Tomorrow is Monday and while some people vehemently dislike the beginning of the work week, I don’t mind Mondays at all.

I tell you what I do mind — Sunday night. As I sit here during my daughter’s nap (yes, I know I am lucky that we get an hour break on weekends, but I’m pretty sure we’re on the last leg of it) and write out my to-do list for tonight, I really dread it. My plan is to get three hours of work in, make two entrees and lunch for tomorrow, clean up the basement, pay some bills, and make some progress on the photo book I’ve been “working on” for the last six months. I’d much rather veg out in front of the TV and eat takeout, but it’s not in the cards. Read the rest of this entry »

I know that most of you know exactly what I mean when I say that when I picked up my daughter from school today I had an immediate sense that we had some sick days coming our way.

First of all, she took a nap there, which almost never happens. This means she was exhausted to the point of not feeling well enough to keep herself awake. She was also less cheerful than usual and refused her favorite snack in the car, which immediately struck me as odd. But mostly it was her eyes — they seemed glassy, you know, the kind of glassy a kid gets as they are getting sick?

We came home, my daughter went to read books with our babysitter, and I literally skipped steps to rush upstairs to my computer. First order of business was to email the ever-helpful husband to see if he could go in late tomorrow. (Answer is yes, which is great.) Second order of business was to create a quick list of things I MUST get done by end of day today given that my workday tomorrow will be a few hours long, if my gut feeling is right. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day a new friend, also a very busy working mom, came over for dinner. The first words out of her mouth when she came into the living room were: “Wow, it’s so clean and you don’t have a lot of stuff!” Now, let me be clear — I am not posting this to brag about my house being clean (although I admit being completely obsessed about having an organized house). It’s the second half of what she said that made me realize something.

I’ve always tried to have a very stuff-free living space. I am sure it has to do with the fact that I grew up in a tiny 1-bedroom apartment where having too much stuff wasn’t an option. It also probably has something to do with the fact that when my family immigrated to the US we could only bring 6 suitcases of our “stuff” with us and since then, I try not to get too many things to which I am attached and couldn’t leave behind. (I am sure if I went to a shrink I’d be told that this is some unhealthy leftover issue that I should deal with, but hey, I don’t have time for a shrink so I get to keep my issues.)

So our living room does have probably less than the usual amount of stuff — we have furniture, but it’s pretty spaced out, and the bookshelves have some books on them, a few vases (gifts from family and friends, who would guilt-trip me to death if we didn’t put them out), and some photos — but there isn’t too much other stuff around. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m pretty good about getting rid of clutter around the house. My husband would say I am too good at times, and yes, I’ve been known to throw out a piece of paper we need later on. But most of the time my de-cluttering obsession serves us all well.

Recently I realized that there were a few small areas in the house that weren’t well organized and annoyed me every time I had to interact with them.

• The small cabinet we have in the kitchen where we store randomness of every kind and the top of which had become “put stuff here and then ignore it for days” area.

• The box in my daughter’s room which contains her hair pins, ribbons, and various other hair accessories. It’s a mess.

• The pantry. Yes, I still feel giddy that we actually have a pantry, since it’s the size of what for years was our New York City kitchen. And the nice people who lived in our house before us put up some convenient shelving in it, which is helpful. But perhaps because I’ve never had a pantry before this one turned into a random mess quite quickly. Read the rest of this entry »

I am a to-do list junkie. There, I’ve said it.

I write my to-do list every night for the following day and more often than not I actually re-write it at some point during the day. I am also a neat-freak, which means that if the list is getting messy — because things keep getting added to it, crossed off, written diagonally to fit them in — I am going to re-write it. (Yes, I am a little like Monk. OK, more than a little.) My to-do list is one of my key productivity tools and I am constantly trying to tweak it to make it work better. I wrote about one idea here and love this post from Zen Habits about actually using your to-do list to get things done.

So I got an idea this weekend to actually share my to-do list with all of you and to ask you to do the same. I am not exactly sure how this will be helpful, but I think it can be. (It will at least make for some fun perusing, since admit it, it’s a sneak peak into a life of a fellow busy working mom.) And then just as I was thinking about posting my list, I came across this post from Carmen, over at Mom to the screaming masses. Her list made mine look easy in comparison, which was awesome, since I was feeling overwhelmed. And that further indicated to me that this is a good idea for all of us to do. Read the rest of this entry »

Unless this is your first visit to this blog, you know I’m a sucker for lists, goals, and plans. Well, guess what — I’ve got another idea of a list for you.

Every Sunday night I sit down with a notebook (still very much into writing things down, sorry all of you techies) and write down my to-do list. I get work stuff done first, then write down family/personal to-dos. While I aim to just make it a one-day list for Monday, it never works — it ends up being more of a week to-do list. I like this process because it helps me get an idea of what I need to accomplish and what I need to remember.

But the list is usually really long. So once I’ve got it down, I go through it again — I put a star next to some items which are important, I circle others, which I know I just can’t forget. It ends up being more messy than I’d like.

