5 on a Friday: High Fives to my Future Self (43/52)

 I am always trying to think of Future Me as I go about my day. What would she appreciate? What could I accidentally do that's really going to make her mad? How can I set her up to live her best life?

 I know that because I get up early to exercise and then stay up later than I would like to because that’s when teens and tweens want to hang out, my energy is going to decline precipitously as the day goes on. I try to front load my day as much as possible while still saving a few fun things to do like little Easter eggs for the late afternoon/early evening hours. I worry about tired and cranky Future Me. Like, I want her to have a nice evening, but I am also going to curse her name if I wake up to a full dish wahser and bedtime snack detritus all over the counter, you know?

Today, I have my top 5 hacks to give Future Me a high five:

1. Stick a little bag of snack in Minnie’s backpack for the after school (7 minute LOL) commute. I also stick snacks in Coop’s dive bag and the middle row door pocket for Dorothy (YES, we are back to eating in the car, sigh). No matter how well I prepare for our big kid pickup and hellish slog through rush hour and back, it’s always hard to get Minnie out the door, so a little prep goes a very long way. Things like bags packed and in the laundry room by the door, water bottles filled and waiting in car cup holders, plugs in every charging outlet to anticipate low phone batteries, correct shoes in Dorothy’s dance bag— these are all the tasks I do when I am filling up Minnie’s snack.

2. Plan for preschooler down time. It is VERY EASY for Minnie to get sucked into the TV. Things start out innocently enough with just one episode and then spiral from there. She’s quiet I can get stuff done. And then before I know it, she is a screened out zombie, and the rest of my day is bullshit because her attention span is GONE, and she’s mad about it. The other day she painted the planets that we traced together on Big Paper (I love Big Paper so much I refer to it by proper name and think it might need it’s own bullet. Big Paper plus paint. Big Paper on the table. Big Paper and markers— such a super hero she is. Yes, Big Paper is a girl **shrug**)

3. Make a bunch of food on the weekend and eat it until Future Me worries about food poisoning. I have baked mac and cheese on repeat because Jack will eat it after work, and Dorothy will put it in her lunch. I have also been making a rando pasta casserole every week that Ben, Jack, and I eat until… Wednesdays? I’ve been changing out the pasta shape, veggies, and sauce (sometimes I even make it with garden tomatoes), and we are not bored yet.

4. Do three things around the house. Laundry, dishes, wiping bathrooms, making beds, cleaning the kitchen forty million times a day— these are things that happen in the course of a normal day. But! To really stay on top of house things, I like to do 3 additional tasks every day on an informal rotation. You know, things like vacuum the bedrooms, dust all the blinds with a swiffer, water the plants, straighten the bookshelves, change all the sheets (I did this all on the same day this week— all 6 beds— and it was a bad idea), dust the living room or family room (or heck— MAYBE BOTH!), wipe down the sliding doors/storm door, clean mirrors, wipe wall smudges with a magic eraser— kind of quick things that make a big difference in the general tidiness of the house. I add these tasks to my daily to-do list, and sometimes they get bumped to the next day. Usually, though, I can cross them off in 15 minutes (total for all 3) or less. This minimal daily effort helps Weekend Me a TON when I am cleaning. I also listen to a podcast or an audiobook while I do these things, and the strategy of pairing really helps me out. PLUS when Minnie goes to bed, I like to be able to mostly put the house to bed, too, so I am just hanging out with the big kids but not working anymore. 

5. Zero out all my emails before the end of the workday. ALL of my accounts. NO NEW EMAILS. This is SO HELPFUL to Future Me who is stuck in mom mode. I love knowing that I have taken care of anything urgent and added the other things to tomorrow’s to-do. I have been unsubscribing to things with a vengeance over the course of the last couple weeks and it is so lovely to log into mostly empty accounts— worth the few extra clicks for sure. This inbox zero practice also helps me resist the pull of checking my email since I know by afternoon each day that I'm all caught up. And when I stop checking my email, I stop reaching for my phone on autopilot and get sucked into the scroll much less often. Huge wins there.

What about you? Any high fives to your future self/ productivity hacks you are loving lately?