Tracking Goals

Tracking goals can be difficult.  Especially since I'm trying to accomplish 99 goals in 999 days.  I've tried several different types of goal trackers in an attempt to manage all mine.  When I look for a goal manager I want something social, easy to use, cheap, and encouraging. That's why I love Lift - Daily Motivation. It manages to accomplish all four of my requirements. 

Lift can be used with friends or used privately. Sometime not everyone needs to know how much time I spent cleaning. ;) But I do love to get positive reinforcement on crossing things off my list. That little rush is so addicting.

Lift is a breeze to use as well. You can quickly check off your daily goals, add new ones, and delete goals you are finished with. I am a sucker for checklists. So I love being able to check off a goal as soon as I complete it for the day. 

I also love that Lift has several challenge goals with added support. This month I'm trying the 30 Day plank challenge.  It has different steps to help you through each day.

Lift is also FREE. Which is one of my favorite words. You can check it out here.

I love the daily lift when I accomplish my goals. I love to see my stats and  work hard to check into my goal 21 times so that I cross it off and move on to the next goal.

Do any of you use Lift? Do you have something else you like more?

Lift didn't ask me to blog about their app. I just really enjoy using it and thought I would share. ;) All opinions are my own.

Creating a Haven

My husband and I watch Go On together. The characters are kooky, the storyline is fun, and I don't feel like anyone is pushing an agenda. (The premise of the show is a radio sports announcer loses his wife and must go to a therapy group to cope.) A lot of the people in the support group use different coping techniques to deal with stress, anger, depression, or loss. One of the characters has an entire town in his mind that he can retreat into. While I think this is a little excessive, I think that creating an oasis is not a bad thing.  Do you have a mental and physical place that you can retreat, regroup, and recover? 

My haven is my home. In order to maintain this feeling I like to keep my home as organized and clean as possible. I love walking into my kitchen and seeing an empty sink. (Though this is often not the case.) I love being able to find the things I am looking for in a pinch. I love having a freshly made bed. But all of that takes maintenance. Surprisingly a lot less maintenance that one would think. A while back a stumbled upon the Fly Lady. Weird name but suprisingly effective website. She taught me the 15 minute rule.

Set a timer for 15 minutes. Do as much as you can in those 15 minutes. When the timer goes off stop and regroup. Sometimes that means setting a new timer and going on. Other times that means taking a short break to reward yourself.  There are 1440 minutes in one day. Using 15 of those is 1/96 of your day. I think I can give 1/96 of my day to create a better haven in my home. What about you? What can you accomplish?

Weekly Planner and Goals

I love lists and organization. I'm more than a little OCD. But I have a hard time finding the perfect planner for my life. Here are some of the options I have run across in my recent attempts at organizing my days.

Week at a Glance by Amy Bayliss

Daily Goals by I Heart Organizing

 Peek at the Week by I Heart Organizing

Daily To Do by Life Your Way

The Weekly Planner by The Peaceful Mom

The Daily Planner by The Peaceful Mom

The Weekly Goal Planner by The Peaceful Mom

Today I Shall by 20 Minute Mom

Daily Routine by Ever Changing Mom

I find that there are elements in each planner that I love. I love the style of one, the comprehensiveness of another, and the emphasis on the future in yet another. I decided that since I loved different parts of each planner I would stop and create one of my own. Please feel free to download your own copy or visit one of the lovely ladies listed above. 

For more great home organization printables visit here and here.

Saving Money with Mint

I love learning things that help me take care of my family better. On Monday I mentioned I was reading America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money: Your Guide to Living Better, Spending Less, and Cashing in on Your Dreams. The book teaches the value of budgets. I love my budget! Some people feel that budgets are constricting, but I find it empowering to not have to worry about having enough money at the end of the month and be able to save and afford the things that I want. This quote makes me laugh. I feel so blessed. We are not poor. :)

Source: thatswhatthatmeans.tumblr.com via Madison on Pinterest

With that said, keeping a budget can be hard. It requires you to actively keep an eye on where your money goes. Some people like to use spread sheets and others like to use paid programs. I am still trying to figure out what works best for me.

My favorite program to use is Mint. It is a free online service that I can access on my computer, ipad, and iphone. (It also works for those in the android market.) I love that Mint shows all my accounts. I don't have to log into my bank, savings and credit cards sites but can see it in one convenient place. It helps me see trends in spending, set goals for saving, and warns me when bills are due or I am hit by a fee. Mint automatically categorizes what I spend and shows me on a quick scale where all my money is going. I can set my own categories and change the amounts easily.  I check in on it daily to see how I am doing and categorize the few things that Mint did not understand.

Mint helped me realize how much I was spending on groceries and it gave me the necessary encouragement to cut out some of the extras. (I plan to read Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family: Includes So Many Innovative Strategies You Won't Have to Cut Coupons next to find even more ways to save.)  It also helped me realize what we were spending a lot of money on as a couple. It is a lot easier to realize you have a problem when you can see it visually.

We are not perfect but we try to make Mint work for us. Mr. WB and I each have a rolling allowance. So if we over spend one month the next month we start with our normal amount minus what we overspent the month before. I find this extremely helpful. Mint helps me set goals on what I want to save up and purchase next. This is my current goal.

How do you budget?  What are you currently saving up for? Leave me a comment and let me know. :)

Organization - Starting to declutter

This month my husband and I are moving over 800 miles for his new job. Since I am currently not working and over half of the stuff we have collected is mine, I am responsible for purging and packing. While we don't qualify for the show Hoarders, I think our office comes close at times. Packing and purging has been therapeutic and stressful all at the same time. In the past 48 hours I have packed over a dozen boxes. But the whole process began long before this week. Decluttering has been a life long process. I am continuing to learn and my philosophy continues to change.

In my quest for order and learning I follow a lot of blogs and websites. (Yes, I am aware I am a tech junkie.) One of the blogs I follow is called I'm an Organizing Junkie. I get an email from her every once in a while and it inspires me to do better. A while back I got an email that changed the way I think about decluttering.  It's easy. All you have to do is break it down. Laura has 5 easy steps to get started. You can find a copy of her article here.

The steps:
1. Set a daily goal. I try and declutter for at least 15 minutes.
2. Donate: I have a box for things headed to charity or Freecycle.
3. Start small and moved on to harder things
4. Ask questions
    A. When did I use it last?
    B. How does it make me feel?
    C. Am I willing to give up something else to make room?
    D. Is it cost effective to keep it?
5. Let it go!

If you want more than the cliff notes be sure to read the whole article and check out her website for more great tips.