Dear Daughter,
So you know how I’m always nagging about straightening up your room every night before you go to bed? I’m not doing it for my health (even though your room at times feels like a health risk…!). I’m telling you to do it to help you build healthy habits that will clear your space inside and out, since clutter will drain you of energy.
As you know I spend 20 minutes at night to clean up the house, put out my clothes for the next day, all while I’m thinking about the best part of my day. I know that cleaning is the last thing you want to do at the end of a long day, but it’s worth it. It’s 20 minutes well spent. Waking up to a clean space, a positive and stress free mind will change your entire day.
By identifying and thinking about the best part of your day, you are training your brain to focus on the positive things. This will clear your space of all the negativity around you. Sometimes we have days when we don’t feel like anything good happens, but we always have things to be thankful for. I’m thankful for you, your brother and dad. I’m thankful for the life I was given (even all the bad), and that we have each other. I’m thankful that we are all healthy. I also often say thank you for all the wonderful things that I’m not yet aware of, but are on their way to me. Be thankful for being able to go to college, and for the talents you’ve been given. Those are all amazing gifts.
Same goes for your career. The amount of time that is wasted due to being unorganized, or thinking about unnecessary things is mind blowing. By creating fundamental habits, your life will be less stressful and happier.
Don’t waste time by
starting your day with writing a to-do-list.
Ending the day with creating your to-do-list for the next day will save you an hour in the morning trying to remember everything that needs to be done, and prevent you from forgetting an important task. Starting your day with an already done to-do-list will allow you to jump right in and start working on your tasks.
checking your phone before breakfast! You will get stuck, and your mind will be clogged with unimportant stuff.
Spend breakfast thinking about what a wonderful day you will have.
cleaning up your email inbox for an hour at the end of the week.
Spend one minute between meetings to maintain your email inbox. Files read emails right away, and put emails that you need to spend more time on in a separate folder that says “Today’s Follow-ups”.
don’t waste time with a big cleaning session of your house each week
Maintain your house by straightening up your house for 20 minutes a day. Clean the shower when you shower, take care of dishes right after dinner, dust while you catch up with a friend on the phone etc. This will save you hours. If I hired a cleaning service to take care of our house they would have nothing to do because our house is always clean.
not planning your meals for the week
Plan your meals for the week on Sundays. This will not only help you save time, but also help you eat healthier since you won’t make any last minute decisions when you are tired and hungry. Cook things that can be heated, or chop up vegetables before hand so that you can start cooking your meal right away.
All these steps help clear your outer and inner spaces, and bring new energy. Build these habits so that you free up your time for more important things. And by important things I don’t mean the boys at college….
Love,
Mamma