The new year and new goals also lead lots of us to start re-evaluating our spaces. It's no wonder Marie Kondo's Netflix series is getting so much watch time.

Seeing people tackle large spaces and getting tips on how we can declutter and organize is like crack to me. Also, there might be that little bit of "at least I'm not THAT bad" pinging around in my head, making the decluttering and cleaning I have to do seem more possible.

I'm re-doing my #Roxys7DayChallenge for the next 7 days (You can follow along with me and keep me honest over on Instagram @RoxyMews). Being that I wrote the challenge, I know I have some cleaning coming up. So I've been snooping around YouTube for some inspiration. Especially no and low cost inspiration, because xmas kind of killed the budget.

This was one that gave me the happy organized vibe. And started me down the rabbit hole.

Do you get the urge to organize and update your spaces in the new year too? Or is this just a me thing? Do you have any favorite organization/cleaning videos you watch to get your moving? Or are you going to play along with my #Roxys7DayChallenge? Send me a link or tag me in a pic on Instagram if you're doing my schedule challenge along with me. I'd love an accountability buddy.

~Roxy

Today's the day. It's the last day of the challenge, and we're going to make a routine for ourselves. Mine is going to be a morning routine. 

I have attempted to do Miracle Mornings many many times, but I always fell off the wagon. Why? Because I needed more than one. My most productive time is in the mornings, but my evil day job starts at different times. So I need routines to fit those various days. 

You've been living with your schedule for a week. You've seen when you're most productive, and when your energy is drained. You've also figured out your long game goal, and what you need to focus on for your health first. 




It's time to put some serious routine in place.

STEP 1. When are you doing this routine?
Are you a night owl, and need a before bed routine most? Are you like me, and need to start off your day with productivity or it's shot to hell? Or do you need something after everyone is finally out of your house?

If you've been following along for all seven days, you already have an hour set aside that works best for you. Maybe your routine can replace that time. 

Pick your time slot, and figure out exactly how much time you have available for this routine. Or how much you want to spend on something you're planning to do daily.

STEP 2. Write down your top 3.
If you make a four and a half hour routine plan to do everyday after not having one at all, it's not going to stick. Trust me. I've been there, tried that, made it two days and crashed and burned hard.

So pick the three things that matter the most to you in your routine. If you wake up late, or your schedule changes, what three things make you feel like you've kicked ass. You're not setting this in stone, but I'd say putting it in writing somewhere you can see it, is valuable.

My current top 3 are 
Morning Pages
Meditation
Blog Post

If the dishes don't get done, or if the counters don't get wiped down, or if I don't get any writing done, these things I can do no matter my mental or physical state. They are my top three.

STEP 3. Make your plan.
You know when you want to get your routine in place and the top three things you want to include. Now it's up to you if you can or want to commit to more.

Be honest with yourself. What do you know you can do? And what are you realistically able to accomplish? If you're giving yourself a morning routine, and stringing together complete sentences is damn hard before 8am, don't promise yourself you're going to write your next novel by getting up and writing at 6am. 

This is also where you can give yourself a kick in the ass with all the "Things I need to stop doing" notes you took yesterday. One of mine was that I need to stop checking my apps as soon as I wake up. So I'm putting a step in my routine to put my phone by the sink where I'll be listening to an audiobook while I do dishes. 

When you're first getting started make sure you figure in buffer time. If something takes you a couple extra minutes, you shouldn't have to worry about it throwing off your entire schedule.

My morning routine I worked up for this challenge is below, so you can see what I'm talking about visually if it helps.

​I'm not going to put all my morning routines in this post, because I'm making three different versions and y'all don't care that much. However, I am going to print and post those bad boys where I can see them. I'm going to have them up and ready to remind me that working toward my goals is important to me. This routine doesn't include my writing yet, but these items are ones that rev me up for the rest of my day and get me excited and working. Writing comes after my daily routine. In theory. ;)

STEP 4. Post your routine, and add it to your hourly calendar.
Print out or write up your routine. Even if it's a simple checklist of your top 3, write it out and post it somewhere you'll see it everyday. Your computer, your mirror, your fridge. It doesn't matter where it is, but it should be in your face. There's something about the act of putting a routine in writing that makes it more real. Today, make your commitment to yourself real.

I wouldn't suggest writing out each step of your morning routine in your hourly calendar. If you're like me, and want to be very detailed with your routine to visualize it better, you don't want a notification going off every 5 minutes. If your routine isn't taking place first thing in the morning, you may want to set up a reminder for you to get started on it, but on your calendar, just mark this as "Daily Routine" or "Morning Routine" or "Bedtime Routine". 

