beginning.
Be watchful for any necessary adjustments to make the process easy flowing.
Modify as you see fit. Eliminate any actions that seem laborsome. Add any new actions that enhance your process.
Once your action item list is finalized, stay true to following your process each night and, if at all possible, at the same time. Your sleep ritual should become habit-forming and be as if a recipe for your most restful sleep.
Be open to communicating to others about your sleep ritual, especially those you may live with. It is not necessary to share all parts in detail. But be sure to establish to others the sanctity and necessity of your process towards sleep. Part of your sleep ritual reverence is to ensure that others have reverence to not disturb your process.
Reflection on Your Sleep Ritual
Evaluating the effectiveness of your sleep ritual gives you the opportunity to optimize what works well. As well as the flexibility to change what doesn’t work.
All actions to achieve the goal of optimal rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation should feel as if by design.
This is the opportunity to review your process for the ultimate goal of quality sleep.
Be free to accentuate the most meaningful parts of your ritual. If you enjoy a certain activity, such as your meditation, be open to lengthening the process or try other options or modifications. You may create a playlist of rest-ready music or utilize different stretching techniques to relax your body.
Be mindful throughout the preparation process. Stay consistent in the core steps of your practice.
Honor your ritual daily regardless of the day of the week or outside circumstances.
Take the opportunity to reflect upon your work in creating this ritual of health and to acknowledge your care for yourself. Celebrating even small improvements will stimulate hope of achieving better sleep.
If you have not been successful in creating a smooth sleep ritual or you cannot consistently commit to your practice, examine why.
Eliminate blockers with compassion for yourself and the process. Examine ways for improvement and be open to eliminating even the most desired components that are not practical.
Explore ideas beyond those suggested above and make adjustments that best meet your sleep intentions.
Above all learn what you can through the reflection process to customize your sleep ritual to be both effective and enjoyable for you.
Conclusion
A sleep ritual can be an enriching and rewarding process leading to the well-balancing of mind, body, and spirit through better sleep.
If you can well-incorporate both the ceremony and consistency of your sleep ritual through preparation, participation, and reflection, you can reap the benefits of this sacred process.
Tailoring each component of your sleep ritual through careful self-observation and exploration can lend to the precision of its makeup.
Honoring your need for a consistent sleep ritual with yourself and with others can only lend to its effectiveness and the sustainability of your process.
Using these ideas or exploring others with friends, family, and other resources will help you to create a well-crafted sleep ritual that will serve you to achieve regular, restful, much-needed sleep.
Do you have a trusted practice as part of your sleep ritual? Share it in the comments below to help others reach their rest and rejuvenation goals.
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