Calling all my inquisitive podcast listeners! I have been podcasting for TEN YEARS and sometimes I wonder if I’ve already talked about the topic that I’m getting ready to record. I shared that Abby is getting ready to have back surgery and I will become Grayson’s primary care giver until she recovers.

I imagine I will use all my energy on Grayson this summer. Soooo, when we were discussing the podcast summer plan, as a team, they came up with a great idea! How about the listeners get to ask burning questions. So I want you to submit all your questions or situations you want advice about this summer. And I will answer them and tell you what “Lisa would do.” I can’t wait to see what you ask and think about the solutions I will offer.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media.

Happy Monday! Today, we’re talking about how to combat teacher overwhelm. In this episode, Lisa is joined by Jayme (from the school pilot) and Anna (a member of the Organize 365 team) to talk all about why teachers are feeling so stressed and what can be done to help support educators.

Support for Teachers

Some of the resources we found address ways to support teachers who feel overwhelmed by all of the demands of the education field. Some of the ways to support teachers include reducing or streamlining the number of administrative tasks teachers are burdened with, as well as helping teachers get organized. These are all things that we offer inside the The Teacher Workbox system and that will be addressed in Teacher Planning Day this summer.

At Organize 365, we built the Teacher Workbox as a means to support teachers in the administrative side of their job. Teachers receive training in their preparation program on lesson planning, classroom management, and lesson design. We step in to help provide teachers with an organizational system to manage their time and streamline as many tasks as possible.

A Sense of Community

Peer support helps ease feelings of teacher overwhelm, and we love that we can offer the supportive community of educators inside the Organize 365 Community App. This is where teachers have the opportunity to share ideas, ask questions, and learn from one another. Teacher Camp is a live opportunity for teachers and other educators to get to know one another and work in collaboration as we set up our Teacher Workboxes for the coming school year.

How Much Time Are You Wasting?

At the end of the episode, both Jayme and Anna confess to having made their own Sunday Basket before purchasing the actual Sunday Basket from Organize 365. They share how much time and money was wasted trying to create a perfect system, when the supplies they really needed were already available through Organize 365. They also reveal how no system they could create on their own was able to support them in the ways they needed because the do-it-yourself system did not come with a course, online community, or Sunday Basket Club that are needed to truly understand how the system works. If you are thinking of going this route, how much time and money are you willing to waste?

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Gallup’s State of the Schools Report: Insights to Inform Higher Education adn K-12 Leaders

• 2023 Teacher Shortages: What to Know About Vacancies In Your Region

• Prioritizing Teachers’ Mental Health

• The Best Benefits You Can Give Educators: Easing Their Mental Load

• A Dwindling Number of New U.S. College Graduates Have a Degree in Education

• 2024 Teacher Shortage Statistics Show We Still Have a Long Way to Go

• Nguyen, T. D., & Kremer, K. P. (2022). Burned out and dissatisfied? The relationships between teacher dissatisfaction and burnout and their attrition behavior. Elementary School Journal, 123(2). DOI: 10.1086/721772

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media.

Well the time is here! Abby is finally getting a back surgery we knew would need to be done despite all the cortisone shots and physical therapy. I don’t share this so you can plan when your next family member needs you for a surgery. I’m sharing all my planning thoughts and iterations because where else do we hear this stuff? How do you learn how others plan? This is for any event you have coming up that requires a lot of shifting and planning. I’m going into a time where there will be a plan and I can not just “not feel like it.” I have to do what is on the plan in order to have success.

Operation “Take Care of Grayson”

What does this mean for me? Full time primary care giver to Grayson. Honestly, I’m using the lens that this is a unique opportunity to spend these months with Grayson and support Abby.

The first thing I knew I needed was to think about how I was going to entertain this active big 4 year old. I have a routine I am going to try out based on tiny details of care that Grayson needs and what he’s used to. And I’ve thought about a lil lunch box I can pack for on the go, what all needs to be in my purse at all times for Grayson, and a backpack in the back of the car with things we may need when we are out. The routine is in small chunks of time that I can start to give back to Abby as she recovers.

