It’s hard to stay motivated in winter.  It’s cold, often wet and windy.  And dark.  Dark when the alarm goes off.  Dark when after school activities have finished.

I’m not all that keen on getting out and running errands any time, but in winter I need a pretty good reason to leave the house.  You know, like running out of food.  The normal everyday, carefree activities of warmer weather just seem so much harder in winter.

So what are some ways to stay or get motivated in the winter?

1.  Get up early

This is a toughy.  It’s so cozy under the doona and so dark and cold out there.  However once out of bed it’s generally not so bad.  The trick is to make yourself get up.  I do this by keeping my morning meds in the kitchen.  I need to take them an hour before breakfast, so if I’m going to eat before I drop the kids at school I have to get up at 6am.  You could set your alarm to that annoying buzzy noise and put it across the room, so you need to get up to turn the damn thing off.  Anything to get feet on the floor.

2.  Shower/dress as soon as you get up

So you’ve made the ultimate sacrifice and thrown off the covers, now to stay out of bed.  It’s all too easy to sneak back in if you’re still in your jammies.  For me, showering first thing has the added benefit of waking me up properly.

3.  Get some daylight in ASAP

There’s nothing like a dark house to make you feel like curling up on the couch and staying there.  Open the curtains and a window or two if it’s not too chilly.  Let the light shine.  Keeping yourself in the dark can contribute to SAD (seasonal affective disorder), which we definitely don’t want to do!

4.  Rug up & get out

But it’s cold and wet!  That’s why we have snuggly coats, scarves and umbrellas.  This winter I bought myself a great coat and umbrellas for all the kids.  Now, unless the weather is atrocious we walk to and from school every day.  That blast of cold air is another wake up and the walk is a great time to have a chat with the kids.

5.  Music is your friend

If there’s one thing to get you moving, it’s your favourite (upbeat) music.  Listening to music (audio books and podcasts, too) keeps me motivated during housework.

6.  Group errands

Grouping errands makes sense from a time management perspective, as well as a motivation one.  Knowing that I can tick a bunch of things off my list in one go and that I won’t have to visit the shops again that week helps get me out there and get it done.

7.  Find someone to keep you accountable

It’s sometimes easy to give ourselves permission to skip out on what we should/need to do.  I know, I’m an expert at it.  That’s where The Thinker comes in.  He’s fantastic and giving me a kick up the backside when I need it to keep up.  Find yourself someone that’s going to be a positive influence on your motivation to keep you moving forward.

8.  Use a timer

Most of the things we put off don’t take nearly as long as we think they will.  Set a timer for 5 minutes and be amazed at what you can do.  Seriously.  Today, after a good 15 minutes of “poor me” thinking I was able to hang out the washing, gather up all the dirty clothes from around the house and put on another load in under 10 minutes.  Why didn’t I just get it over and done with in the first place!

9.  Just do it

Sometimes, by pure force of will power, just making a start on something can set the ball rolling and get you out of a rut.  It’s the starting that’s the hard part.

10. …?

Number 10 is up to you.  What is something that you do to keep or get motivated in the winter?  Leave your tip in the comments below.

Image by durotriges

Over the last 6 months my to-do list has been slowly, stealthily growing out of control.  I had been adding project upon project without consideration of my time constraints.  You might remember reading about my search for what it is I want to do with my life.  Each time I found something I enjoyed doing, I set off on a journey of discovery.  The problem was, I had so much going on, I was getting stressed just thinking about it.

I would look at my list and become so overwhelmed with the number of tasks on there that I wouldn’t know where to start.  So I’d procrastinate.  The more I procrastinated, the more overwhelmed and stressed I became.  Something had to give.

So over the weekend, I purged my to-do list.  I decided what was really important to me, being mindful that I only have time for a certain number of things, and deleted everything else.  It was hard at first.  My finger hovered over the delete key as my mind said, “NO! You need to do that!”  It soon turned to a feeling of liberation as the list shrunk more and more.

As it turned out, I don’t particularly enjoy everything that’s important – like doing the housework.  But these are things that I need to do for my own sanity (an untidy house makes me very cranky) and for my family.

Now my list is nice and compact.  I no longer feel like walking away when I look at it.  The feeling of stress has disappeared and I’ve got more done in the last few days than I have for weeks.

Is it time for you to take stock of what’s really important and let go of the other stuff?

It’s nearly that time of year again.  Can you believe it?  I can’t.

