It All Takes Time

I get asked quite often how I get everything done. How do I manage to work on fixing the old farmhouse; work and harvest from our garden; have the time to sew my primitive dolls, create new paintings, run my business in general; and now have even managed to add work outside the home as well?
What is my secret to getting all that needs to happen in a day worked on and finished up?

The truth?
My big secret to getting it all done?

I just don't get it all done.
It really is that simple.
I have "to do" lists that I add onto quite often. (More so that I don't forget something)
I do my best to work thru the list but if something doesn't get crossed off, it doesn't end my world or make my day have been a disaster.

Some days it all clicks into place and I am marking fat lines across that list all the time.
Boom
Boom
Boom

Other days, I am flipping back the duvet at the end of the night thinking to myself that I didn't get anywhere near as much worked on as I had hoped.

It took quite a while for me to be alright with this. There are moments that I still struggle with it.
I do my best. When I lay my head down onto my pillow, for the most part I am content with how much happened.

Now with having said all that, I will share some tips that I do incorporate into my days. Some of them may be something that you can work into yours. Some of them might be something that you will never do.
Fathom out what works for you and your family.

• My alarm goes off every morning early. No matter if I have to work outside the home that day or not. Sleeping in is not something that happens around the farmhouse. Right now, it's going off at 6am. Weekdays and on the weekends. In a few more weeks, it will even be as early as 5am. It may be dark outside my windows when I get up but I can put those few hours to good use before the rest of the day starts rolling. Is there another hour someplace in YOUR day that you could use? Can you set an alarm for earlier? Can you maybe stay up later in the evening?
  
• We schedule a meal plan. The beginning of every month, we sit down and take a blank calendar page that I've drawn up (There are lots of them on the web to find and print off too) I take a quick survey of what we've got in the freezer that needs to be used up. We scan the pantry shelves. I stack my cook books on the kitchen table. I begin filling in meal ideas for supper. On the weekends I sometimes add a lunch idea as well. Nothing is written in stone. It's written in PENCIL on the calendar so that for whatever reason, if something has to change or switch, it can be easily erased and written down again.
  Sometimes just being able to look ahead and think oh yeah, Thursday we are planning on having a roast done in the slow cooker, can mean I can squeeze in another few hours of doing something else as I won't be in the kitchen cooking.
  
• I carry a notebook with me as I'm never sure when a thought is going to race thru my mind for a doll idea or new painting. If I only have a little time to be creative during a day, I don't want to be wasting time hoping that an idea will come to me. I can flip thru those notebooks and something always jumps out at me that I want to try working with.
  
• Speaking of primitive dolls or my paintings...... I multitask on those as well.  When I'm drawing out and sewing dolls, I tend to do a few extra ones to just be able to grab and make into something when an idea strikes me. With paintings, I can do a number of basic backgrounds at once. Have the layers of scrapbook or old torn pages done up and just waiting for paint layers to be added next
  
• Household chores....... not everything has to be done by me. That was a huge lesson to learn. We both made the chores that need to happen so we both can work thru the chores to get them done. My husband isn't a fan of cleaning the bathroom and I am not really the best at cleaning out the vacuum. We both know this and so we let the other do that job. While I'm downstairs getting my morning coffee happening, I whip into the bathroom and clean the toilet. While I'm just about to get breakfast underway, I can spray down the bathtub/shower and let it soak. Multitasking really does help get things done. I can say to my husband, by the way, I did a load of wash this morning; when you come upstairs from piling some wood would you bring the basket up for me to hang if you notice it's done?
  Little things like that help too.
  
  
  
  Will any of those tips help you find a bit more time in your day? Do you have any tips you can share with me? I'd love to learn about them and possibly add them to my mix.