Next Layer: The Family

When going into a time of new demands on your time and capacity, you need to look at it in reverse order to figure out how to still meet as many personal and family obligations as possible. So next my brain went to the rest of my family. How will I care for Greg, Joey, and help Abby through recovery. Greg has this trip to the Keys planned to take with Joey and his dad. It’s important and I encouraged them to still take it. It’s during the first week after Abby’s surgery. I’m asking Greg to take on a few tasks to make sure we all get fed and Grayson gets to and from Daycare.

I’ve been reading up on this surgery and the recovery process. I have tried to consider the physical things Abby may need to aid her in her recovery. But I have also been considering the emotional toll this may have on her. Might be tough watching me play mom to her child for a while. I will do my best to include Abby to keep her spirits up. And the physical therapy! Likely I will have those scheduled before the surgery takes place.

I’m sneaking in an adult field trip before surgery to fill my cup and one after Abby’s surgery to give me something to look forward to. I also looked at work and rearranged the things I need to be in person at, to the mornings, when I will be in the office. I’ve decided to work from home for the first week. And Saturday showed itself as a day I can take advantage of being in the office because Greg can be home with Abby and Grayson on Saturdays. I will be working on my dissertation starting now because I have time and then Saturdays. Please cross your fingers all the research I’m going to do in advance about Prospective Memory will be worth it because I have not got the green like on this yet. But it’s a risk, for times sake, that I have to take.

How Will My Planning Day Workbook Look This Time?

So after taking 32 minutes to tell you all about my planning, I opened the Planning Day workbook. I walked through the workbook and shared, off the cuff, my thoughts about how I will plan according to each page. Ha! I was actually caught off guard on a couple of upcoming things like birthdays and our anniversary. Yeah, Abby needs an oil change and I checked but my car is good for a while. These are the things you should be thinking about going into something this big, what can I get done now to make this upcoming busy time more smooth?

I am trying to think of everything. I will continue to mull over my calendar and rearrange things as necessary. This is a ridiculous amount of planning that my future self will thank me for doing. This is the kind of detailed planning we do in Planning Day!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• Planning Day

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

We work fast! So excited to share the Embrace Add on that we created in collaboration with Heather S. As you heard in the previous episode, Transformation with Heather S., she has a 6 step process to help you really process life, understand where you are now because of events you have gone through, and ultimately move beyond those emotions. Emotions can hold us back from moving forward.

Step 5 is realizing you are worthy! And now you need to ask yourself, “What you want from life?”

And finally, Step 6 is getting to a place of realizing your value. And since you have so much to offer, ask yourself “what can I give or contribute to life? How can I use my gifts?”

What if we just started to dream again? Even if you have done Embrace in the past, you are a new person than the last time. You have lived more since then and it may be time for you to rediscover what you are uniquely created to do. You can now get the Embrace add on which has water colors, special markers, water color paper, and other goodies to process your emotions through art therapy. Heather will take 2 hours to walk you through the prompts and activity to get the most from your Embrace experience.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Embrace Add On

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media.

In this episode, I introduce you to Heather S. She is a mental health counselor who is married and mom to 5 children. They have their own little “farm” they call home. Heather was in a hard season of life when she heard Sara Dean interviewing me on the Shameless Mom Academy Podcast and I was talking about the Sunday Basket®. Heather was a grad student, her dad was ill and Heather was his primary caregiver, not to mention she had a 21/2 year old at the time. Her brain felt very busy and she thought the Sunday Basket® could help. Heather believes that planning and organization is one of the best gifts we can give ourselves.

