Moms have mastered the ability to accomplish 3 zillion things a day.
Wake up the kids
Get them dressed
Ensure they have engaged in personal hygiene
Make breakfast
Prepare lunches
Cook dinner(s)
Schedule all the activitie
Arrange sitters and carpools
Drive all the people to all the places
Bathe the children
Read with the children
Help with homework
Check and respond to email
Do the laundry
Clean the house
Get to the grocery store and back without forgetting something on your list
Spend quality time with your partner
Get 8 hours of sleep
Drink 8 glasses of water
Exercise and eat right
Make time for self-care
… To name a few and gosh, hopefully you have help!
While this is a list of only 20 tasks, each one comes with multiple decisions that must be made in order to carry out said task.
What time do we all have to get out the door tomorrow?
What do you want for breakfast?
Are you buying or taking lunch to school?
Do you want leftovers or a sandwich?
Are you staying after school for a club/sport?
Are you wearing that to school? It has grass stains on it… Mental note: order new pants.
Who will be home for dinner tonight?
It’s 7pm why are you just telling me that you have a project due tomorrow?
You get where this is going and how quickly we get from 20 things to 3 zillion in a day’s time.
Having to ask, answer and/or weigh all of these decisions is absolutely exhausting. Every. Single. Day.
It’s called decision fatigue.
It’s a known condition and it hinders our productivity on a regular basis.
Luckily, there are things we can do to minimize it. The number #1 thing?…
Daily Routines
Our Smart Reads this week point to helpful solutions to develop daily routines that keep you on track and moving forward with grace.
If you’re just getting started with daily routines, don’t overdo it. Particularly, if you’re not a “routines” person, start small and test the waters, then, if you see the value, grow into it. If you jump in too fast, you’ll kick the habit before it has time to truly start working for you.
We also have a phenomenal Insightful Video for you on the topic of routines. There are a lot of gems in this one so take the 14 minutes to watch it — or, if you don’t have time to sit and watch, just listen to it while you’re doing stuff around the house. It will get your wheels turning!
Finally, Amanda has cooked up another terrific Grace in the Race Podcast Playlist for us!
As always, the playlist covers all sorts of genres – not just the newsletter topic. Though, we do have one episode on this week’s topic; be sure to listen to the 5-minute episode highlighted further down the newsletter on coping with kids and morning chaos.
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…
DAILY ROUTINES
🥗 “The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder it becomes for your brain to make more.”
“Most likely you’re feeling emotionally drained by the end of the day. After making all these decisions, the mere thought of making another one is exhausting. But it’s not a lack of coffee causing you to feel depleted and overworked. The culprit is decision fatigue.”
Read How To Beat Decision Fatigue With Better Brain Habits by Janet Mesh
🧗🏽♀️ When you get off track, bounce back! Here’s how…
“There will always be instances when following your regular routine is basically impossible. You don’t need superhuman willpower, you just need strategies that can pull you back on track.”
Read Get Back on Track: 7 Strategies to Help You Bounce Back After Slipping Up by James Clear
🏡 Kids fall victim to decision fatigue just like adults. Here’s what you can do about it…
“Decision fatigue occurs when a child demonstrates a lack of self-control or makes poor decisions following periods of needing to making good decisions and demonstrate good self-control.”
Read Helping Your Child Overcome Decision Fatigue (Part 2) by Amy Sippl
👨👩👧👦 Family routines: Teach them young!
“Family routines set out how families organise themselves to get things done, spend time together and have fun. Routines help family members know who should do what, when, in what order and how often.”
Read Family routines: how and why they work from raisingchildren.net.au
🗂 “Small changes can have a big impact”
“Small changes can have a big impact. That’s certainly true of routines. While some people believe that developing a concrete schedule is too difficult, even implementing minor alterations to your daily life can have enormous, positive consequences.”
Read 30 daily routines of healthy, productive people that are easy to adopt by Laura Berlinsky-Schine
🎗 Work smarter, not harder!
“Having no routine or structure is so much more draining mentally, physically, and emotionally than any routine could ever be!”
Read The Ultimate Guide to Becoming Your Best Self: Build your Daily Routine by Optimizing Your Mind, Body and Spirit by Chris Winfield
🎧 8 Entertaining Podcast Episodes…
This week’s Grace in the Race Podcast Playlist:
📰 “How to Get Kids Out the Door Faster”
Need some tips to help you with your morning routine? Laura Vanderkam wrote the book on time management & can help us with strategies!
Listen to Parents Tip of the Day | Calm weekday morning chaos with these tips. (5 min)
👸🏻 “Learn how doctors think and the most important questions they ask”
“A woman comes to the emergency room with back pain. She’ll leave with an unexpected diagnosis. How does her doctor figure out what’s wrong?”
Listen to Freakonomics, M.D. | How to Solve a Medical Mystery (20 min)
💡 “Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000.”
“There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world — and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is.”
Listen to TED Talks Daily | How language shapes the way we think | Lera Boroditsky (15 min)
🤰🏻 “Simone never cracks under pressure”
“Every kid sneaks a cookie from the cookie jar, but Jamie’s 8 year-old daughter Simone has taken it to the next level. If you look under her pillow or in the back of her closet, you’ll find stashes of candy wrappers and other illicit items. Jamie is worried that if this behavior isn’t stopped soon, Simone will grow up to be a “supervillain.”
Listen to How To! | How To Crack Your Kid Like a CIA Operative (34 min)
😎 “Michael didn’t panic because his guide dog, Roselle, was calm.”
“Michael Hingson was on the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He says the first indication that something was wrong was the sound of a muffled explosion. Then the building began to tilt, and he felt the floor drop like an elevator.”
Listen to Criminal | Episode 172: Roselle and Michael (33 min)
🧗 “Be proactive and start using a password manager today!”
“It is surprising that people still do not use a password manager, despite the hundreds of logins we use on a daily basis.” Productivity expert Marian Knopp has 4 important reasons to use a password manager.
Listen to Productivity Tip of the Day | 87 | Use a Password Manager (4 min)
👨👩👧👦 “Then along comes a new craze: football”
“It’s the end of the 19th century — the Civil War is over, and the frontier is dead. And young college men are anxious. What great struggle will test their character? Then along comes a new craze: football. And then the most American team of all, with the most to prove, gets in the game and owns it. The Carlisle Indian School, formed in 1879 to assimilate the children and grandchildren of the men who fought the final Plains Wars against the fathers and grandfathers of the Ivy Leaguers, starts challenging the best teams in the country.”
Listen with your kids to Radiolab for Kids | Ghosts of Football Past (39 min)
⏭ “What would be the fate of Dr. Duntsch?
“Michelle Shughart has her work cut out for her, since no doctor has ever been prosecuted for crimes committed while practicing medicine. His patient’s lives would never be the same. The people in Dallas struggle to understand what drove him to do such horrible things.”
Listen with us to Dr. Death | Closure | 6 (43 min)
🎬 This week’s Insightful Video…
Rethink routines to reduce decision fatigue, automate behaviors and predict and achieve desired outcomes
“Jan Stanley is a writer, coach and strategist who has developed a powerful framework for using habits and rituals to increase well-being and meet both individual and organizational goals.”
Watch Routines: The Unexpected Power of Habits, Practices, and Rituals | Jan Stanley | TEDxBeloit
That’s THE LIST for this week!
We hope THE LIST 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.
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