I recently picked up Simplify your Life by Marcia Ramsland again. This is my second time reading through it. I hate when I do that. I read a book, really like it, and then forget everything I learned. This time it will be different. I am going to put the principles taught in this book into practice and stick to it.
I started off by visiting Marcia’s website: organizing pro.com. She has an online 7 week course which I would have liked to do but it’s out of my budget, so I decided to implement her 7 week course at home- minus the coaching.
Her week 1: Simply Begin Your Journey & 1st System: The Kitchen
Step 1: Read chapters 1 and 6
Step 2: Implement new system.
What I like about this book is the “system” she teaches. She teaches a concept called PUSH.
P=Project- a one time planned organizing and simplifying event.
U=You! -Customize to fit you.
S= System-a simple plan to maintain the accomplished project every day. It should take 10-15 minutes a day-tops
H=Habit-creating routines that become Habits. (Incidentally, I am also reading a book about creating Habits called Laying Down the Rails for Yourself by Sonya Safer that complements this step beautifully)
For this first week, I wrote out why I need to simplify my life and basically it comes down to wanting to balance homeschooling, home care, physical and spiritual well being and work. (Well, Hello! Can anyone say Busy Mom). This is my on going struggle to balance it all.
Second, I realize that in order to simplify my life I need to simplify the “Systems” that I use to organize all these areas in my life. When I try to get all my plates spinning and one of my systems is out of whack, I then drop all my plates, unfortunately. I feel anxious about all my plates spinning out of control. I don’t excel in any of the areas and feel like I am mediocre in all areas.
Marcia says something brilliant ” Manage what you must; Organize what you care about”. I care about my home, my children, my health, my relationship with God, and my personal goals and ambitions.
So my desire then is to do what Sonya Shafer encourages: one habit at a time. A key principle of habit-training is to focus on one habit at a time. Choose one habit that you are going to work on first. Get that habit up and running well, then focus on another one. (pg. 12)
Then I love what she says Think about which one would smooth out the most jolting and delays of life for you.”
Each habit takes six to eight weeks. Length doesn’t matter, it could take more or less but it will be built.
Finally, she says ” To keep the end destination in mind. To map out how you plan to get there” (pg 15)
So it might take me more than 7 weeks, maybe it takes me 49 weeks, but wouldn’t it be nice to see that in one year I have simplifying my life!
So I am excited to tackle the first of those systems: The Kitchen
Ligia
