Manage It Monday: Managing Your Own Expectations

Posted on May 20, 2013 by bethp146

In college, I was in the Computer-Based Honors Program at UA. A unique part of the program was having the opportunity to do research as undergraduates with professors in our interest areas. We were responsible for organizing and completing our own projects each semester, but we met once a week in class with the director of the program to present, give status updates, and learn skills and tips for what we were working on. One of the topics from those weekly seminars that has stood out in my mind even after graduation was the advice to “manage expectations.” Since we were responsible for our own projects, we needed to clearly communicate with our project manager and the CBH director our goals, timeline, progress, successes, and possible roadblocks. It was a valuable life lesson. Today I want to apply that same idea to something more personal – learning to manage your own expectations of yourself.

I’m all for having big dreams and aiming high, but sometimes you have to realize you can’t do it all.

This is a hard pill for me to swallow and a lesson I still haven’t learned. Every day I have the expectation that I should be able to go to work, cook dinner, keep the house clean, blog, sew, write, and hang out with my husband. I rarely get through it all, and when I do I don’t get to spend the amount of time on each thing that I think I should. Then I start to beat myself up for not accomplishing every little thing. It’s not healthy. I need to learn to let go of the little things and work on the big picture.
I need to manage my own expectations of myself.

Have goals and work towards them, but realize you can’t do everything no matter how much you may want to. Look for things that can wait and work on the things that will help you reach your goals. Manage your own expectations.

Am I the only one who struggles with this? Does anyone have any advice for me?

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Manage It Monday – Paper vs Electronic

Posted on May 6, 2013 by bethp146

In this day of having apps and devices available to take care of almost anything, many people are turning to technology to help with productivity, planning, and organization. Others stick to the tried and true method of a pen and a sheet of paper or notebook. Personally, I use both. I’m using apps and electronics more and more, but for planning and some notes, I still rely on pen and paper. Which method is best? Googling the issue brings up article after article discussing this debate. The articles carefully point out all the advantages and disadvantages of each particular method. Using electronic methods allows you to sync your lists and notes across multiple devices, but what happens when your battery dies in the middle of an important meeting? Paper is fast and simple, but a gust of wind or a knocked over cup of coffee can ruin your to do list and your day. I’m not sure which method is best, and I don’t think there is a right answer. My answer to this question is use what works for you. My Manage it Monday post for this week will give you some points to consider when contemplating whether paper or app will work best for you.

Use paper if:

the office supply section of any store makes your heart pitter-patter
physically crossing things off a list makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something
you need to be able to see an overview of your schedule but also the details of each day
writing things down automatically commits things to your memory
you like using different pens and actually prefer writing to typing
you’ve always loved shopping for school supplies at the start of a new school year
you like to pick out notebooks and journals with cute designs
you like things that are simple, quick, and easy

Use electronic if…

shiny new tablets, phones, or computers make your heart pitter-patter
you need to sync your lists and notes across many devices
you use an Outlook calendar for work and want to have your personal calendar all in the same place
your motto is to always have a backup
you enjoy trying out new apps and methods to stay organized electronically
you want your calendar, to do list, address book, notes, email, web browser, e-book library, music, and games to be all on the same device
you have many recurring tasks and meetings that you don’t want to rewrite
you want to share your schedule, lists, and notes with a team or your family
you like things that are innovate, new, and fun to use

Of course, you can always use a combination of both paper and electronic if that works best for you. I’m still learning what I like to use each method for, but I’ll probably always have my trusty planner and a physical notebook close by. Is there anything I’ve left off? Which method do you use to stay organized?

Manage It Monday: Weekly Planning

Posted on April 29, 2013 by bethp146

Weekends are wonderful. They’re usually a little less structured than the rest of the week. While I usually have projects and things I want and need to get done on the weekends, I also try to fit in as much fun, relaxation, and family time as possible. Mental breaks are so needed, but by Sunday night I always start to wonder about the coming week. Thoughts of deadlines and responsibilities creep back in, and it’s easy to let them stress you out. I try to set aside at least a few minutes on Sundays to plan for the week ahead. This ensures I am prepared and have a general idea of what needs to get done before I get to enjoy another weekend!

