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Simple Farmhouse Life
258. Establish Systems in Your Home, Business, and Life to Gain Peace and Productivity | Chelsi Jo Moore of Systemize Your Life
00:50:55
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- [00:00]
A
How badly do you want your life to not be overwhelming and chaotic? How sick of it are you? And there are people that are actually run ragged. I know it's become a trendy thing to be okay with showing up however you want to show up, and that is okay. But when deep down inside you don't actually like that you haven't taken care of yourself in six months, you don't like the way that you feel in your own skin, you don't like the fact that you haven't been able to wash your face in weeks. Like as a woman, you know deep down how you want to feel. And you know, you keep sacrificing it for everyone and everything else.
- [00:35]
B
My name is Lisa, mother of eight and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone. Join me as I share with you my love for creating a handmade home from scratch cooking and a little mom and entrepreneur life along the way. Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Today we are going to be chatting about systemizing your life and figuring out how to make your home, your relationships, your to do list, all flow a bit better when you are overwhelmed. This is a common problem and I think it deserves to be talked about. And we're going to be joined today with Chelsea by Chelsea Jo Moore, who has the podcast Systemize youe Life. She has all kinds of resources on that, so this is going to be a very encouraging conversation. All right, Chelsea, welcome on. I am really excited to talk about this topic that so many moms and homemakers need to manage everything. I think a lot of people are very overwhelmed with their homes, with their schedules. It boils down to a lot of factors. But you teach women how to systemize your life and that is your mission. So tell us a little bit about yourself and your website and your offerings and we can talk about how women can take control back of their homes and schedules.
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A
Yeah, that is definitely my mission and my goal. I'm extremely passionate about women understanding that they don't have to choose between themselves and their passions and still really being able to pour into their homes and their families. I think unfortunately the space where we're at in the climate that we're at, especially in America, it's a luxury for one family member to not work. Most families now in America, both parents are working and all of the typical nurturing and mom duties still instinctually come back on mom. And we always process that internally a lot differently. Even with I have an incredibly supportive husband. He's very involved with the kids, but still I internalize the weight of doing both much differently than he does. And some women are very good at that. But I, you know, I watched my mom growing up give everything to her family, and she worked overnight. And I just watched her sacrifice herself so much that I always questioned how happy she was, you know, and how healthy she was because of those things. I made an incredible mom. Right. So that's always been my mission. It. It really changed me. I thought that I had to have a career before I could have a family, and I didn't think I was ever going to have a family because I wanted a career, and I didn't know that I could do both. And I ended up a single mom, and I was like, well, I got to do both. And so I figured it out. And throughout that process, I created a bunch of systems for myself that I was really passionate about sharing with my friends, who were also struggling. And come to find out, it's. It's been the key to success for thousands and thousands of women. So over. You asked about the website, but over at chelseajo Co, that's where I have all of my systems. So I have four signature systems that I teach. One is specifically for home management, and the other three are for getting your business organized so that your business is able to grow and it's not taking away a ton of time from you. So you have that best of both worlds, whatever that looks like for you, and whatever season you're in with raising your babies.
- [04:15]
B
Yeah, well, that all sounds great. I think a lot of people are looking for a system. Ultimately, you know, all. Everything takes a lot of work, but we can make it a lot easier when we have a system that works for us. I think everybody's going to be a little bit different with that. But what, what kind of systems you teach for, like, home management? I saw on your website you have, like, is your house always messy? Is your to do list constantly multiplying? Like, I think a lot of people, what they struggle with is the to do list is bigger than they can even handle. I've. I've had seasons like that before. I kind of figured out how to minimize some things, how to outsource some things, how to just completely drop things. Where I looked at it and I thought, this isn't actually even possible. And that's where we really run into an issue. And you say, like, are you drowning in laundry, toys, dishes, struggling to stay on tasks, constantly distracted? Where do you start with all of this?
