Nourishing Your Body, Renewing Your Life

Welcome to Your Renewable Life

If you are like me, there are more things you want to do than time in your day to do them. You have dreams, ambitions, or simply, ideas. How will you ever get to try out that new workout class in town, take a culinary cooking class, catch up with an old friend for coffee, or volunteer at the SPCA while keeping up with all of your regular responsibilities?

In the last 6 months, I have accomplished a couple of hefty goals that I would have never been able to, had I not implemented each of these tips into my life.

Productivity Tips – 10 Ideas To Get More Done

1. Build Routines Around What Is Important – At a minimum, you want to have morning and evening routines. Included in your morning should be what you need to get your day started the right way and helps you work backward so you know what time you must wake up to get a good start. Make your nighttime routine set you up for the morning by prepping things at night to save time tomorrow. This can be packing your lunch or laying out your clothes before going to sleep.


If you aren’t sure where to start, I recommend Flylady.net. I discovered her about 20 years ago, and while I no longer follow her program, her way definitely had an impact on me. Her program teaches you to take baby steps and change habits to bring peace to your life in equal portions to an organized home.


​Alternatively, I am sharing my personal routines here that you can copy and add to.


Morning Routine –

  • Make Bed
  • Get Ready for the day, including makeup and shoes
  • Check calendar & to-do list
  • Check email
  • Empty dishwasher
  • Pack meals for the day

Evening Routine –

  • Clean kitchen after dinner
  • Self-care (prayer/meditation, microdermabrasion, sauna, detox bath, etc)
  • Wash face
  • Lay out clothes for tomorrow
  • Make To-Do List
  • Go to sleep at a decent hour

2. To-Do List – Making a To-Do List for the next day is part of my evening routine. Doing a brain dump before bed, knowing what you have scheduled the next day, will help you sleep better and allow you to wake up focused and with a sense of peace.

3. Don’t Procrastinate – In the spirit of Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog, tackle your biggest or most dreaded task first thing in the morning. Once you have that beast off your list, you will feel accomplished, relieved, and confident that you really can be more productive.

4. Avoid Wasting Time – I love to binge-watch TV shows on Netflix and Amazon. Then I get hooked on shows and continue them on the major networks. This turned into a serious problem because all of my productivity went down the drain. I went through my DVR schedule and cut 2/3 of the shows I was watching out of my line-up. I brought my “must-see” TV from about 20 hours per week down to just 5-6 hours per week! This gave me the right amount of time to spend on decluttering my home, getting healthier, and working on beginning a business of my own.

5. Get Your Learn On – Listen To Motivational Podcasts and Audiobooks every day. You can educate yourself on any subject that interests you a little bit every day while you go about your day getting ready in the morning or cooking dinner at night or anytime in between. Stay tuned for a future blog post where I will list my favorite podcasts.

6. Approach your day with a grateful heart – It’s really easy to get down about the world, life, and yourself; especially if you watch the news every day. But there is so, so much to be grateful for. Taking just 5 minutes at the beginning or end of the day to jot down a couple of things you are grateful for and keep these thoughts in a notebook of their own. Not only are you creating some positivity for each day, but you also have a list that you can go back to when you are struggling with stress, sadness or an ordeal that seems insurmountable. Finding positivity in each day, sets you up for success.

7. Plan meals weekly – Take a look at your calendar so you know who will be home and when, what activities or events are planned, and plan your meals accordingly. Be sure to plan simple, or make ahead meals, on those busy nights saving the more time-intensive ones for free evenings.

Don’t know where to start? Take a poll of your family’s favorite meals and keep those in a regular rotation of every other week, or at least monthly. From there, look at having theme nights. Taco night, Breakfast for dinner, Meatless Mondays, crockpot night, etc. Finally, consider trying a new recipe once or twice a week. More than twice a week can prove to be overwhelming, plus it is easier to know that if a new meal was a flop, the rest of the week’s meals are tried and true!


Soon I will write another blog post about meal-planning tools and will link to that once it’s ready.

8. Order groceries online – Oh my gosh! If you haven’t started ordering your groceries online, what are you waiting for! This is a game-changer. I do my shopping online with Kroger, schedule my pick-up, and VOILA! All done. Ordering online keeps me from straying from my list, saves me a ton of time and they take coupons. At first, I was worried about the quality of produce and cuts of meat. Honestly, they do a better job than I do most of the time! Many stores are offering online ordering and drive-up, pick-up or delivery. In my area, Walmart, HEB, Kroger, Costco (and others)… and who could forget Amazon!

9. Daily Movement – This one gets me. It is scientifically proven, exercise gives you energy and makes you more productive. Physical activity helps the brain focus better. You don’t have to go crazy to get the benefits. Taking a 20-minute walk, a short HIIT workout, or even some stretching will work out your worries and stresses freeing the mind to focus on what is important.

10. Create Focus Time and Breaks – Is it just me, or do you ever get online intending to look up something, and instead find yourself checking in on Facebook or shopping on Amazon instead? Then an hour has passed and you never looked up the thing you got online for in the first place? Maybe it’s just me, but I do it ALL.THE.TIME. Well, I do when I don’t focus on my focus. There are a few tools out there that will help you to snooze your notifications and set a focus timer to help you stay on task. I haven’t found my favorite one yet, but when I have a couple of recommendations, I’ll share them with you.

So what helps you be more productive? Are any of these tips new or helpful to you? I would love to hear from you!


xoxo,


​Lisa

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