I keep my routines saved on an Excel file so I can tweak them as I see fit. As I shift my routines around based on my current goals, I don't have to update ten items on my calendar with it.

Welp. That's it! That's my 7 day challenge. Even if you only took on one of the tasks, I'm hoping you got something out of it. I sure did.

I needed the kick in the ass and the push to work through these items myself. I can't exactly ask you do to these things without doing them with you.

I'm excited for my new routines to be posted in my office. Although, looking around my office space, I've realized I don't have a clock that isn't attached to some distraction ridden device. So I need to go shopping too. I'll add it to my calendar today.

Make sure to send me screenshots or pictures of any tasks you'd like to share. I'd love to see what you've accomplished this week. 

~Roxy

Hate me yet? Or did you find out that once you had a plan in place you got more done? 

Because here's the secret, even getting just one thing done is a huge improvement over nothing. And if you're like me, you need to build up momentum to really start cranking out the goal accomplishing. 

I put more on my calendar than I thought I would yesterday, because I have a weekly list on my calendar. Even if I wasn't sure where each item was going to fit for the week yet, I was able to sort the vast majority of my brain dump into a pile for each week. 

Today you should have a task from yesterday to accomplish, and some journaling to do. Before you get started on that, pull out your schedule where you marked in your sleep and meals. You've had this schedule for a few days now. So for today's journaling we're going to make notes about that schedule.

We all have natural ebbs and flows in energy and mental capacity. Today I want you to look at your schedule and evaluate where you are the most productive for administrative tasks, creative tasks, and household tasks. And when you're not productive at all.

I honestly can't remember where I first saw the idea, but I've taken some great webinars and classes from Kelsey Browning, and tons from ​RWA University, so it's most likely from one of those sources. 

Using this template for Excel I blocked out my time and productivity hot zones. 

I have learned the hard way that I was sleeping through my most productive time for creative endeavors. I brainstorm the best, and am most easily able to blog before 8am. Which is why moving my #Roxys7DayChallenge to 9am today has me riding the struggle bus. This is when I usually take out my household budget and pay bills, or review marketing or sales data, or even just work on line edits. Things with very black and white right and wrong answers work well for me in the 9am - Noon time.

But that's just my natural flow. I want you to look at your own. You can print out the calendar, and make notes, or journal about it in your morning pages. Take ten minutes and put some real thought into this. It's time to work with your nature and not against it. If all of your spare time is low energy, you need to pull out your "Health" list from your brain dump. Those items are now the most important, because if you're not healthy enough to work toward your goals, they are going to seem even further out of reach. If you're not finding a time when you're feeling creative, maybe try a different meal or sleep schedule, or a different place to claim as your office space. This is where we can start to tweak our schedules to better meet our needs. But the first step is to evaluate where you are RIGHT NOW.

I used to be miserable doing my dishes after dinner. I am so shattered from the rest of my day by that time that I would stall and pout, and it would take me damn near an hour to clean up after dinner. So I changed it up. I leave all the mess after dinner and let it rot on the table, counter, and in the sink. I ignore it. I moved that chore to the morning when I'm working on drinking my lemon water and shaking off the last bit of sleep. Know what? A chore that would have taken me an hour the night before is done in fifteen minutes. So it's part of my morning routine now. 

What chores are you horrified at the thought of? See if moving them to a different part of the day helps. 

But I want to talk about more than just clean dishes. There is a rule I've heard repeated in tons of self-help books. The 80/20 rule. It's simply the idea that 80% of our results are achieved by 20% of our actions. So for every five tasks you complete in a day, only one really makes a difference long term.

Remember your long game goal? For now that's your 20%. It might change, but that's what is going to get top priority in your schedule. If everything goes to shit, if your day is thrown off by a traffic jam, or a power outage, you throw everything out the window but your long game. Because that's what's going to help you accomplish your goal. 

In your journal today, you're going to do a self evaluation. Take the time and answer the following questions for yourself.

1. What's working? Why?
What are you doing in your every day life that has you feeling like you've got your shit together? What is moving you closer to your goals? What is helping you keep your house clean with little stress? Or what is earning you the most money? Why is that action effective for you?

2. What do you need to do more of?
What is a positive factor in your life that you can build upon? Does your morning walk make you feel amazing? How can you incorporate exercise on the days it's raining or snowing? Do your ads seem to get fantastic click through? How can you find time to make more?

3. What do you need to stop doing?
This can be a hard one. If you're looking at your day to day activities with a harsh eye, it's easy to realize you need to put down your phone, delete some games, or quit spending money on expensive coffee to help your budget. Sometimes, though, you're deep into a time consuming task because of guilt, or commitment to a friend, or even a bad habit like smoking or drinking in excess. This is another example of being honest with yourself. You have your "Why" and you now have a "Long Game" goal. If you're waffling on your evaluation, look to what matters most right now. Do these habits or duties benefit your "Why" or your "Long Game", or do they pull you away from what you want to accomplish? 


