Welcome back to inspired to be. It is ******* down with rain here, so I apologise if there's a weird sound coming through. Hopefully I'm good enough at editing this that you can't tell today's episode I am sharing another mum inspired throwback. Guys, I have listened to all the old mum inspired episodes and I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I am so sad that I ever deleted that podcast. In all honesty, the last three and a half years since Chloe was born have been a blur for me. I definitely feel like I had postnatal depression the whole time, which only recently got diagnosed. I'm not sure if I shared that with you or not, but in the last sort of six months and I feel like finally now I'm coming out of this blur. So it had me going down memory lane listening to all these old podcast episodes from the mom inspired and it just had me wanting to re upload them because I just remember how much you all loved them. Please, please share them. I really just would love to have the community back. I miss those days. I miss that connection. And I just adore all of you and the little community, like motherhood community we had. So this specific episode is to do lists. I don't know if you remember it, if you're new here, then I know you're going to love this one. I love it because if it's almost like my old self telling my future self some tips about to do lists and it's very real, relatable, easy, practical little reminders to do with to do lists that I'm definitely now going to implement again, which I obviously used to, which was helpful. But then when I recorded this episode, I was pregnant with Chloe. Lo and behold, she was born and everything just went to ****, basically. So three and a half years later, I feel like I'm finally back to myself. So I hope you enjoy this episode. Please do. Let me know what you think. And yeah, enjoy.
Hey guys, I'm back today with a mum tips episode that I'm really excited to bring you because this one is more of a practical tip. So you'll notice that in these mum tips, sometimes I'm talking about some things that are more mindset like energy and emotions and things that have been on my heart. Whereas sometimes I want to share like practical tips that really help me as a mum in my everyday life that I hope you can put in place in your life too to help you today we're talking about setting realistic lists to do lists. Now, I think to do lists can have a bit of a cliche to it. Like, I know there's a lot going around, especially for mums at the moment, where you can buy all these beautiful, pretty to do lists, lists to stick on your fridge, calendars to put everywhere. There's like check checkboxes and it can be very overwhelming and you almost feel like you need to buy these things and that you should do these things to be an organized mum and woman. Because let's be honest, we have so many balls in the air at once. No matter what type of mother we are, if we stay at home, if we work, we all have so many balls to juggle. But I just wanted to talk through some of the really simple things that I do without going out and spending a whole heap of money on, like written to do lists or apps or anything like that. Just simple. I'm literally going to jump straight into this, guys. And if you have any super practical tips that help you, I would love you to come on over to my instagram and jot them down on my most recent post in the comments section so that other mums can read them too. That would be super helpful. Let's jump in. So the first thing I do is all I use is the notes section of my phone. Now, I only realized this recently and it's been a life changer. You can actually write a note like you might be dropping your daughter or son to school. And that's something that I'll get to in a minute, writing down all the basic things as well. And then there's this little circle tick at the end of the notes section on the iPhone. You just click that and it turns into a little circle checkbox. It's so helpful. So you can just write yourself a little note. So what I do is I'll actually show you this on my Instagram stories, if you're interested, is I just write the day. So I just have one note that's saved in there and I'll have like Monday, Monday to do list and then I'll go in and I'll write all my things that I want to do that day and then as the day progresses, I'll tick them off. This gives me a huge sense of achievement and productivity, even if it's just simple things like dropping Zara to school, dropping Adrienne to daycare. And then each night, literally when I'm in bed before I go to sleep, I quickly go through. Or as I remember things, I'll write them on the list. And then if there's anything that I haven't done on the Monday, I just keep it there and then it becomes a Tuesday and I'll just change where I've written Monday, Tuesday. So what are the things that you can put on your list that are realistic? Because here's the thing. If you put more than ten things on your list, you're not going to get it done. Like, you can't get everything done. And you can't put these high expectations on yourself because every day, when you get to the end of the day when you haven't done all your things, you're just going to be down on yourself. So, guys, let's try and keep it to really simple things. What I love about creating this list as well is that you can actually see what's going on in your day. So maybe if you see, oh, I don't have as much on tomorrow as I thought I did, you can add something else in there that you know you have to do for the rest of the week to get out of the way. Like, maybe you wouldn't normally do a load of washing on that day, but you can add that in that day because you feel like you've got a little bit of space. So the simple things I