Sometimes, as women, it seems as though we are expected to know how to keep a house. It’s ok if you don’t know how and you need to hire someone or purchase a course to teach you. We both agreed that organization is self care! There’s one component of being a household manager that negatively impacts a person and it’s the emotional. It’s based on how well we think we are at the managerial and cognitive pieces of running the home. And there’s a lot of negative internal chatter about it! The Sunday Basket® quiets those comments.

Heather had been successfully using a DIY Sunday Basket® with her large family, so Heather and her husband agreed to invest in the Organize 365® Sunday Basket to get additional support. She shared about how she does Christmas. She shared her hacks on how not have to wrap presents the night before, how she makes her kids lists, and how to not overspending! And wait till she explains her sick box, genius solutions! And since that was such a success, it made sense to invest in the old All Access program to get their house in order to sell. It made $20,000 in sense! Once they decluttered and met with their realtor again, they added $20,000 to the selling value of their home by just painting and decluttering! Then they moved, Heather got her Masters, added some dogs, and a child!!

The last half of our conversation was about Embrace, currently the self-guided retreat until I am done with the PhD. She pointed out how important it is to do the journaling and coming to terms with your past. Through journaling we can all notice what we say to ourselves, the lies we tell ourselves, and look at what we wrote to decide if it’s true. We can journal to explore what we want. And specifically with Embrace, it made so much sense to Heather because she’s done that hard work of journaling and reflecting. And there is are many scientific benefits of pen to paper. The reality is you can’t get to “What is my unique purpose and how can I share it?” until you have accepted that you are worthy and have great value to give.

She lost her father shortly after having her 5th child. How does one grieve and celebrate a new life at the same time? Heather had to use her planning and journaling skills to work through that grief while still taking care of her family the way she wanted to. She scheduled her grieving time and you may need to do the same. Take the time to process your past to get to the place where you can feel worthy of organization. You can then realize you have so much to offer this world. And finally with embrace, explore how you can impact the world with your unique gifts and talents. Heather has this great 6 step art therapy journal prompting process that she takes her clients through. She really shared a lot about the process and I believe so many people would benefit from doing the internal work before diving into Embrace. We are all worthy and valuable.

Heather’s advice is, “We need to start with the internal work. Sitting and taking time to do the internal work first will let you stay motivated and on track to do what you need to do.”

Heather shared her desire to do so in collaboration with Organize 365® someday. If you liked Heather and her ideas, you DON’T want to miss the next Coffee Chat!!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Embrace

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

We’re spending all this time invisibly planning. I desire for it to be more visible. For home, I have always planned in these trimesters, 120 day chunks. You can hear all about it in ep. 132. I call these chunks summer, fall, and winter. When the PhD is finished (hopefully in Dec.) I will have planned 9 chunks. Each chunk of time starts with this natural break in the hustle of life and gives us these organic bursts of energy to declutter, organize, and reset. It became very clear to me the energy of each season during this PhD journey. What did I plan? How did it go? And how am I leaving this PhD phase of life?

Summer (May-August)

Sing it with me “Schoooooool’s out for summer”...these are the more relaxed months of the year. The invisible work you would have done for this chunk was planning how to keep the kids busy, summer vacations, and this is usually a personal development time for me. The PhD is all personal development. Summer of ‘23 was “Busy” because I’d applied and been accepted into the PhD and lil Grayson turned two so he was into everything! I had each minute planned with the goal of getting my PhD that I basically missed summer! This summer was the hardest. I took less time to plan because Greg and I went to England. And I don’t regret it! Grayson was 3 and he was on to me. He KNEW when I was home and he wanted to play. But I’d made the choice to pursue this PhD and I had to choose it over Grayson for this season. So I moved almost everything to the office. Another lost summer.

Fall (September-December)

Fall seems to be an easy chunk of time for me. This season you have planned for back to school and the holidays. Things seem to go easier and thank God for football. Because Greg loves football and that means I don’t have guilt getting in a few more hours of studying or completing more assignments. I’d only taken 2 classes which lightened the PhD demand on me. In fall of 2024, I had to ask myself “How do I not do again, what I just did in summer?” I took a trip with Greg, I only took 2 classes and focused on the holidays.

