Your Agile Home

Boundaries are hard especially as parents. It's easy to fall into the trap of helping your kids with everything they need immediately and forgoing your own self-care. 

It is very important to set boundaries and give ourselves the time that we need. It makes us a happier and nicer person. 

The biggest problem is that we say we need to set a boundary and we say "oh, I'll get to it tomorrow." Or we might do it consistently for a week and then we stop doing it. 

This signals to everyone who knows your boundary exists that this is actually not an important boundary to you. This allows them to come in and fill that time. 

Be sure when you set a boundary, you hold firm to the idea of the boundary. There may be some nights you have to forgo that time. The more regular your boundary is the more everyone around you will respect it. 

Head on over to the Facebook Group and let me know how it goes. 

Let's talk big goals. Moving goals. Travel goals. These huge goals that have tons of big and moving parts. You need to break it down into manageable pieces. 

Write all of the steps down. Sit down and write everything that you could think could be a task to move forward. Then try to categorize it as first, next, last. Think of what could be lumped together and what could be separate. What is a small piece of the project and what is a large piece? This way you can figure out what needs to go into a 2-week sprint or if it needs 4-weeks. 

This is how you break down a super large project. As we break it down into these bite-sized pieces, all of the work is visible.We talked about this on a recent podcast. 

If you need help, book a call and we can talk about breaking down your large projects! 

I am not a cleaning expert! I am not going to tell you how to clean your house, but I can tell you how to break it down into small and achievable tasks. 

Your time is money, if you feel you could spend that time better or something you desire, I highly recommend outsourcing your cleaning routine.

Write down when you are going to do certain things. The parts that are important to you are important, so make sure you know how often you need to clean it.

As always, do a 2-week sprint. See what is working and what is not working. 

Message me and let me know how your 2-week sprint goes! I am a big fan in making your cleaning routine fit your lifestyle. 

On New Years Eve, we do a lot of thinking about routines and being our best selves in the new year. I want you to do that every 2 weeks!

You can do that after every sprint. You can look at your sprint and your sprint goals and see how you can improve every two weeks!

This helps you not be married to a system that isn't working. You don't need to wait until the next big holiday. 

You've had the transformation of accepting and resolving a New Year's Resolution every 2 weeks! Isn't it great? You won't be falling off the wagon. 

Join me in the Facebook Group!

The maternal mental load is a hot topic right now. Many people did not realize that so many things are going on under the surface.

One of the reasons, I started using Agile in my home was because it made the work visible. All important steps and decisions go onto the project list.

There are some things that each of you hold inside that you want done and you think about them a lot. But, for some reason, they haven't made it onto an external list and this can build resentment.

Head on over to the Facebook Group and let me know how your you are making your work visible.

Communication is such a huge and important part of being Agile. One of the biggest problems our society has is that we listen without hearing. We formulate our response as we listen to them talk.

This doesn't work in an Agile Environment because everyone needs to feel like they are being heard. Everyone can be heard, feel respected and will get their ideas written down on paper and be resolved.

Now that you know all of this, take this idea to your next family sprint meeting.

Head on over to the Facebook Group and let me know how your family sprint goes!

Let's talk about a very famous quote from Vince Lombardi - "A winner never quits and a quitter never wins."

Is this really true? How many times have people quitting led to them making a better decision and, ultimately, having more success and happiness?

Many of us get married to a system without evaluating if it is really working for us. The glory of the Agile system lets you set yourself up with what is working now and later you can ask questions to see if it is still working.

It doesn't matter how long you have been using a system, you can choose anytime to reassess and change.

Stop thinking about quitting in such a negative fashion. Today, I want you to evaluate the systems you are using. Pick one that is not working anymore and come up with a plan to change it. Quit the things that are dragging you down. 

Head on over to the Facebook Group and let me know what you're quitting. 

We, as moms, look at everybody else and society's expectations of us, feeling like we  don't do enough. This is not necessarily true. You do not have to do #allthethings.

Even the most successful people you know, they have a list of things that they don't do. We all have priorities and sometimes we don't like doing things so we just don't do them. 

Your values come into play - what is important to you and what do you want to show in your life. 

Email me or schedule a call with me to talk about your "I Don't List" to help you take care of yourself and be the best parent you could be. You could also share in the Facebook Group!

A visual schedule is a game changer. You won't argue with your kids about getting ready on the daily. The morning routine is often the busiest part of our day.

We call our system the Children's Daily Scrum board because we use Scrum in our Agile Home. I bought my daily schedule from Amazon. 

Whenever an argument starts or a question pops up, I always tell them to go look at their boards. This has allowed me to drink hot coffee, every day!

Can I get an amen? Don't forget to join me in the Facebook Group!

If you're looking for a way to reinforce your family values, you don't have to look further than your bookshelves. 

The catalyst for me was the book The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More by Bruce Feiler. 

There are a few ways that we reinforce our family values through reading. Most commonly, I look at my kids' bookshelves and create one with books specific to our family values. I used Samantha Munoz's Intentional Bookshelf method. I also frequent Brightly for updates. 

The three ways to create an intentional bookshelf that reinforces your family values are to: 

1. Set your family values. What do you want your kids to learn? What do you want to make sure they are not exposed to (like bullying selfish characters. 
2. Select books that are aligned with those family values. This is where you have to be really intentional. 

Be sure to join us in the Facebook Group!