like to put on my list, and it's not because I'm going to forget, it's just so that I can kind of have, I can see how my day is going to pan out. And also because checking off a list item on your list is, like, mentally rewarding and you feel good about yourself. So I normally put drop Zara at school, drop Adrian at daycare. If it's a day like that, I'll put like, do the grocery shopping, do a load of washing. I might record a podcast, or I might be doing an interview, or I might write editor podcast. I also always put on my dinner plans for that day. So if it's like prep cashew cheese for nachos because we eat dairy free. So I quite often make this cashew cheese. Cashew cheese. So if I know that I'm making nachos that day, I know that I have to prep that a few hours before dinner. If you're going to put like a crock pot, a slow cooker on that day, maybe you put that on your list. Prep slow cooker for dinner. If you've got appointments, put those on your list. I'll put ob appointment, dentist appointment, doctor's appointment, pickup script from chemist, things like that. So just little, little tasks. Everything that you can think of, put it on there because it gives you more to check off. It keeps you accountable and you feel like you're actually working through things pretty productively throughout your day. If you're going into an office job, you might like to add all of the things on there that you have to do in your job that day. Or maybe you're just writing like work from whatever time you're at work. And then obviously once you're at work, you disregard your sort of home to do list. You focus on how you work your day throughout your day, being in the office or whatever. You might have a different system through outlook or whatever system you use. And then once you clock off from work, you come home and check back into your notes section or your at home to do list. One thing I love about having this is that it's with you all the time. So I don't have a Samsung, I have an iPhone. But I'm sure Samsung has a similar thing. It's always with you. So you can literally just quickly go in there, check it off, add something if you think of it. If you're like me, like pregnancy brain continues, it never goes away. So if I don't write things down straight away, I forget. So that's really helpful. Another thing that I have found super helpful is to space out my chores so I won't have a cleaning day anymore. I used to have a cleaning day but it overwhelmed me. I didn't like it so now I space them out. So I might have one thing a day that is a house chore on my list. So that could be do the washing, it might be do the grocery shopping, it might be vacuum and mop the floors or clean the bathrooms. But I'll only ever put one thing on there because then what I find is if I end up having a busy day doing other things that are more admin or out of the house related. If I still haven't done my housework chore by like 08:00 p.m. at night, I still have time to do it. Do you know what I mean? Like I can just quickly throw on a load of washing. I can do a quick clean of the bathrooms and it doesn't seem overwhelming. So that way it doesn't get missed. So that really works for me. They are honestly the most simple things that you can put in place every single day. Just quickly check in the night before you go to sleep and plan out your list for tomorrow. Make sure you add on there any like catch ups. Like you deserve to still have time for you. Literally. I write on my list as well. Pilates, walking, coffee with a friend, like everything. Because it doesn't have to only be your chores. It doesn't have to only be the housework or the work or the things that would normally be on your to do list. Just put everything on there because it helps you see kind of what your day is going to be like and prepares you for that. And then it also helps me. I know this is weird, but when I go to sleep at night, I can think about my day the next day and I try and focus on the things that I'm most excited about. And then I'll fall asleep and in the morning I'll wake up and my first thoughts will be like, oh yeah, today's going to be really cool because I can record that podcast and I'm going to go catch up with a friend for coffee or I'm going to check these chores off my to do list and it puts me in a really good headspace. So I hope that helps you guys. I really want to say, be okay if everything doesn't get done. It rarely all gets done and that's totally fine. Just move it on to the next day. What I also love about the to do list is that you can kind of prioritize. So if you know something actually really, really needs to get done that day, sort of like a deadline for yourself, then you can put that thing first. If fitness and exercise is really important to you, put them at the top of your to do list and try and do them at the start of the day. You know what I'm saying? So I hope that helps. Guys, you're amazing. I'm sure that even if you tick off one thing on your list, which could be dropping the kids at school, that is amazing. You've done really well. You deserve a rest. Just go and sit down and move everything to your to do list for the next day. Maybe not. But anyways, just a little reminder to focus on everything you've achieved. It might be that you dropped the kids at school. Good on you. You got them dressed, you got them out the door, you did a great job and you might prep a healthy dinner for the night. That is amazing, guys. I just want you to, I've said it before, make sure you celebrate your wins. Go and look at yourself in the mirror. Congratulate yourself for being a good mum and staying calm or dropping the kids off or whatever you've done that you're proud of yourself for, notice it and congratulate yourself.