I'm not going to ask you to add anything new to your calendar today. But I am going to ask you to work through the three questions above and be honest with yourself. What's working? What do you need to do more of? What do you need to stop doing? 

Right now, I need to get off my blog and accomplish the task I just got a reminder for on my phone. So I'll leave you to it. 

Remember when I said this was going to be a challenge? I didn't lie. But we can do this. We're going to get shit done, but first we need to figure out what shit to do, and what shit to flush.

Did you find out something in your schedule that is in the completely wrong spot? Tell me what you're moving around, or changing priorities on. I'd love to hear what you've learned about yourself with this one. I had to grudgingly admit I was a morning person. It was awful.

That's it for Day 6. Tomorrow we put everything we've learned into play and put together our routine! I'm super excited.

​~Roxy

So far I've made you do physical labor and do some deep thinking about the future. Hate me yet? I have to admit, yesterday's long game work was the hardest for me to do. Because I keep thinking I need to have some super lofty goal. 

When I first started writing complete stories, I had a dream of having a book published. I got there, and then wanted print. Then I got there. Aaaannnnddd...then I got stuck. What now? Making lofty goals was a lot harder once I started accomplishing some of them. Because then it became real, and fear combined with some serious imposter syndrome took over. 

So yesterday I pushed aside the idea that I had to have a huge milestone goal that was bigger and better than the last one. I made a goal that I knew I could do, but pushed me a little, and wrote out the steps. In fact, after I finish up with this blog, I've got some of my first steps plugged into my calendar. Which means, I'd better get into today's task!

For Day 5 we're going to start with something easy. A brain dump.

There are a ton of different terms for a brain dump, but at the end of the day, you're going to make a list of everything going on in your head. If you've never heard of a brain dump before and want more information, I've got a short video below. And she included a "Trigger List" link from the book Getting Things Done in her video notes.

Remember grandma's timer that isn't linked to your phone or computer? You're going to shut down your distractions and dig it out again. If you want to grab the trigger list to have as a prompt go get it now, and then shut down your wifi. 

Set your timer for 10 minutes and write down everything you've got swirling in your brain. To Do's. To Buy's. Remember It's. Get it all down on paper. If you are done before the ten minutes, check your calendar or the "Trigger List" and see what pops up from there. You can keep going after the timer, but don't stop before it. Give your mind a chance to take a few u-turns and get lost to make sure you get every item on there.

Now that you've got all these items, it's time to organize them! You can create any categories you want. I'm using three.

Home - These are any items that are involved in the maintenance of my household. Bills, repairs, cleaning, school assignments, etc. I also put my evil day job items in this category. Because my evil day job is not one I love, it is used to pay the bills only. And bills fall under the "Home" hat for me.

Health - We tend to push our health to the back of the lists. At least I do. And I'm making an effort with this challenge to force myself to think more about the health of myself and my family. Things under this category might be meal planning, grocery shopping, doctor's appointments, exercise (eww), etc.

Heart - We started out this challenge with our "Why". This is where all those little steps toward that go. Personal development, books to read, vacations to take, classes that are for your own joy and not a requirement for a job you hate, all that stuff...it goes here. This is where my writing lives. 

You've got a little organization, now it's time to fine tune it. We're going to do the following steps for each category. Pick whatever category you want to start first.

Step 1. Find all time sensitive items and write them in your calendar. 
Remember that calendar I told you we were using? It starts today. Do you have upcoming birthdays on the list? Mark them down. Job interview? Mark it down. Any item that is an appointment or a time sensitive task you want to remember, put it on the page. If you're not sure about an event, but you want to remember to make a decision about it, take a postit and plop it on the date you need to RSVP by, or add a reminder to your online google calendar. If evaluating your schedule on Day 2 of this challenge made you realize you don't have time for something, cross it off your brain dump list. It's gone.

Step 2. Look for items you need to delegate.
A lot of times things will pop up in your brain dump that are not really yours, but you need to check in on them. Mark next to the item, who it belongs to, and if you need to make a call to check on the item, put it in your calendar. If you find you're worrying about something that isn't really yours to control or check on...cross it off. If there are chores you need to share with the rest of your family, make a list of everything that you can turn over to others, and turn all of it into a family meeting To Do. 

Step 3. Find your Top 3
Once you've slogged through and eliminated all the items that aren't really yours to take action on, find your top 3 items in each category. They could be your top 3 because of how time sensitive they are. Or they could be your top 3 because they mean the most to you. This is where you get to pick the most important items. And also why I'm limiting the lists to 3 categories. Nine items are more than enough to focus on.

