Here’s what happening this week in THE LIST!
Amanda has compiled another great Grace in the Race Podcast Playlist!
Among the 8 episodes is one with Jay Shetty & Daniel Pink on time management which highlights the importance of keeping things as simple and elegant as possible.
When I listened to it, I thought, Yes! This!
The older I get the more I yearn for simplicity.
After all, complexity is so 2020!
Our Smart Reads this week offer tips to make productivity effortless. Some articles suggest specific tools to aid in the process while others weigh various methodologies for achieving it.
The MotherShip Method from Grace in the Race is our contribution to the “effortless productivity” movement.
Don’t let the word effortless fool you, however.
There is still some effort required. It’s just not the kind that swallows you whole and spits you out. Rather, it’s the kind that puts you in the driver’s seat and keeps you moving forward with grace.
The tool behind our method is TickTick. It’s a platform that allows us to tackle mom life using a powerful but simple to use, repeating, yet forgiving system.
We’ll be diving deeper into The MotherShip Method and TickTick in the coming weeks.
Our goal today is to introduce you to this idea of effortless productivity and encourage you to consider some of the tools and methods that might work for you.
We’re all different (watch the funny video at the end of the newsletter for social proof of that fact) and none of this is one size fits all. It’s up to you to determine which tools and methods are the best fit for you.
So listen to that podcast episode along with the rest of the playlist (are you following the Dr. Death series? Holy smokes; that guy!) and skim the Smart Reads I mentioned. You can find them all in THE LIST.
Oh, and if you’re in the market for a great book on this week’s topic, check out Effortless: Make it Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown.
Access all 15 of this week’s recommended resources for moms in THE LIST 👇🏽
THE LIST
15 Expert Resources for Moms – updated weekly! 6 skimmable articles that offer perspective on this week’s topic, 8 informative and entertaining podcast episodes to make the chores fly by, and 1 insightful video to inspire you to move forward with grace.
📖 6 Skimmable Articles…
This week’s topic: Effortless Productivity
🥗 “Make it easier to do what matters most” – Greg McKeown
“When I speak of productivity, I mean a relaxed and sustainable state of knowing your priorities and being able to get through them with relative fluidity and impact.”
Read How to be Effortlessly Productive? by Vinita Ramtri
🧗🏽♀️ Make productivity fun and effective!
“It’s boring, isn’t it? Stuck in a room, starring at your screen, watching the time go by. You’re trying to cram every last bit of information in with a short time frame to do so. Adapting how you work can make productivity fun and effective.”
Read 5 Simple Tricks to Effortless Productivity by Productivity Ninja
🏡 Put these four tools to work for your family!
“Depending on their age(s), kids need, among other things, pencils, erasers, crayons, notebooks, and hand sanitizer. But there are four other tools that they (and you, as a parental figure) can benefit from.”
Read Four Back-To-School Productivity Tools the Whole Family Can Benefit From by Ellen Goodwin
👨👩👧👦 Is your family tapping into these Google resources?
“Using these free Google tools means that you will no longer be too busy to keep up with family activities. Once you’re finished with this article you will have learned about 7 Google tools that can improve your family’s productivity for free; leading to a stress-free atmosphere at home.”
Read 7 Ways to Improve Family Productivity Using Free Google Tools by Mommy On Time
🗂 What’s your go-to method for work-life balance?
“This is the beauty of productivity; you can make it what you want and need. The idea is to empower you to think through how to make the most of your time. And, let’s face it, productivity is integral to work-life balance.”
Read Productivity Methods for Working Moms by Oksuzi
🎗 Are you team paper or team digital?
“I’m not claiming that these conclusions are going to hold true for everyone. But maybe, just maybe, thinking through the advantages of paper and digital tools for yourself will help you to become more productive.”
Read Paper vs. Digital Productivity Tools by Reagan Rose
🎧 8 Entertaining Podcast Episodes…
This week’s Grace in the Race Podcast Playlist
📰 Do you make your life more complicated than it needs to be?
“Dan created a phrase he both loves and hates: performative complexity. His definition of this term is the performance of making our lives seem more complicated for no other reason other than, well, to seem complicated.
👸🏻 A Hilarious Amateur Murder Investigation
“Hulu has a new fun mystery-comedy series Only Murders in the Building. A trio of true-crime podcast fans who live in the same ritzy building on New York’s Upper West Side band together to make a true-crime podcast about it.”
Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour | Only Murders In The Building (20 min)
💡 “Why is the word “gratitude” kinda cringey?”
“What is happiness? What can we do to feel better? Should we feel guilty for feeling happy? When is positivity “toxic?” Yale cognitive scientist, Eudemonologist, and host of The Happiness Lab podcast Dr. Laurie Santos chats about how scientists measure human happiness and what their research has shown helps achieve it, even during the worst of times.”
Listen to Ologies with Alie Ward | Eudemonology (HAPPINESS) with Laurie Santos (70 min)
🤰🏻 No one wants a geometry sandwich!
“Most high-school math classes are still preparing students for the Sputnik era. Steve wants to get rid of the “geometry sandwich” and instead have kids learn what they really need in the modern era: data fluency.”
Listen to People I (Mostly) Admire | America’s Math Curriculum Doesn’t Add Up (43 min)
😎 “Food is one of life’s greatest pleasures”
“… and yet many of our food systems are flawed. This hour, TED speakers look to the past to reconnect with what we eat, and the present to reimagine our food future.”
Listen to TED Radio Hour | The Food Connection (52 min)
🧗 “Escape that “meh” feeling and start finding your flow.”
“Have you found yourself staying up late, joylessly bingeing TV shows and doomscrolling through the news, or simply navigating your day uninspired and aimless? Chances are you’re languishing, says organizational psychologist Adam Grant — a psychic malaise that has become all too common after many months of the pandemic.”
Listen to TED Talks Daily | How to stop languishing and start finding flow | Adam Grant (14 min)
👨👩👧👦 “The carnival’s in town!”
“But this is a carnival with a special twist; each ride is based on a special animal ability! There’s Bombardier Beetle Blasters, The Mantis Shrimp Punching Bag and, the scariest ride of them all, the Slingshot Spider Catapult!”
Listen with your kids to Wow in the World | Slingshot Spider (28 min)
⏭ “No one was listening”
“Dr. Henderson and Dr. Kirby were screaming for anyone to listen who might help them get Dr. Duntsch to stop operating. Kirby wrote to the Texas Medical Board. He and Henderson went to the police. But no one was listening.
Listen with us to Dr. Death | S1: Dr. Duntsch | Free Fall | 5 (43 min)
🎬 This week’s Insightful Video…
Agile Programming – For Your Family | Bruce Feiler | TEDSalon NY2013
“Bruce Feiler has a radical idea: To deal with the stress of modern family life, go agile. Inspired by agile software programming, Feiler introduces family practices which encourage flexibility, bottom-up idea flow, constant feedback and accountability. One surprising feature: Kids pick their own punishments.”
That’s THE LIST for this week!
We hope it inspires you to get your ship together and get through your week with grace!
Do you have any go-to tips on this week’s topic … or a take away from The List this week? Leave a reply in the comments.
Get our newsletter delivered to your inbox weekly. Click the button below to explore past issues and subscribe.
Get MotherShip, the mom-life management system that allows you to navigate motherhood from an app!
There are several ways to experience Grace in the Race. Click the button below to explore them.
Don’t Mistake Your Packed Calendar for an Effective Weekly Plan