- [05:09]
A
Yeah, well, the, the overwhelming to do list is like the number one indicator of like, okay, like we have a problem, you know, and that's, I think when people are every single week writing down this to do list and it's getting longer and not shorter, that's when they're like, their feelings go one of two ways. They either get really down on themselves or they get down on something outside of themselves. Their family, their job, their home, their whatever. So where we start with all of that and the systems that I teach, kind of in a nutshell, I talk about time management systems, systems to make sure that our home is much more automated. But one of the most kind of intriguing systems that I've created that people really cling to is a fundamental needs system. And so we take all of the fundamental needs that you and your family have. I created this with my spouse and for my marriage so that I could get what I want, he could get what he wants. Need. Actually, it was what we both needed. And we could have a good week every single week. And I, I figured it out. I was like, these are the eight things. And he's like, let's call it the great eight. So now it's kind of known as the great eight. But it's the fundamental needs system where we take those things and we make sure that they are on the calendar and they're hard set and they repeat every week. And before we plan anything in our lives, we put those on the calendar first. And so these are the essentials that no one wants to do, and they're always on your to do list. So when I teach the fundamental needs system and it pairs really well with my time management system, it essentially gets rid of about 95% of your to do list just by organizing it in a different way. You're still getting these things done, but because we've prioritized them and used our time intentionally, we now, in air quotes, magically have time to get these things done. It's actually not magic. It's just a restructuring and like a really different way of organizing it. And it's, you know, it's date night. It's making sure that our meals for the week are planned and prepped. It's making sure that we have set aside time to be with our family. So we have. One of our fundamental needs is called family fun. And we are literally putting on the calendar every week a date night and a time for us to sit down and be with our families and have fun with. Without our phones and no screens and not at gymnastics and not at piano and not at violin and not at dance. Right. Like, that's not family fun. That's not what that is. And then we also have another fundamental need is when we. When are we cleaning? Like, when are we cleaning the house? And when are we doing the to dos that aren't these things that, like, this is really funny. I. When I coach people through this, I often say, okay, I need pictures of the last three to six weeks of your to do list that you've been writing down. And like, I kid you not, people will write, water the plants, pick up the dog, poop in the backyard. And it's like, you guys, we know that this stuff is happening. Why are we writing it on the to do list? Like, that's how we drive ourselves crazy. These things should be automated, a part of our lives and just something that we do, not something we're holding in our brain. Now if you can outsource it to someone else, even better, then it's really out of your brain. But not everybody has the luxury to do that.
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B
Okay?
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A
And honestly, like, I tried outsourcing my house cleaning and I took it back saying, no, yep, I want to do. I.
- [08:42]
B
It's. Even if it's in the budget, it did not help me. I feel the exact. I have certain things in my life that like, that would make sense, like, even from like a business perspective to outsource this. And it just did not make sense. And I agree. House cleaning is one of them. And it seems like such an easy solution, like just hire a house cleaner once a week and they just don't do it. Right. That's just the truth, man.
- [09:06]
A
They don't really. So another one of the things that we do every weekend and our fundamental needs is making sure that we get the amount of time for our company or for our work that we need. And then the gym is also in there, some type of working out. And the last one that I haven't mentioned yet is what we call the Sunday sit down. And that's where we sit down together. We go over the calendar for the week, we go over the finances, the budget, and we have like, things that we, we know that we need to talk about to stay yolked throughout the week. And it's just like in the calendar. So say we go on vacation and we're out of town on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Well, then we know that either on Thursday we move the Sunday sit down or we moved it to Monday. And so it's just very easy to move these things around. We're communicating in the same language, these fundamental things that we know if we do them, everything else is icing on the cake. They're always there. Do we always get all eight of them done? No, but we try, and it gives us an anchor and a goal to move towards. So that, in and of itself, is such a game changer.
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B
Yeah. How did you decide what those eight things were? Like, did you bring four to the table? And he brought four to the table, or how did you organize that?
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A
Yeah, I actually brought a literal whiteboard to the master bedroom weekend after weekend after weekend. And I was like, tell me why you had the best week. You've been happy, you've been patient, you've been kind. What was working? And I was writing it down, and then I was like, this week was horrible. What was wrong? Why? And then I just started repeating it until we had this system. And for many years, I actually guided other people. And I, like, actually created a way for you to go through and vet and, like, take this. This, like, test basically, to figure out what your own family's fundamental needs are. But, like, you don't even need to do that now. I've learned, like, just go do my eight, and your life will be totally changed. And then you can tweak from there. Because these things are just fundamental to anyone that has a family and they're trying to make money. Like, we're busy, you know, and these things get put off. So that's how I figured it out. But I have also learned that, like, these eight work for pretty much anybody.