Step 4. Write down the next step
For each of your top 3 items write down what your next step is. Just one. Is it sending an email? Making a phone call? Doing some research? What is the next actionable item you need to do. And your next step is not to "make a decision". If you're informed on the topic, make the decision now. If you need to discuss the decision with other involved parties, your next step is to make a phone call or send an email. And if you aren't informed enough to make the decision, figure out why and research it.

Step 5. Take action
You now have 9 next steps on items that are the most important in 3 categories. Some of them are more important to you than others. Pick three actions of these nine and put them on your calendar for next week. You know how much time you have in a day, and where you have time in a week. Fit three items in there, and write them down.

Pick one more off this list. Put it on your calendar for tomorrow. I don't care if it's sending a single email. It's going on tomorrow's calendar.

Then pick one more. Do it today.

If my math is correct that leaves us four items on your top nine. Those go the week after next. 

Today: 1 task
Tomorrow: 1 task
Next week: 3 tasks
Week after: 4 tasks

Step 6: Decide when to re-evaluate
What has stopped my progress dead was not stopping to look at all these lovely lists I'm so good at making. So before we finish up today, you're going to put one more thing in your calendar, and it's a note on when you're going to check in on your top items. I've set aside an hour every Friday to update my calendars and check in on the upcoming week. That's the time that works for me. Find yours. It could be an early morning on a Saturday, or a late night on a Tuesday. It doesn't matter, but you need to take the time at least twice a month to look over your schedule, and update what's coming next. Find your time and plug it into your calendar.


Speaking of re-evaluating, these blogs are taking me a bit longer to post than I anticipated. So my one hour block is turning into two. The adjustment on my Google calendar is already done. I'm doing this challenge right along with you guys. And it's kicking my butt too. But I want to make a change. So I'm putting in the work. Do this with me. We're getting geared up to accomplish great things. And it starts today.

Remember yesterday's lesson? You had to add one item from your long game goal to your calendar. Did you do your first step yet? Don't worry if you didn't, because you're working out your schedule again today. Make sure to mark it in. I've got one hour until my reminder goes off on mine. It's time to get cracking on my brain dump.

What are you going to accomplish today?


~Roxy

I'm here...kind of. My 12 hour work shift was yesterday, and I'm dragging while on muscle relaxers. But I'm here! And today is going to be all about our long game. I don't know about you, but I'm enjoying my clean desk space. I even brought out some pretty coasters to put my water and coffee on. It's giving me a big smile first thing in the morning. But now it's time to get to work.

If you're anything like me, sometimes you have to trick yourself into being productive. "I'll just do this one thing, and if I can get that done, I'll watch a YouTube video." I bargain with myself for computer time. It's sad, but it helps me complete tasks when I'm dead tired.

Today is going to be all about figuring out at least one long term goal, and breaking it down into actionable steps. 

If you've not done this type of goal setting before, pick a six month or a one year period of time. I've found that when I go beyond that, I start to lose my drive. But I've also been in the position of saying, "I don't even know what I want!"

Step 1
Make a list of what you DON'T want. This can be as long or short as you deem it necessary. Write down all the things you don't want in your life. 

Example
I don't want...
A dirty house
To stay in my current job
To drive my crappy car
To be overweight
To always be late

Step 2
Make a list of things you DO want. If you're stuck on making a goal or it's hard for you to decide, take some of your don't want items and flip them.

Example
I do want...
A clean house
To get a better job
A new car
To be fit and trim
To be on time to important appointments

Step 3
Pick one goal to pick apart and make specific. Notice something about the "want" list? There are no specifics. And that's where it's hard for us to get excited about them.

Let's rip apart an easy one. A new car. Well, which car do you really want? What make, model, and year? How much does that car cost? Are you wanting to take out a loan for the car? Lease it? Pay cash? 

I'll break it down as if it were my goal.
Let's say I want a 2018 Chrysler 300. I went to the website and constructed my dream car with all the bells and whistles. That car costs $34,560. Then I went to my bank's website and researched car loans, because I wouldn't be paying cash. I would need a down payment of $2,500. My monthly payment would be around $675. I'd also look at my credit score to see if I need to improve it. Which would get me the interest rate I want. 

Now I have three parts of my goal already in place. I need to save up $2500 in cash, make a budget where I have an extra $675/month, and raise my credit score twenty points by paying off $3000 in credit card debt. From here, I would break down if I want to earn extra money and increase my income, cut expenses in other areas of my life, sell some things I'm not using around my house, etc. I'm not going to go all the way to the end, because no one needs to know my expenses. (Yikes!) But you get the idea.

