What's She Doing Now

Today we’re going to talk about the importance of habits. Are habits fun? Not usually, but it’s how we get things done.

Friday in our house means three things; Chipotle for dinner, cleaning, and reviewing the budget. That has been my Friday for as long as I can remember. It’s not that we don’t clean everyday, because with 4 kids, 4 dogs, and 2 cats you are always cleaning. Friday is the deeper clean and it sucks.

The only reason it gets done is because that’s the habit. We created the routine and now the brain nows that’s what we’re doing – we are cleaning today. If we don’t, it won’t happen until next Friday. That’s that.

Cleaning our old house was a lot easier. It was a ranch with small rooms. Everything was in a straight line almost. A way smaller elephant to eat at 2,000 sq ft.

Then we bought the beast. A 6,000 sq ft victorian that took us two years to get to a live in ready state. It’s 125 years old with 9 foot ceilings, working pockets doors, and original woodwork everywhere. I should be a partial owner of Pledge at this point.

So how do you tackle cleaning something like this? You plan it like a project, work through the plan, and that plan becomes your routine because you do it every single week.

When you’re little your brain craves routine. It needs it. If you have a toddler you know that things run smoother when they already know what’s going to happen. When I teach toddler dance I run the class the same every week. Think of the anxiety you have when you don’t know what’s going to happen next – the parking situation of where you’re going.

Habits and routines make you so much more efficient and effective. They give you so much time to do other things, like to just be lazy. It’s a lot easier to enjoy Saturday when I know the house is completely clean.

I used cleaning as example, but it can be anything. Only checking your email at specific times a day will free up more time than you think. Doing the dishes as soon as you get home everyday can be a game changer.

Again, why would I want to do the dishes? You don’t, but you’re going to have to do it anyway so it’s best to get some habits in place to really free up some time in your life. Start small and build from there. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll be able to accomplish.