How We Save Money - and have lived to tell about it {Part 7}

I cannot believe the final part of my saga will be complete tonight! It's crazy how fast this week has flown by.

This post is focusing on tying up loose ends - in more than one way :)

Tip #18: The Most Productive People Only Touch Something Once. Whether you want to admit it or not, you know what I'm talking about. If you're going to take care of that pile of clothes in the spare room you intended to fold and put away two days ago, it usually goes something like this: (example only) You start by moving it (in two trips!) from the spare bedroom to the master bedroom or living room to fold it. You notice the darks are still wrinkly. Well, the natural choice is to toss that load back in the dryer for 20 minutes for a quick fluff while you fold the whites. But no sooner do you get that load of darks in the dryer than the phone rings, and you get distracted. It's now been 45 minutes, and that load is barely warm from the dryer. You figure, what could another 10 minutes hurt? I can get those whites finished in that time! And you do. When you go back for the darks, you decide just to fold them on the dryer. But you don't notice the lint attaching itself stubbornly to the towels and sweaters. So you carry it down the hall to the bedroom(s) to put away. Now, you've wasted 30 minutes of energy (with the dryer), and 45 minutes of your own time. Isn't time money? What a waste! And let's say it's a far less productive activity than I just portrayed: you don't even get that last load folded before it's laundry day again!

As you can see, if you purpose to only touch something once to put it away or take care of it, you'll save yourself your valuable time, and money, too! Someone recently told me, "When God created time, He created enough of it." Enough said. If you know me at all, you know that I scarcely feel I have enough time in a day to do everything I want to do. I always have plenty to do, and lots planned for when all of that is done! But I need to remember this, too.


So the next time you go to tackle that unruly pile of paperwork in the den, remember: If you think you might need it later, make a file folder, label it, stick it in and forget it! If not, shred it or recycle it. Immediately.


Tip #19: Don't Let Your Priorities Go. For some of you, I realize this means you'll actually have to spend time prioritizing. But for everyone else, this means that you already knowwhat your priorities are, and how they're ordered. Thus, my point: Just because something happens or occurs that holds you up, or forces you to put down what you're doing - that doesn't mean everything goes out with the bathwater. Really and truly, emergencies happen. But if you're finding that you have several little "emergencies" on a daily basis, re-evaluate. Are they really emergencies? Doubtful. Is it more likely that you are making excuses to escape reality? Harsh, but probably.


All I'm saying here is, if your daily priorities look like this: make bed, get ready for day, laundry, vacuum, work, prepare dinner, finish laundry, devotions, put away laundry, bed - KEEP it that way! For the sake of your own sanity, if the priorities get interrupted, understand that if you pick up NOT where you left off, EVERYTHING will go haywire! If you leave off on vacuum, and pick up on devotions, you've missed working hours, preparing a meal for you and maybe your family, finishing the laundry, and you're going to get overwhelmed. You know why? Because everything you CHOSE to leave in the dust of your whirlwind will catch up to you before you catch up to it! There are PLENTY of nights that I stay up 5 minutes past bedtime to finish a small task that I know will take me twice as long if I leave it for the next day. There are also days I choose to sleep in 5 minutes more just to not be groggy during the day! (This is a personal choice; not a recommendation for everyone! I also cannot really nap during the day, as my anemia makes my core temperature drop when I do that, and it's hard to regulate, so I'm uncomfortable all day when I nap).


Tip #20: It's the Little Things. In high school, my friend Anna suggested that - even for me, MISS organization! - I make myself a "To-Do, Doing, Done, and Appointments/ Other" poster. She helped me purchase a poster board, divide it evenly into four sections, and label each one as aforementioned. She showed me how to use brightly colored post-its to write down everything - in order of priority, by color - and move them around as I needed to, in order to accomplish tasks, and FEEL accomplished. She suggested leaving something on the "done" column for at least 24 hours after I move the post-it there, as a means of keeping myself motivated. You know what? Even for someone with a day planner, online calendar, and regimented schedule no high schooler has had before - you know, ME - it HELPED! It made me far more productive, and I was even able to squeeze an extra 7 hours of sleep in each week! CRAZY! (Is it crazier that I still have that board - and I still use it??!)


I say, everyone needs one of those. Despite what you may already have in place. Especially if you struggle with being content. I could see a goal, reach for it, and even if I didn't get everythingdone, I could see what I did accomplish. I saw on one of the Duggar's first hour-long specials, Michelle saying, "This is our goal list for the day." (She then pointed to a TD, D, D, A/O chart that was about 40 times the size of mine, and took up their whole wall!) The narrator said how overwhelming it looked, and how could they possibly do it all?! She said, "We may NEVER accomplish everything here. But - there's a goal! At least there's a goal!" Couldn't say it better.


That's it for my 7-day journey, friends. Thank you SO much for reading. And if you have any questions, or want help putting one of these tips into action, please don't hesitate to reach out to me! I'd love to hear your feedback on this 7-part post, too. :)