Make a list of every step you need to take to get to your goal. If you don't know a step, guess what? Your first step is to research.  

Step 4
Decide on a timeline for your goal. When are you wanting to accomplish this goal by? Is this a 1 year goal? 3 years? 5? Make a decision on the period of time you want to give yourself to accomplish this. 

All the individual parts of your goal from Step 3 are ready to come into play now. Is there an order they need to go in? In the car example, I'd want to pay off the credit card debt first. And breaking it down further, I'd decide which card to pay off first. Looking at my current budget, let's say I want to pay off my first $800 credit card balance in 3 months. I'd need to pay $267/month PLUS interest on that credit card. 

NOTE: Remember when I said you had to be honest? This is another instance where that comes into play. Especially when we're talking time constraints and money constraints. Goals should push you, but they should also be humanly and fiscally possible. If you're working full-time, have kids, and pets. Taking up a hobby that is going to require twenty hours of training per week, is probably not feasible unless you get yourself a Hermione-style time turner. I'm not saying you can't take vacation time if you have it available, or that you shouldn't hire some part-time help from a cleaning or pet-sitting service to find that time in your schedule, but you need to prepare for that.

Step 5 
Evaluate and redesign your goal. If you get to the end and look at the journey ahead and decide this timeline isn't realistic, change it. If you realize you can't get one step done without adding a few more, adjust them. Or if you end up looking at all the steps or costs involved in your goal, and think..."I'd rather spend my money elsewhere if I'm going to work that hard for it." Well, you just came up with another goal. Work on that one.

Give yourself the chance to want something big. Something you're excited about. Something that makes you go all gooey and crosseyed at the thought of it. Do you want to publish a book? Have you written it yet? Are you in the edits phase? Remember your "Why" we started out with on Day 1? How does your "Why" fit into your goal? 

Step 5.1
If you haven't been working this out in your journal, I want you to pick up your journal now and do your three pages. The journaling is important. Remember in the beginning, you promised to write in your journal every day? Even if you're making lists or drawing a giant middle finger because I'm doing this to you, it counts. I'll even give you some prompts if you're stuck.

No. 1 = Write a diary entry as yourself from the future. This version of you has already accomplished your chosen goal. Write about how this goal has made your life better, and how you got there. Write about how grateful you are to have worked hard to get to where you want to be.

No. 2 = Give yourself a pep talk as if you were talking to a friend. The way we talk to others is often very different than the way we talk to ourselves. Imagine your friend had your goal. What would you say to him or her, to remind them how awesome they really are.

No. 3 = Write exactly how you're feeling about your goals. How does setting a big goal make you feel? Are you nervous? Excited? Overwhelmed? Explore what emotions pop up when you think about the future. Our inner monologue can help or hurt our chances of success. You can't change negative talk until you acknowledge it's there. And you can't take advantage of excitement if you don't nurture it.

FINAL STEP
Add your first steps of your goal to your calendar. Work your goals all the way down into something you need to do daily or weekly. What days are you going to do this thing? How long are you going to spend doing it? 

This is for your big goal. One thing main thing you want to accomplish. If we don't plan for the future we're stuck spinning our wheels instead of moving forward. That's why THIS item goes on your schedule before anything else. This is your goal. This is what you're working for, and what is going to make starting your routine and your schedule worth it. 

Even if it's not a huge goal, consider this. Accomplishing any goal at all is training for when the big momma goal comes into play. If you want something, you have to take those first steps forward. You have to build momentum, and it's going to start a chain reaction. We're getting ready to kick ass. All we have to do is take the first step. 


~Roxy

How did yesterday go? You've now got some time available to get real work done. Or you've started making changes to get that time back. I set up all the reminders I need so far for the school year coming up, and I knew I needed to get that done. It feels awesome having that off my plate. And I changed some of my reminders to tasks to make sure I have the space blocked off. Seeing the sleep time blacked out on google calendar helps me visually realize how much time is gone, and it prevents me from putting too much crap on my To Do lists. 

If your To Do lists are as long as mine, you know it can filter in at the worst possible moment. Especially before you tackle any self-managed task. Every writer I know has some kind of cleaning or organizing chore they tackle the moment they should be doing something else. Edits? Can't. I have to scrub the kitchen floor. Seriously, our houses are never cleaner than when we should be working.

So what we're going to do today is find our productivity space and get it prepared for our awesomeness. 

Where are you the most productive? Where do you work from most often? Do you have an office? Do you work from a nook in a different room in your house? Pick the spot that you either get the most done in, or that other people aren't going to trash in an afternoon. 

