“When you’re feeling really, really overwhelmed, just taking a piece of paper and a pen just dumping everything that’s on your mind for five minutes can help so much.” – Katherine North

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m so excited to talk with Katherine North, who runs the online coaching business called Declare Dominion. She’s also mom to 5 kids ages 2 to 11.

We talk about Katherine’s daily compass that helps her focus on the most important thing each day. She shares her strategy of choosing 3 goals a quarter and then 3 goals for the week. And while, like the rest of us, she finds herself spending some weeks putting out fires, she uses these goals to refocus.

We also talked a lot about clutter—how it gets in the way of getting things done and how to deal with it. Katherine shares practical tools she uses and mental reset ideas too. There are so many great ideas in this conversation!

We talk about:

• how being ruthless with physical clutter can help us stay on track with goals
• her “5-minute swoop” routine for clearing clutter
• having an outbox for things that need to leave your house
• how taking the time for higher mental work (that you feel like you don’t have time for) leads to higher productivity
• mental load and being realistic about—and getting—the help we need
• how having a “uniform” makes your morning easier and lets you love what you wear.

BIO

Katherine Kunnecke is a writer & life coach who helps soulful women get bigger, stronger, and braver in all areas of their lives. She’s on a not so secret mission to help the wise women take over the world.

LINKS

• Declaredominion.com
• queensweep.com
• Overwhelmed by Brigid Schulte

Doable Changes from this episode:

• DO A 5-MINUTE DECLUTTERING. Set a timer for 5 minutes and see what you can clear in one area. Put dirty laundry in the hamper, backpacks in the closet, clear the coffee cup from your desk. This isn’t the time to sort through papers or wash the dishes. Just clear space.
• CREATE AN OUTBOX. Set up one space where anything that needs to leave your house—from library books to outgoing mail to a dish to return to your neighbor—goes. Put outgoing items in that one place, and when you leave the house check to see if anything needs to go with you.
• FOCUS ON 3 KEY THINGS EACH WEEK. Take half an hour each week to sort out your week. While you aren’t overwhelmed, choose the three things that are most important for that week. As you go through the week and life intervenes, keep coming back to those three things to focus and get things done. 

REALLY getting healthy as a family can be a big lifestyle change. But no matter how insurmountable it may feel, focusing on one doable change at a time can help you take small steps toward your big goal.

A healthy lifestyle is really made of lots of little things that when repeated regularly and added together over time make a huge impact on your life.

Choose one Doable Change every Sunday night — one thing that you are willing to play with for the week. The key is to keep it doable and fun! Write that thing on a sticky note or your phone so you remember it. Then put 3 things on your calendar that support it.

Choose from the changes above or download a list of 101 Doable Changes we made for you.