I recently hosted a 5 day challenge group where we talked all about finding balance and all the little tips and tricks I have learned this year on this little coaching journey of mine. While these aren’t rocket science, writing them down and talking about them were a nice little reminder that sometimes small changes (and reminding yourself of them) is really all it takes to make a big difference in your day and schedule.  So here goes….

1) Don’t Recreate the Wheel.
There is a reason why sites like Pinterest, Etsy and Google exist. Use them. In addition to the big “social” sites, I save my grocery list every week in an App (Wonderlist), use ideas from my favorite blogs and never ever start from scratch. Chances are someone has done whatever you are trying to accomplish before 🙂

2) Educate Yourself.
They say the most successful people read 10 X more books a year than the average person. My goal, 2 books a month. I listen to books on audible (since sitting down to read just does not seem to happen very much). Its sort of amazing how much information you can consume driving to work or while vacuuming the house. lol.

3) Sunday Power Hour.
Every Sunday I try to take one hour to plan for the week. What activities do we have going on? How many lunches do I need to pack? When am I going to fit in my workouts? What outfits do the girls need to wear? Is there any potential to fit in a date night? 🙂 Just taking a few minutes to plan and check my schedule makes Mondays go SO much easier as well as the rest of the week.

4) Tidy Up Everyday. 
I always joke with my husband that if we won the lottery I would want a personal chef and a house cleaner. That said, we try to do 1-2 chores a day so they don’t pile up on the weekend. Maybe its clean the bathrooms on Fridays, mop on Sunday, dust on Monday etc. You get the idea. One task somehow seems better than all of them put together.

5) Pairing. 
I learned this from one of the books I read this year called Better than Before by Gretchin Rubin. The concept is to pair something you like with something that you might not like as much but need to get done. For instance, I watch the Real Housewives while working out. I don’t mind working out but its much more fun when I get to watch a little gossipy television.  Another example is pairing making the grocery list with a glass of wine. 🙂 You can check out her video on how to pair activities here.

6) Be Present. Multi-tasking is overrated.
Yes, I do multi-task but sometimes its nice to just done one thing at a time. And its amazing how efficient you can be if you just do one thing and then move on. 🙂 My guess is you even might get more done!

I hope you find these helpful! Have a great weekend!