If you're a kitchen table worker, there will always be something to clean up before you get started. So your challenge is to carve out a space for yourself in the house that's YOURS. Grab a card table and set it up in the back of an unused closet or in a corner of your bedroom for all I care, but find some space that's yours. Maybe even a comfy chair where you can tuck your feet under you and work on your laptop. But it needs to be a place you can't see other To Do's. Turn it toward a closet where your back is turned to the frequently unmade bed.

If we want to be productive we can't see 8 million different things that belong somewhere else. We'll inevitably feel overwhelmed. And here's the part I'm not looking forward to today. Today we CLEAN OUR WORKSPACE UP. 

Today you're going to take the time you set aside for this 7 day challenge and clean up your work space. No, you can't just wipe down the desk and call it done. What do you find yourself looking for when you work that you can never find? What stalls you from getting your work done?

Are you constantly looking for a certain pen or marker or highlighter among the cup of two hundred you have sitting on your desk? Throw the rest in a pencil case and only keep what you're using on your desk.

Do your headphones constantly run away from you? Put them on a command hook on the wall over your work space.

Do you keep knocking over snacks because there's no room on your desk? Well, buck up buttercup. You're changing that today.

Before you start coming for me for making you clean...let me tell you why you're doing this. If you're covering your space with clutter, when your brain starts to mull something over, it's going to get distracted. "I should really get that bill paid." "I promised I'd have that craft done." "Maybe my cat would like to play with this crumpled up piece of paper. I shouldn't just throw it away."

And for all my research lovers out there, no, you can't watch a tutorial on how to clean your room first. You're grown ass people. Pick up your shit and put it away. And if you don't have anywhere to put it away. Dollar Tree (or the dollar store in your country of choice), sells bins for a buck. Or if you have empty cardboard boxes lying around, cut off the flaps and turn them on their sides for cubby storage until you have the funds and the time to go buy something more permanent. 

For the writers who work best outside their home... Now I know some of you are snickering. "Hee hee. Roxy doesn't know that my work space is at a coffee shop. I'm home free and don't have to do this exercise."

WRONG. And I'm offended that as a former Panera Bread writer you don't think I see you.

If you're most productive time is outside the house, you have a bag you take with you, and I'd bet good money it's in need of re-organizing too. If you have a portable office, your job today is to clean out your bags, files, and anything else that might have you digging for what you need instead of heading out the door. Or figure out what stops you from heading out the door? Is it dishes? Meal prep? Laundry? Brushing the cat? Think about the last time you got out the door later than planned. What stopped you?

Was it a phone call? Set up a "Do Not Disturb" time on your phone to prevent that.
Was it meal prep? Set an alarm today to remind you to get that done with plenty of time to still get out the door.

Write down your roadblocks in today's journal pages and figure out how to work around them or prevent them from happening. 

Today we make our space into the office we want to work in. We're nesting so our muse can come lay us the best story eggs ever hatched. And maybe even throwing out that dead plant we swore we wouldn't kill this time.

I'm turning on a timer and an audio book and getting started. I'll post my before and after pics when I finish. Seriously, thank goodness for my library's audio collection and the Overdrive app!

After you've cleaned up your space, or created one for yourself, get your journal out. Use your freshly scrubbed space and write your three pages about anything you want. Write about all the creative ways you want to hurt me for making you clean, or the harrowing tale of how you almost died from tripping over your pets while you worked. But be aware of your new space while you write. How does it feel to journal in your newly cleaned space?

Tell me how it goes! And yes. You really have to do this. I dare you.

~Roxy

EDIT TO ADD: Below are my before and afters. Not bad to accomplish before my 12 hour EDJ shift. :D

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It's day 2 and I already was trying to make excuses. Which is exactly why I needed this challenge. I was up and got all the basics taken care of with the pets and making coffee. I looked at the clock. I'd promised myself I would be at my computer by 6am. It was already 5:45. Surely I couldn't get my dishes done and counters cleaned in fifteen minutes. I might as well start my day at the computer. 

But then I'd be throwing out the mini routine I'd been working so damn hard on. So I figured I'd keep an eye on the clock and just put the clean dishes away. Well...damn if that didn't take less than five minutes. Huh. Okay. I'll get the easy to rinse dishes in the dishwasher and leave the pots. I did that and still had time left. Turns out to do my dishes, start the dishwasher, clean the sink, and wipe down the counters took me thirteen minutes. I was going to give up having that done because I didn't think I had time. So if you're thinking to yourself..."I don't have time to spend doing this." You won't have time.

Maybe tell yourself, "I've got five minutes. Let's see how much I can knock out." instead. You might be surprised.

Today is going to be the start of our scheduling. I did this process a few months ago, but my routine and schedule has changed since then, so my calendar no longer applies. I need a revamp.

