Practicing extreme self care

**This post was originally published in my monthly e-newsletter, Lelah's News. Don't subscribe? Sign up here!

A while ago I read an article about dealing with emergency situations in which the author advised that to better cope, one should practice "extreme self care." In other words, make sure you get plenty of food, water, rest and whatever else your body needs to keep functioning at its highest level. Though that is probably most difficult to do when in an emergency situation, it makes sense. I was inspired by the phrase “extreme self care” and wondered why not practice that every day? How better can we honor ourselves and keep ourselves most productive and happy than by getting the rest we need, the nutrition that fuels our bodies, the exercise that makes us feel good and anything else that a body in particular might need (some time to yourself, a daily does of chocolate). Self care keeps us healthy and sane.

As the mother of a six-week-old, I know that taking care of yourself isn't always easy and it isn't always the first priority. Getting one's teeth brushed can seem like quite an achievement some days. But when you take care of yourself you can take care of others so much better. Therefore, I advocate extreme self care as a lifestyle choice that can make any day more manageable. To practice this, sometimes you simply have to give yourself permission to put yourself first. Once you do that, finding the time in your packed schedule to take a walk just to see some green trees or to refill your water bottle and make a healthy snack is no longer indulgent but necessary, vital, non-optional.

Try it and see how it positively impacts everything else in your life.

Streamlining laundry

I used to do laundry once a week. Then I had a child. Now every other day is the norm. Fortunately, laundry is one of my more favorite chores, since it doesn't actually involve that much hands-on time, and you can always catch up on TV while you do the folding.

These are my tips for a streamlined laundry experience:

• Have all your supplies ready. I like to stock up on detergent when it is on sale (I like All Free Clear), and I keep it in a cupboard above my washer and dryer. That's actually the only thing I use to wash clothes, but if you are into more products, be sure to keep plenty on hand and in an accessible place.
• Separate when you put clothes in bins. Investing in a whites bin and a colors bin for each room in the house that will gather laundry will save you a lot of time on the back end when you want to make sure your whites aren't going to be spoiled by a new pair of jeans.
• Have set laundry days. Now you can plan ahead and not be stuck needing to wash an important work blouse at the last minute.
• "Duotask." Lorie Marrero of The Clutter Diet reminds us to take advantage of time-saving inventions like washing machines to get other chores and tasks done.
• Wash full loads. Not only does this save water, but it saves on time, since you end up doing the repetitive tasks of loading and unloading fewer times.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by mrwynd

Batching

**This post was originally published in my monthly e-newsletter, Lelah's News. Don't subscribe? Sign up here!

Batching is a retail term that means you perform all instances of an action before moving onto the next action. So instead of scanning a shirt, then removing the hanger, the anti-theft thingy, folding it, putting in the bag and starting over with the next piece of clothing, you scan all the items at once, then take them all off their hangers, then remove all the anti-theft devices one after another, etc. This idea can be applied in lots of ways, from chores (dust all the rooms before you vacuum all the floors instead of doing everything one room at a time) to workflow (respond to all your emails, then return all your calls, instead of switching back and forth). It saves time, it helps you to know what you are doing in a given moment, and it reduces the chance you’ll miss one of the steps along the way.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Andrew Morrell Photography

The two minute rule

My clients are familiar with the two minute rule, as it is one of my favorite ways to describe to them how to know when to do something now and when to save something for later. When processing an inbox (physical or email), an action pile, a box of random things from around your house, or even your entire garage, the two minute rule can save you a lot of decision making hassle. In order to make progress, my rule of thumb is if you can do the action associated with the item in two minutes or less, then do it right then. If not, then save it for a time when you can spend longer on completing the project (this is time you would want to schedule in your calendar).

Some examples:

• You are going through your physical inbox and see a card from the dentist reminding you that you need to schedule a cleaning. Two-minutes or less? Yes! Pick up the phone and make the appointment, then put it in your calendar and recycle the card.
• You are going through your physical inbox and see a stack of insurance reimbursement forms you need to fill out and mail. Two minutes or less? No! Schedule a half hour or however long you think it will take you on your calendar for a day when you can spend some time in your office taking care of it, and move on.
• You are going through your garage, trying to make room for your car to actually park in it. You find a rake that you borrowed from your next door neighbor a while ago. Will it take you two minutes or less to return it? Yes! (Unless your neighbor is really chatty, in which case you might just want to leave it by their garage door.)
• You are going through your closet, paring down your wardrobe by pulling out anything you haven't worn in a year. You come across a couple of nice items that need mending. Can you fix them or have them fixed in two minutes or less? No! Put them by the front door to take to the dry cleaners next time you are running errands, or put them in a place where you will sit to do your mending, and mark off some time on your calendar to do so.

The two minute rule is a bit subjective; what takes you two minutes to do might take someone else five. But it's simple and effective for making progress when you have a lot of processing to do. 

A little help

There are certain products that have made my post-partum life a lot easier. In no particular order:

• Send Out Cards. This service lets me send a thank you note with adorable pictures of the baby in about 30 seconds. I get it done, and the recipient gets a nice piece of actual mail.
• iPad. Since I don't have a laptop, the iPad follows me everywhere and allows me to stay on top of email and the news when I'm sitting with a sleeping baby.
• Amazon.com. This is kind of a no-brainer, but when you can't easily get out of the house to go shopping, ordering from Amazon and having things appear on your doorstep really reduces stress.
• Viva paper towels. I had all but eradicated paper towels from my household, but with a baby, these soft and strong towels are really super useful, and I don't think I could stomach doing any more laundry than I am already!