This is how I do my weekly planning:

1. Gather supplies. All I usually need is my planner and a pen. I sometimes grab a small notebook just in case as well.
2. Take a quick glance at the week ahead. I turn to the weekly view of my planner and look over any appointments or to dos that I’ve already scheduled. Usually my week looks pretty empty at this point unless I have a lot of already scheduled events written down.
3. If they aren’t already written, be sure to jot down any events, meetings, or appointments on the appropriate day.
4. Write down daily or recurring tasks. I write in my personal Bible study and also my cleaning routine. Some weeks I know I can’t follow the cleaning routine due to my schedule and some weeks I end up doing all my cleaning on one day. It just depends on the week.
5. Schedule any other projects or to do items. This week, I knew I wanted to write down quilting each day because I’m trying to get the quilt I’m working on now finished in the next few weeks.
6. Plan meals. I’ll probably write another post on this later. This step takes me the longest because I’m so indecisive.

After I’m finished, I feel ready to take on the week! This weekly planning gives me a good overview. Any other little details and to do items get filled in as the week goes on. I like going to sleep on Sunday night knowing what’s coming up.

How do you get ready for a new week?

Manage It Monday – Capture It

Posted on April 8, 2013 by bethp146

Write everything down. That statement is a rule I have for myself. Following it is key for me to be productive. This week’s post is all about capturing information.

Capture everything is one of the key components of the well-known productivity system Getting Things Done. While I don’t personally use GTD, I do try to make sure everything I need to get done is captured and saved somewhere with easy access. I can’t rely on my brain to keep track of appointments, lists, tasks, notes, and ideas on its own. If it’s not written down somewhere, I probably am not going to remember to get it done. Once all your essential information is saved somewhere, your brain is free to create, think, and solve problems.

I highly recommend developing your own system for capturing. These are the tools I use.

1. Planner

My planner is always with me. It contains my calendar and to-do list. If I think of something I need to do and know when it needs to be done, I just write it on the appropriate day in my planner. The same thing applies for events and appointments. My planner is the first stop for capture, and it’s usually sufficient.

2. Notebook

Sometimes I need a little more room to write, so I also carry a thin notebook in my purse. I call this my everything notebook, and I will probably write a more detailed post on it at some point. It applies to this post because one of the things I use it for is for jotting down things I need to do at some point but I don’t know yet when I’ll work on them. Since I’m using Evernote (more in a future post on that) for most of my notes now, I also use this notebook to write quick ideas & notes that don’t really need to be saved in Evernote.

3. Drafts App

I’ve only been using the Drafts app on my iPad and phone for a couple of weeks, but it has been working out well. I’ve never liked capturing notes and ideas electronically until I started using this app. When you open it, you have a blank screen ready to be typed on. You really only have to touch the icon and you’re ready to start typing. You don’t have to worry about how to categorize or where to save your note. All you have to do is type. It’s the closest electronic thing I’ve found that compares to the ease of good ‘ole pen & paper. In fact, one day this app might replace my notebook completely. Once you’re done typing, you can save your draft to a number of other services and applications. I’m using Drafts for writing ideas, post ideas, work notes, and really all kinds of other things. I like that my drafts can all be saved somewhere I can easily find them later.

There are so many other tools you can use to capture everything. I recommend experimenting to find what works for you. Does anyone else live by the “write everything down rule”? What do you use?

Manage it Monday – The Why?

Posted on April 1, 2013 by bethp146

Can this still count as a Manage it Monday post even though I’m posting so late on Monday night? Although, my belated posting does fit with the topic of my post. I simply ran out of time to write last night after all the Easter festivities. Before and immediately after work I wasn’t able to finish this post either. See, I need better organization and time management. That’s one of the reasons I’m doing this series. I don’t know what it is about this year, but I’ve done so much self-reflection thus far. Before I get into the meat of this series, I want to get a little philosophical for a moment,

Tonight’s post is all about the …

Why worry about getting things done? These are my personal reasons, my “why”.

1. I want to be a good steward of my blessings. Every day is a gift, and I want to use my time in the best way possible.

2. I want to get more done, but also stress less. I want to be productive, but also have time to relax and enjoy life.

3. I’m a pen, paper, and planner nerd. All things relating to productivity and organization interest me.

4. Our house feels so disorganized right now, and it’s driving me crazy.

5. I need it. See above

What’s your why?