Our assignment for today is to see how much time we REALLY have. Take out your hourly calendar, your online calendar, or a scrap of paper you've got enough room on for your average week, and put the following things in there.

1. SLEEP 
You have to sleep. It's important. Before you start scribbling it in, be honest and think about how many hours you need to feel rested. Is it 6? 8?

Now. When do you want to get up in the morning? Write your wakeup time FIRST.

Then, here's the kicker, and the part that was the hardest for me, start counting backwards and blocking off the hours until you get a full night's sleep blocked off. I need about 7 hours of sleep. I wake up at 5am. That means my bed time is 10pm. No joke. I go to bed at 10pm (or damn close to it) every night. Some night's I'm in bed watching some ASMR by 9 if I'm tired.

If you want to or HAVE to get up at a certain time, be realistic. You can't get 8 hours of sleep if you're hitting the sack at midnight and have to be at work by 8. Which brings us to the next thing to add to your calendar.

2. WORK
Unless you're a full-time author or a stay at home mom, most of us have evil day jobs or part time jobs. If you don't, this would be where you plug in volunteer work that has a set time block, or school schedules where you have to drive kiddos to class, and pick them up. This is where you need to put in anything that is non-negotiable, or a schedule you are not in a position to change.

Write in your work hours, but also your drive time. How long does it take you to commute? How long does it take you to get dressed? Hair done? Makeup on? Uniform ironed? If you have any of these items to do, put those on your calendar too. Remember how I talked about being honest? See why it's important? You can't magically teleport to the office, and if you can, I want to work where you do.

3. MEALS
Yes, there should be three of these. Are you someone who "doesn't have time" to eat? Welp. We're fixing that now. These are the next things to go into your calendar. And not just a blip reminder to eat. No no no.

Are you eating out? Well, you have to drive there. Which takes time. I calculated it out, and because of traffic during meal times, it takes me longer to go grab McDonalds than it does to toss a pre-prepped stir fry onto the stove and make myself a smoothie to go with it. Which do you think I should be eating? But while I do that most days, or eat leftovers, I keep breakfast bars in the house to cram more work in my morning routine.

Considering our time will help us make more informed food choices. But for today, write down what you're going to do. Are you driving to grab fast food? Block out that time. 30 minutes? An hour? It's gone from the schedule. 


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​Even if you don't use a calendar, I highly recommend writing out every hour in the day for your average week, and marking these things down. Seeing your schedule in a visual block form, makes you realize how precious the time is. 

If you're like me and want the ability to edit and tweak the schedule, I highly recommend Google Calendar. If you've never used it before but are intrigued by the time blocking and alarms I use. I've got a video from a fave YouTuber below that will help you get a visual idea of what I'm talking about.

Have you printed out your calendar? Are you writing these things down? No? Stop reading and go do it. This is a challenge. So we're going to get this ish done today.

Have you put in your time blocks? Do you see the time you're working with? That's your time. That's what we're going to make the most of.

Now, maybe you've put in all your "Have To" items and realized, you don't have any spare time, or you've inadvertently double booked yourself, or not given yourself time to eat. It's time to change your "Have To" items. Maybe you really don't have time to volunteer. Maybe you need to delegate some of the meal prep, or buy items that come pre-prepped instead. Perhaps you've got a large block on the weekend without anything else going on and you can prepare your meals there to eat through the week and give yourself an extra 30 minutes a day.

This is a big assignment, and it takes some fiddling with to make sure you get everything in it's place. 

Once you've finished time blocking, it's time to set alarms. Which items are you always forgetting? Are you chronically late to work? Set an alarm on your phone to go off 30 minutes before you have to leave to make sure you re-focus on getting ready. Do you forget to eat lunch? Set an alarm 15 minutes before you're due to leave or prepare your food, so you can wrap up what you're working on. If it's just a task you have to get done on a certain day, pick the time you usually do said task and set a reminder. I have a reminder set for taking out the trash and the recycling. I'd always forget otherwise.

Sit back and look at what you've accomplished today. And grab your journal. Don't think you're getting out of your three pages. Now that you've blocked out your time, write down what you've discovered. Do you have more time than you thought? Less? Did you realize you might have been cramming far too many items on your To Do lists? Or did you find time to read your favorite fiction books that you didn't even think about being a possibility? 

Yesterday you wrote down why you wanted to get a schedule or routine in place. Perhaps you wanted to find time for specific items to get done. Which items in your life are at the top of your priority list? Look at the empty blocks in your schedule right now. Perhaps you can already see where you want them to fit in. Do you need to get up earlier to have the morning routine you dream about implementing? Do you realize an afternoon or evening routine might be a better fit for you? Write down your thoughts. You've got three pages to fill, so let your mind battle with itself on the page and see what you come up with. 

