How to be organized when it doesn't come naturally

Watch Video: How to be organized when it doesn't come naturally by Asha Dornfest, ...
How to be organized when it doesn't come naturally | Kids in the House
KidsInTheHouse the Ultimate Parenting Resource
Kids in the House Tour

How to be organized when it doesn't come naturally

Comment
27
Like
27
Transcription: 
Productivity – this is one of my favorite topics because I struggle with it so much. You know how it is. I think we all love to think about the things we have a hard time with, and productivity has actually always been a challenge for me. But I can say that I’m a pretty productive person at this point, and for me it all comes down to having a calendar and a to-do list, writing every single thing down. I know that for me, my attention really suffered when my kids were born. I suddenly felt like I could not keep a single thing in my head, and most likely that was because there are so many different things to keep in your head once you have children, and you’re doing it on less sleep and probably less control of your time. So I have found that writing everything down, if it’s got a time or a date, it’s in my calendar. If it doesn’t, it’s in my to-do list. I keep it in my smartphone. It’s always with me, literally everywhere I go, and I’ve found that it’s not that I’ve magically become a more productive person just because I have a list. You know, suddenly I’m checking more things off the list. That’s not what’s happening. What I have found, though, is that by writing things down, it organizes my mental process. So it’s almost like I’m able to think more clearly because I’ve actually put in the work to be able to break things into steps. So now I think in terms of going grocery shopping once a week, as opposed to just shopping whenever we’re out of something. Or it helps me think in a more systematic way, which is not really naturally how I do things. I tend to just shoot from the hip and do things from the seat of my pants, but using those tools has actually added structure to the way I think about my day and it’s really made a huge difference in my life.

Watch Video: How to be organized when it doesn't come naturally by Asha Dornfest, ...

Transcript

Expert Bio

More from Expert

Asha Dornfest

Author of Minimalist Parenting

Asha Dornfest is the co-author of Minimalist Parenting: Enjoy Modern Family Life More By Doing Less, and the founder of Parent Hacks, an award-winning website devoted to sharing “forehead-smackingly smart” parenting advice. Since its launch in 2005, Parent Hacks has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Real Simple, Family Circle, and Parents, and has been named the “#1 Most Useful” of Babble’s Top 50 Mom Blogs three of the four years the honor has been given. Nielsen named Asha one of its 16 influential “Power Pack Moms,” and she has appeared in several TV and video broadcasts including CNN and ABC News Now. Asha lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children.

 

More Parenting Videos from Asha Dornfest >
Enter your email to
download & subscribe
to our newsletter