After I finished my list tonight I looked at it and then opened a new, fresh page and wrote down the following:

• 1 thing I MUST do this week at work:

• 1 thing I MUST do this week at home:

• 1 thing I will do for me this week:

• 1 thing I will do daily this week:

• 1 thing I will let go this week:

I filled in the blank after each of these bullet points, ripped out the page, and put it next to my computer. There is something refreshing about this very short list of very important things I want to remember for this week. It’s not a replacement of my to-do list, but a kind of executive summary, a quick daily reminder of what HAS to get done.

All of your organizing wizards are shaking your heads, thinking this is so obvious I should have been doing this already. For the rest of us, I hope this is something that can help you organize your ultra-busy life and focus on some key priorities.

I have to say, the last bullet point is my favorite. I’m trying to learn to let some things go. There, now you know — I’m a non-perfectionist in the making (it’s going to be a LONG process!) I think it’s something all of us busy working moms should try to do — let stuff go. So this week, I’m going to ignore the dust. Yes, it’s something I need to learn to ignore, you can go and make fun of me now.

Do you make a quick list like this? Do you have other ways of organizing your to-do list that you find helpful? Share, we can all learn something!

I like fresh starts and new beginnings, and I was really looking forward to kicking off 2008 in top form. I’d take it easier-than-usual, work-wise, during my daughter’s holiday break, catch my breath, get a bunch of things organized around the house, spend some time with family, and be ready to take 2008 on with new energy (mental and physical).

Well, you know how this story ends.

I did take it easier-than-usual during the holiday week and for that I give myself some credit since it took crazy self-discipline to Step Away From the Computer!

I didn’t get anything organized that I’d planned to get organized.

I did spend time with family, but as those things go, where there is good, there is bad, and the days leading up to the New Year weren’t great. OK, they sucked, there was fighting and arguing involved, which is never refreshing.

I managed to get sick and am now sucking down Airborne like it’s champagne. It’s not. Read the rest of this entry »

I really like writing down plans, goals, to-dos. I’m pretty fanatical about it, actually. I have a special notebook where I write down the BIG plans and BIG goals. I have a different notebook where I keep track of my daily to-dos. In yet another notebook I write about things I’ve tried to do and not accomplished and try to figure out why. I told you I take this too seriously.

I make a lot of goals and plans around New Year’s. I like a fresh start and my birthday also happens to be around this time, so it’s a good reason to think about what I want to accomplish during the next year. But you know as well as I do that New Year’s resolutions can work in two ways: If you get them accomplished, you feel great, if you see a bunch of things on your list from last year that are still just resolutions and not reality, it doesn’t feel so good. The other night I took a look at some of my New Year’s resolution from last year and while I did get to a few — going for a walk every day (almost), drinking more water (done), remembering friends’ birthdays (did OK here) — there were too many on the list that were untouched — meditate regularly, learn about wine, read more books, and many, too many more.

So this year I’m trying to hold myself back from making New Year’s resolutions. It’s not as easy as it sounds, at least not for the fanatical goal-maker like me. But I want to try something different: Read the rest of this entry »

As I was going through the Sunday night routine of getting ready for the week I was also thinking about what I’m going to blog about for my Monday Work It, Mom! post. I try to make Monday posts about something useful (vs. say being just a rant, like this one.) So when I read this post by a fellow entrepreneur I was inspired to share with you some of the small things I do that make my crazy life as a working mom a bit easier.

• I write everything down. You’ll never find me without some type of notebook and pen. I have tons of them. I have notebooks for BIG ideas, a notebook for my daily to-do list, a daily working notebook to jot down ideas, directions, and later to-dos I come up with, a small notebook in my purse to write down something I need to remember if I am away from my desk, a notebook in the kitchen for the shopping list… Yes, I’m a bit obsessive, but writing things down helps me remember them and more than that, to have comfort in the fact that I know if something is important, I must have written it down… somewhere.

• I continuously declutter. I try to not keep things we don’t need and to reduce the amount of paperwork in the house. My recent rule (which I learned here at WIM!) is to only touch a piece of mail once and then decide whether it’s to be recycled, put in the bills folder, or filed. If I can get my husband to cooperate, I think this will be another small victory against . Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s guest blog post is by Florinda, one of our most active members here at Work It, Mom! (To say we’re thrilled to have you, Florinda, is a huge understatement!) If you’d like to have your guest blog post featured on Work It, Mom!, send it in an email to nataly@workitmom.com. Please make sure it’s relevant to working moms and is under 300 words or so.

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Many of us want to be involved in our kids’ education. It may frustrate us sometimes when schools schedule events that cause us to juggle our workday if we want to be there - and can make us feel that they just don’t consider working parents, especially in schools that seem to have a lot of students with an at-home parent - but then again, it is their workday too. School classrooms, offices, and administration buildings are staffed by working parents, but they don’t tend to work the same hours that many of the rest of us do. (I have to admit it took me a long time - and the input of some teacher friends - to see that perspective on it.)

That schedule difference usually means having to make arrangements for our kids before school, after school, or both. If some form of flextime can’t take care of everything - and it’s unusual if it can, on both ends of the day, when you’re working outside the home - then you’ll need to decide among child-care programs, sitters, and, for older kids, the “home after school on their own” option. Read the rest of this entry »