Manage It Monday – Top 10 Reasons to Use a Planner

Posted on March 25, 2013 by bethp146

If I’m out running errands, it’s in my purse. At work, it sits open beside the keyboard on my desk. When I’m home, you can usually find it out somewhere near whatever I’m working on the time. I am rarely without my planner.

I’m not here to claim that planners are a magical cure for stress and disorganization. Planners are probably not for everyone. I do think they are a valuable tool. I thought I would kick off the first week of Manage It Monday with a list of the benefits of using a planner. Be it a paper planner or an app (or two or three) on an electronic device, I’m defining planner here as a portable tool used to keep track of appointments, schedules, lists, and/or notes.

The Top 10 Reasons to Use a Planner or Calendar

1. To keep track of appointments, schedules, events, and meetings
2. To keep track of to-do lists
3. To record details about your day
4. To capture quick notes and ideas
5. To plan out steps to help you reach your goals
6. For meal planning
7. For the sense of accomplishment after crossing things off the list
8. So you don’t have to remember everything on your own
9. To always know what you need to be working on
10. To stay sane!

Do you use a planner? Why?

Introducing Manage It Monday

Posted on March 18, 2013 by bethp146

We’re all so busy. Some of you are rock star moms raising your children while juggling careers, life, and your household. Some are fathers with the huge responsibility of taking care of your family. Some are college students dreading the thought of yet another paper to write. Some are newly married or newly out on their own. The point is, we all have a lot going on. One thing I think is so interesting is to read about how others deal with the craziness of life. In my own life, I’m trying to simplify, declutter, and accomplish some pretty big goals. Since I can always use encouragement along the way, I thought some of you might need that, too. I’m excited to introduce a new feature on Love You Muches.

Every Monday, I’ll be bringing you a post full of tools, advice, and inspiration to manage the chaos of life and make some good things happen. Topics may include:

Plan – how to plan for greatness

Organize - get rid of all that clutter

Acheive – work towards making your dreams a reality

I am so excited for this new feature. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time here, and I’m finally ready to get started. I hope you’ll come back next Monday, March 25. The first edition of Manage It Monday will focus on using planners.

Want to help? I would love suggestions on what you want to read about relating to these topics. Feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email. Otherwise, just spread the word and check back here every Monday! Thanks bunches!

All My Recipes in One Place – Paprika App Review

Posted on March 4, 2013 by bethp146

Organizing my recipes has been a big project on my to-do list since we first got married. It seems like I’ve tried every method out there with no success. Cute red metal recipe box with hand written recipes on index cards? Check. Special notebook with recipes written inside as I cook them? Check. Check. (Yes, I tried two of these.) Collected family recipes typed up on a word processor? Check. Links to recipes emailed to myself? Check. Pretty binder with dividers, tabs, and pockets? Check. I couldn’t commit to any of these attempts. Recently I thought I had settled on the binder method. You see, I thought that only pen and paper would work for me since I still use a paper planner and notebooks galore. The problem with recopying all my recipes onto paper that fit in the binder was that it took so much time. Every time I tried something new, I would write the title of the recipe down on a new sheet of paper and promise myself to go back and write it all out later. You can probably imagine my binder was full of half written recipes. It stressed me out to even look at my binder, so I started using my phone in the kitchen to look at recipes.

When my wonderful, amazing husband surprised me with a new iPad mini, I started coming around to the idea of using electronics for organizing. While browsing around the App Store, I found an app called Paprika. I had read about this app before, but had overlooked it in favor of my pen and paper ways. I decided to give it a try and downloaded the iPad version of the app. I tested it for a day or so and quickly realized the features were just what I needed. Less than a week later, I finally had ALL my recipes organized in one place! I was just giddy!

Paprika has four sections, Recipes, Browser, Groceries, and Meals. The recipes section allows you to add recipes manually by typing them in.

You can create categories to organize your recipes. The recipes section is also where you browse and search through all your recipes. I created a “To Try” category where I saved all the recipes that were just saved as links in my gmail account previously. I also added family recipes I’ve gathered and want to try. The “cookbook recipes to try” is a category I set up just to keep lists of recipes I’ve been wanting to make from my cookbooks. I mainly just wanted them all in the same place for meal planning purposes.

This is what a saved recipe looks like. I love how neat and organized everything is.

