Disciplining our kids is a real challenge. We question ourselves, trying to meet that balance of being effective without being harsh, adjusting for our individual children’s unique personalities and challenges. But perhaps we overlook the most important aspect: self-discipline. I read an article about John D. Rockefeller recently. While he was a controversial character, one […]

I’m a huge fan of habits. I wrote a book on the topic. But lately I’ve totally fallen off my good habits bandwagon and feeling the ill effects. Part of the reason is because it’s summer. As people who study productivity have noticed, the busier you are, the more you accomplish. I tend to do much […]

I love, love, love my Bullet Journal. As a lifelong paper/journal/calendar/planner addict, I couldn’t find the perfect organization system that met my needs. Until now. Everything I had tried before was either too complicated to learn (GTD anyone?), hard to set up, expensive, time-consuming or so open-ended that there wasn’t enough structure. I have also […]

Joining Modern Mrs. Darcy for this meme. I actually had to think long and hard about this post. Typically, February is a low month for me. I’m usually suffering the effects of light deprivation and feeling sluggish and a bit blue. This year, however, things have been very different, which I’m chalking up to a […]

In part one of “tracking my time“, I said that I spent less time in house cleaning than the grumpy lady in my head thought. I also mentioned that I came up with some strategies to use my time more wisely. Here’s another lesson from the time tracking experiment: do more things in time blocks.  […]

A couple of years ago, I did an experiment, tracking my time for a week. I was motivated to do so after reading Laura Vanderkam’s fabulous book, 168 Hours. Tracking my time was a life-changing, and eye-opening experience and the lessons have stuck with me ever since. The point of time tracking isn’t to squeeze […]

Last week we held a family meeting to discuss the goals we had all set last January. Most of us got at least half of our goals accomplished, and my husband was especially pleased to have hit his biggest goal. I did well on mine too, although much of the progress came late in the […]

This has been a hard year. Have I said that lately? Perhaps yes. But it’s just true, and I’m not one to run from truth-telling even if it’s not always sweetness and light. Yet, there are a lot of things I’m proud of, both personally and inside my family. Things to celebrate. We all beat […]

I’ve written about my love of good morning routines before. It was my early rising habit for the past several years that has made it possible for me to maintain this blog, write several ebooks, work on learning a second language and meet other personal goals while raising seven kids. This past year, my good […]