Winter (January-April/Mayish)

Winter starts with all of us coming back from Christmas/Holiday breaks. In 2023, I planned to change all my habits and routines to be a PhD student, you can hear all about that in ep. 519 and/or the Monday PhD episodes I did around that same time. I knew it was going to take me 25 hours so I blocked that time off my calendar. It's no good to set a goal but not set aside time to achieve it. For my 2024 winter chunk, I’m calling it “treading water”. This was a really hard chunk of time because Greg had rotator cuff surgery, we’d remodeled Joey’s condo, and we were planning to remodel Abby’s space downstairs next.

How I’m Ending My PhD Phase

I’m calling this last chunk of time “the grind”. I have finished the classes portion of completing the PhD. As I see the finish line in sight for the PhD, I am walking away so happy and proud! I’m proud of myself for the mental capacity I’ve grown. I am so proud that I put earning a PhD as one of my priorities. I would cheer anyone on in my family to do the same for themselves. It forced me to set better boundaries with my family. I encourage you all to do Planning Day and I do it for myself too to make sure I am pouring into my marriage and family, that I am prioritizing self care, to travel, and breakdown a big project I want to accomplish. Sometimes you get that project done in one 120 chunk and sometimes it’s multiple chunks over the course of 3 years. Just make sure you prioritize your family and have good communication so they have accurate expectations. None of this happens accidentally, like a PhD, you have to plan for it!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• Home Planning Day

• 120 - Productivity #6 - 10 Ways to Find More Time

• Ep. 519 - Organizing my PhD journey Part 1

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

PLANNING…it’s the one thing that you can control in these unsettling times. Planning Days are now 20% OFF! The best part is, when you sign up for the subscription, that price is locked in for future planning days. Planning will help you to make better choices and establish routines and new habits. Routines and habits take a little more time to become second nature. Routines and habits change your character of who you are over time through intention and discipline. That’s what we do in Planning Day. There are three types that Organize 365® offers; Home, Friday Workbox® and now the little sister…Teacher Planning Day.

Planning days help you to look at your time and plan ahead for the next 120 days for the Home or 90 days for Work. You will establish routines that will lead to habits that end up freeing up your cognitive load. You will look at how you are currently spending your time and think about how you want to spend your time. Each planning day comes with a workbook to work through what your next 120 or 90 will look like.

You all may be familiar with Home and Work Planning Days but I want to share with you a little bit about what to expect in the Teacher Planning Day. You will look at the personal development goals you have for yourself, not the ones given to you by your administrator. You’ll look at theme days, your planning time, and how to be productive. I’ll go over the Teacher Workbox with you and we’ll talk about the pink slash pockets and what you want to do for personal development or ideas for your classroom. The purple slash pockets used for 3-5 projects you want to complete. With the blue slash pocket you’ll think about a communication goal, your team, and maybe a goal you all set together. And then the green slash pocket, I’ll explain how to use it for administrative tasks and your checklists.

OOOPS…we made a mistake and I have decided to roll with it. I know how planning will help you to feel in control in a time when you may feel uneasy. So the Complete Home Organization Bundle accidentally got included in this sale. I feel so strongly that planning is what we all need right now so I’m keeping this on sale too. If you have been interested in the bundle, now is your time to get it. And at this price your planning day is almost free. You will get the Productive Home Solution® as well as a Sunday Basket®, the Paper Solution, Binders, and the workbooks, check out the link below for full details.

If you wanna be around other go-getters, driven, and positive people then Planning Day is the day you don’t wanna miss. Once the Planning Day has happened pricing will go back up. So take advantage of this deal and get in the driver’s seat and get the Planning Day that is right for you!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Home Planning Day

• Friday Workbox® Planning Day

• Teacher Planning Day

• Complete Home Organization Bundle

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media.