Paprika’s built in web browser really set this app apart for me. It supports many of the most popular recipe sites. On the supported sites, you just find the recipe you want to save and click the save button. It fills in the recipe form automatically for me. This is how I saved almost all of my “to try” recipes. It was so easy! If a site is not supported, it only takes a few extra clicks to clip the parts of the recipe from the site. I just really loved this feature.

Paprika also has a grocery list feature. I haven’t used it much because I still prefer sticky notes for grocery lists, but I can see how this would be useful especially if you have the iPhone or Android version of the app.

The meals section is also a favorite for meal planning. I like having a record of past meals. When I was planning this week’s meals, I opened up the app and browsed through the recipes I want to try. It was so much easier than looking in a thousand places for ideas. Eventually, I want to have a photo saved for every thing I cook or bake which will also help with meal planning. You can print out your weekly meal plan or add it to the grocery list.

So far, I am really loving this app. The only negative thing I’ve found about it is that you have to buy each version separately. I haven’t bought the iPhone version yet, but it might be useful to have in the future. Paprika is available for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android. You can find more information about it here.

Disclaimer: Nobody asked me or paid me to write this review. I was just so excited to finally have all my recipes organized in one place that I just had to share it with y’all. If anyone out there is wanting to get organized, I thought this might save them hours of writing or trying different methods!

How do you organize your recipes?

That Time My Mama and Sister Surprised Me With a New Laundry Room

Posted on February 27, 2013 by bethp146

This is a house project that I can’t take any credit for, but it has probably made the biggest difference in my daily life. When we picked out the floor plan for our house, I was excited about having a decent size laundry room. I should have had plenty of room to wash, dry, and fold clothes in this room, but I never took advantage of it. We filled it with stuff almost immediately and it had gotten JUNKY. I wish I had a before picture. On second thought, no I don’t. It was embarrassing. I had gotten in bad habit of piling clean clothes in laundry baskets and waiting days to put them away. With so much stuff everywhere, I had to move clean clothes to our bedroom to fold. Something had to change, but I just added reorganizing this room to an ever-growing list of projects.

It was a random Friday afternoon. When I got home from work I noticed some trash and boxes sitting next to the trash can in the garage. I thought M must have done some cleaning the night before that I didn’t notice. Inside, Bailey and Charlie were out in our bedroom instead of just in the bathroom. We leave them in the bedroom if we aren’t going to be gone long, so I thought M must have come home early and left again. It didn’t take me long to discover a laundry room makeover, recognize my sister’s handwriting, and knew two sweet angels had surprised me with the BEST gift.

It looked fabulous! I was in tears. The best part? It was free. They repurposed things from around our house and gave things new homes elsewhere. They moved the washer and dryer against the wall to give me plenty of room to hang clean clothes.

Laura made these cute labels for the boxes I already had.

A place for change made by Laura and homemade laundry detergent made by Mama.

Neat cleaning supplies.

This was already hanging, but they made it more functional by adding things like the steam mop I just had standing in a corner.

I just love our laundry room now. I am doing much better about not letting laundry pile up, and it’s nice to have a clean space to work in. Their makeover was in early January, and the room still looks great. I do have a few random items I need to put away that are sitting on top of the dryer, Byt otherwise it’s still neat and tidy.

Aren’t Mama and Laura the best? I’m so grateful for this incredible gift. I really do have the most incredible family. Thanks again! I love y’all muches.

Have you ever been surprised with a room makeover?

First Finished Quilt of 2013

Posted on January 28, 2013 by bethp146

Today I’m linking up with “The Dog Days of Winter Are Over” to share a quilt finish. The topic for this week’s link up is “Make It”.

I’m also linking up with Leslie’s Create It Thursday over at Lamberts Lately.

This baby quilt is made out of a charm pack of Vintage Modern and a charm pack of Ruby (both by Bonnie & Camille for Moda). I was really excited to make something out of these fabrics, and I especially love the aqua houndstooth prints! Once again I hand pieced and hand quilted the quilt. Once again I made a mistake with the binding, so my grandmother helped me fix it yesterday afternoon. I couldn’t have done it without her! I’m happy to have another quilt finish….it seems like it’s been forever since I finished something. This quilt is all ready to go to its new owner, and I’ve started piecing my next baby quilt already!

I can’t wait to see what other people have been making lately. Be sure to check out the link up!

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documenting this lovely southern life

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