Christmas in July is a bit of fun, especially here in Australia.  Our Christmases are usually hot and dusty.  Not the ideal time to be enjoying traditional Christmas fare, although we still give it a pretty good go

Not only is July an ideal time to get stuck into Christmas hams and puds, it is also a perfect time to start thinking about the real Christmas in December.  I know it seems like forever away, but if you’ve ever been struck with dread a few days before Christmas because you’ve forgotten something important you’ll appreciate the value of a little forward planning.

I’m not suggesting you rush out and buy all your Christmas presents now (keep an eye out at the July sales though – there’s plenty of bargains).  Instead, perhaps start making a list of gifts, card recipients or things to do.  A little bit each week and come Christmas you’ll be cool, calm and collected because you’ve got it all ready to go.

I did a Christmas in July series last year that goes into more detail.  Note that I’m not doing the competition this year (I’ve not been here enough to be that organised ).

Fifty days in, and I think it’s time for a check on how the New Year’s resolutions are going.

I’m not generally a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions.  I tend to make at least one anyway just so I’ve got something to say when someone asks “So, what are your New Year’s resolutions?”  (Does that make me a people pleaser?)  I could close my eyes and throw a dart at a list of most popular resolutions to come up with one, for all the thought and effort I put into it.  You know, the usual:

• Lose Weight
• Reduce Debt
• Save Money
• Get Fit
• Eat Better
• Reduce Stress

Why Do We Make New Year’s Resolutions?

Some people see the new year as a chance to start afresh.  January 1 marks a new beginning.  Throw away all the baggage and failure of years gone past.  This year’s going to be different.

Many people are also like me: well, everyone’s doing it…I’d better come up with something!

Image by The Journeyer via Flickr

Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Usually Work

For all the fuss about New Year’s resolutions, I think most of us would agree they just don’t work; hence my lack of enthusiasm in formulating them.

Lack of thought

The vast majority of people might give a passing thought to their resolutions a few days before the new year commences.  Other than that, it’s easy just to pick a fairly inspecific goal like one of those above without much thought or effort at all.

Lack of planning

“A goal without a plan is a dream”

I don’t know whose quote that is, but it’s very true.  New Year’s resolutions are most certainly goals.  Without specific thought about how much, how often, where and when even the best intentioned are doomed to fail.  It’s like driving around without signs or a map.  You’ll end up somewhere, but probably not where you intended.

Lack of enthusiasm

Without a “map” for guidance, many people become discouraged or even bored with their apparent lack of success.  Before too long the New Year’s resolution is forgotten and old habits creep back in.

What I’m Trying This Year

Something prompted me to start thinking about my New Year’s resolutions in around October last year.  After mulling over what I really wanted to achieve this year I had a bit of an epiphany.

Why wait till the new year to start?  Why not start now?

So I did.

I did make the mistake of being a bit vague with my resolution, so now is the time to sit down and think it out properly.  I guess the point I want to make is that there is no perfect time to make a change.  Don’t wait till Monday.  Don’t wait till next pay day.  Don’t wait till next year.  Do it now.

How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along?

Hands up who’s struggling to get back to their real life routines after the school holidays. It can’t be just me, surely!

After spending a week with my folks over Christmas, we were back home for 10 days, then off again for two weeks at the beach in our caravan. Then it was seven days at home to get organised for the coming school year. With all that travelling, packing and unpacking there was no time for routines.

Time to Just Be

Truth be, I actually made a conscious effort not to adhere to a schedule during the holidays. I think after a year of having to be here and there at certain times, we all need to relax and do things in our own time. Particularly while we were at the beach we got up when we liked, ate when we were hungry, went swimming and walking at times I wouldn’t even consider at home. And you know what? It was fantastic.

Photo by Randy Son of Robert

Time to Return to Schedule

Now that school and after school activities have all started again (except for the minor inconvenience of a case of chicken pox last week) I need to return to a routine just to keep things sane.  But I’ve been finding it difficult.  This week, rather than jump in the deep end where we left off last year, I’m going to start off slow.

• Make sure I’m up by 7:00am
• Which means I need to be well and truly in bed by 11:00pm
• Do a load of washing a day
• Iron that load of washing each day
• Focus on one area of the house to clean, tidy or declutter each day

It’s Not Just for Me

What happens when I’m dithering about trying to get myself organised?  Everyone else becomes disorganised as well.

• There’s no ironed work shirts, no clean school socks, we can’t find someone’s shoes
• The kids look at me still in my PJ’s at some ungodly hour and decide there’s no reason for them to be dressed yet either.
• I spend a fortune at the supermarket because I have no idea what we’re eating for the rest of the week or what’s in the cupboard
• I forget appointments…

For our whole family to operate smoothly, I need to be operating smoothly.  So I’ll stick with my simple routines for this week and slowly add to them as we go on.  Before I know it I’ll be back where I was.