I'm off to revamp my schedule and get my own morning pages in. I've got a busy day with a kiddo birthday to celebrate, but I'm getting my work done first. When you're done with the work, come back and tell me what you accomplished today. I'd love to hear about it.

~Roxy

Hopefully you got yourself a notebook. You didn't? I'm not taking excuses, so grab yourself some paper. I don't care if it's the back side of that insanely boring handout you forgot to throw away from yesterday's work meeting. You have paper and something to write with. Grab it. I'll wait.

Today is Day 1 of my morning routine challenge. I dragged my own ass out of bed at 5. Okay, so maybe it was 5:05, but it's a fuck ton better than it has been, and since I didn't have as many dishes to do, I'm still at my computer before 6am. Boom.

This challenge is going to be two fold. So pay attention.

FIRST...You are going to find an hour to set aside for the next 7 days. Nope, I don't care if it's at the same time. I don't care if it's in the morning or at night after everyone has gone to bed. But I want you to find an hour to spend on yourself for the next 7 days (including today) when you're not going to be interrupted. This will be one hour when you turn off your phone, turn off your computer, and grab grandma's old kitchen timer to set for 60 minutes. 

Using your phone as your timer? I highly recommend doing a "Do Not Disturb" setting on your phone for that hour. You can pre-program your phone to go into this mode for your scheduled hour. And while you're in there, set yourself a reminder for thirty minutes before your self-development time, so you know to wrap up what you're working on. Go do this now. I'll wait.

No. Seriously. Go do it now.

My hour is going to be 6am-7am for the next five days and 9am-10am on the last two days, because I have an early morning commitment on Wednesday and Thursday. I wrote them in my planner, so those times are set in stone. They are happening. 

Now...is this shit going to take an hour? I dunno. I don't know how you work. But if you set aside an hour and tell your family you are doing something really important and they can't disturb you, no one is saying you can't finish the work in thirty minutes and spend the next thirty eating from your secret snack stash and watching YouTube.

Second task of the day...Get out your journal and commit to writing at least 3 pages in there every day. I'm a huge fan of "Morning Pages" as you can tell if you've been following my blog at all for the past months. So I'm going to make you do it too. If you're looking at the journal you picked and the pages look awfully big, I won't tattle if you grab a smaller journal. But I can tell you, after incorporating this into my own morning routine for the last month, I'm getting a bigger journal next time. 

I'll even give you a prompt for today. 

Find your "Why?" 

I want you to journal today and figure out why you want to change your routines. What are you working toward that you need to make time for? What in your life would be better if you could commit one hour a day to it? If you're looking at this and saying, "An hour's not enough time to get done what I need to get done, Roxy. I need way more time than that!"...well, how much time are you spending on your goals right now?

If you're here and in need of a kick in the ass, my money is on the fact that there are days where your time spend working toward your goals is a big fat zilch. So even if you take just an hour...every day...think about how much you could have accomplished during those zilch days.

I have a post-it note addiction, so I'm going to slap a bright yellow post-it right over my computer with my "Why". At eye-level. 

Why do I need a kick in the ass? Because I want my writing to be a career, not just a hobby. And if it's a career, it should be treated like a job, and I need to show the fuck up.

But my main goal is not the only thing I want to incorporate into my morning routine, because I am the queen of excuses and procrastination. If there is a dirty dish in the sink, I'm probably not going to get my writing done. And we won't talk about how much I clean when dealing with edits. 

So during your 3 page minimum, if you know exactly why you want to do this like me, brainstorm about what you would like to incorporate into your daily or weekly routines. What are some of the things you wish were getting done around your house that are falling by the wayside? What do you wish you could do daily? Is it adding in affirmations? Or *shudder* exercise? Is it making a breakfast for yourself? Or maybe it's doing the laundry more regularly, or taking your dog on a walk. I don't know your life, or what you wish you did more often. That's between you and your journal. And I'm not saying in the slightest that I'm going to make you do all the things in there. This day is for you to figure out what you want to get done, and why the fuck it matters to you. 

That's your challenge for today.

1. Block off an hour without interruptions for yourself for the next 7 days. And let everyone know they interrupt you at their own peril.

2. Start the first part of your new habit with 3 pages of journaling to find your "Why".

Feel like writing more? Do it. But you need to put in at least 3 pages, and you need a reason you want to change your current habits. If you don't have a reason, it won't work. Trust me.

Did you do the work? When you're done come back and tell me when you're taking your hour. Come back and show me your "Why" on a post-it where you can see it daily. 

I'm off to do my journaling. Let's make shit happen this week.

~Roxy