Welcome to my newsletter! Its mission is to offer you some helpful organizing and productivity tips, share useful tools, fun stuff, and a fair amount random Anne insight based on whatever shiny objects I happen to be chasing at the time. I hope you enjoy it!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back…

Remember Hot Vaxx Summer?  How things were going to finally get back to normal?  Remember how I wrote in August that the back to school season is an important transition for us all? Remember how Paula sang to the fox-“We take, two steps forward and one step back…? I very much look forward to September every year and getting back to the routines associated with it.  Well I don’t know about you, but that is not at all what’s happened for me. It many ways it’s been a bit of a sh^t show.  It’s felt like one false start after another (hello sick kids at home!) and working through it all has certainly taken a toll on me. I cracked up a little. I know from talking with my many peers that I’m not alone in this - especially the parents out there. Back to School has yet to bring the relief we were eagerly waiting for.  

So, as October arrives, many of us have lost our momentum and our get up and go.  Lost sight of our grand goals and gameplans. What we do next matters. It’s a new month, and another chance to start again. And October has the benefit of having fewer pitfalls that some other months - no major holidays, the first month of school viruses have worked themselves out, and the family has often settled into a predictable schedule. So as I look ahead with fresh eyes at my new month I’m going to start by putting one foot in front of the other again. I’m going to re-focus my attention on the systems and rituals that have always served me well: my blank notebook and my Google calendar. My well-established rituals, including emptying the dishwasher first thing in the morning, my Sunday weekly review, my daily morning reading. My mom-friends and like-minded colleagues;  Yoga, the dog, a little wine and more sleep.  Ok October, bring it on. What are you gonna refocus on?

October Product Recommendations

Delegating is one of those tips we often hear about as a way to manage overwhelm. Sometimes that means hiring a housekeeper or assistant. It can also mean finding a more automated way of doing things. Meal kits have become one of my favorite delegation tools. By using meal kits, we take meal planning completely out of our lives, and cut down on shopping significantly. I have delegated dinner planning to these companies and frankly, they are better cooks than me anyway. Furthermore, their simple step by step instructions make it pretty easy to say to anyone else in your life “hey could you maybe cook the dinner?”  They don’t have to do any planning or measuring, or really anything but read the instructions to be a success.  I watched my 14 year old son cook us a gourmet meal from start to finish. Considering that mac and cheese from a box has been a challenge for him in the past, that’s pretty great. I’ve tried several -- Blue Apron, Hello Fresh and Sun Basket. Keep in mind, this isn’t meal delivery, it’s kits. They all still involve prep work and cooking, but they provide all the pre-measured ingredients and have really tasty recipes. Wanna still shop for yourself?  I also have used a menu planning service with great recipes as well - No More To Go - which delivers a week’s worth of menus to your inbox every Friday, along with a corresponding shopping list. [BTW - all these companies want me to get other people to sign up by giving away free meals. So if you want some free meals from them, send me an email and I’ll send you a freebie credit.

October Organizing Tip

Batching your effort. Some say ‘chunking ’ but I know many people who want to upchuck at the sound of the word ‘chunk’ so I’ll stick to the word ‘batching’. What’s batching? Grouping similar tasks together for maximum efficiency. I use it when I organize my work, and I use it doing tasks around the house. When I’m folding laundry, I first separate the clothes into shirts, pants, and what I just call ‘doo-dads’ -- underwear, socks, washcloths, masks. Then I fold all the shirts, then the pants, then the doo-dads. Trust me, it’s faster. You get in the shirt zone, then the pants zone, then the doo dad zone. I think the shirts are the most labor intensive, so I start with those and the work gets easier as I go. Works with dishes. Works for writing this newsletter. Write. Find links & visuals. Format and proofread. I don’t allow looking for the perfect funny picture or googling a link get in the way of my writing juices. I could go on all day about the way you can batch anything for efficiency. It’s the foundation of the whole assembly line concept people -- Chunking built America! Oops, I mean ‘batching’.

What I’m Consuming

Just discovered this on Netflix: MOVIES THAT MADE US. It has absolutely nothing to do with organizing or productivity, but it’s a lot of fun to watch. Did you know Pretty Woman was originally called “Three Thousand”, and that the original script did not quite have the Cinderella fairy tale ending that made Julia Roberts a star? Other episodes featured Forrest Gump, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future-- Dirty Dancing.  Very lighthearted and fun. 

What Can I teach You?

Starting in January, I’m hoping to offer some more webinars on organizing, time & task management and more.  Would love to see what interests you as I plan ahead.  If you have 2 minutes - I’d love for you to complete this survey. 

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