- [11:27]
B
So, yeah, they're pretty universal in some respects, like what somebody might do with a Sunday sit down, or the family time might look different to a different family, but they still need that time to put their heads together and kind of. We call it debriefing. Like, we need to debrief. Like, we need to figure out what's assess. Like, something feels a little bit off or, you know, something's working. We need to, like, get somewhere where maybe we can just be the two of us alone and chat about this. And we also have noticed we talk about this all the time. But, like, for example, this summer, the one that we just had, that's over now. We usually try to get down to. We have really cool rivers in our area, and it's like, such a, we think, a priority to get down there. Well, guess how many times we made it this year? Literally once. And Luke kept saying, like, I need to get the kids down there. I need to get the kids every week. I'm like, we have to put it on the calendar. Because other things just start filling in. Somebody says, can you do this thing? I look at it, I'm like, no, I don't have anything on the calendar. But if I saw that date there, if I saw, like, you know, we're needing to go down to this river this day, I would say, oh, sorry, no, we can't do that. And so filling in before other people fill it in for you is the only way you're actually going to get these priority things done that, you know, otherwise just get filled in by so many things. So if you. There's. Say you have eight things that you have to get done. What if they can't fit? How are you rearranging things or minimizing things?
- [12:55]
A
Well, we start from. We start from, like, the foundation of, like, they have to fit, right? Because they're fundamental. And so that takes a lot. I mean, we've had families straight up pull their kids out of extracurriculars.
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B
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, probably things like that to happen. Yeah.
- [13:13]
A
Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, how badly do your. Do you want your life to not be overwhelming and chaotic? How much time. How much more time do you want to, like, how sick of it are you? And there are people that are actually run ragged. And, like, I'm just not here for the mantra that, like, I know it's become a trendy thing to be okay with showing up however you want to show up, and that is okay. But when deep down inside, you don't actually like that you haven't taken care of yourself in six months, you don't like the way that you feel in your own skin. You don't like the fact that you haven't been able to wash your face in weeks. Like, as a woman, you know deep down how you want to feel. And, you know, you keep sacrificing it for everyone and everything else. And for me, I just knew from watching my mom do it her whole life that that actually made my children sad. And I wanted to take care of myself so that they knew how to do the same thing for themselves. You know, I have two girls, and so that was really important for me to show them what this looked like. I still struggle with it because my mom was so stinking selfless that I just want to serve. I love it. It makes me feel amazing. But I just stop and say, like, these are the things that I need to be able to show up hard for my family. Which kind of segues really perfectly into why I created the time management system that I created. But I just make sure that I have parameters with my fundamental needs. I'm like, these are the eight things that we really need to do every week. And when we as a family have a little bit more time luxury in our life. My husband's a firefighter and so he's home for four days. And so we get to play a lot. And when we've played too hard and we're like, meh, fundamental need, whatever, let's go for a walk, let's go wherever. You know, we suffer the consequences. And we're like, well, the reason why XYZ happened is literally directly related to us skipping that fundamental need on the calendar.
- [15:20]
B
Yeah, yeah, I could totally see that. It makes everything feel out of balance.
- [15:24]
C
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- [15:31]
B
It's a lot.
- [15:32]
C
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- [18:05]
B
Now you talked about not adding things like water the plants, walk the dog to the do list. And to be honest, I've heard, I've heard opposite advice sometimes, but I have to agree with you. I feel like we build certain things up in our head and they become a bigger thing than they should be. I've definitely done this, but people do it with really small things and it makes you maybe feel like you did a lot or like you had too much on your plate. What are your reasons for not writing them on there?
- [18:35]
A
Because I just genuinely believe that we should take everything that we're supposed to do and condense it down. So I teach routine stacking. You're probably really familiar with habit stacking.
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B
Yeah, habit stacking.
- [18:52]
A
But routine stacking is absolutely not the same thing. So a routine is a series of tasks that you do in order in order to accomplish something. So I took my five time blocks that you have from the time you wake up until you go to bed. And each one of those time blocks has a series of tasks that we group together and we call it a routine. Then we stack some routines on top of each other and we call it a routine stack. So what I believe is you should be able to wake up in the morning and that's the trigger that tips this beautiful arrangement of dominoes that just flows all day long. And then when a curveball gets thrown at you, because it does, when you are a parent, there will be a curveball four times a day, every day. And if you're lucky, you only have one curveball a day. Right. So we expect these things. You can imagine somebody slips a domino out of your beautiful, just like flowing day. And so all you have to know is, okay, like we improvise, we adapt, we overcome, and then we're going to just ourselves know the next thing and the next domino and we're going to go tip it. And now our day starts flowing again. So I'm able to handle curveballs so much more because because of that, now my brain doesn't have to think about every single one of those dominoes because all I had to think about was the first one that I tipped. And then I've structured my day to just start flowing. I don't think it's possible. And there's science behind the dopamine release that we get when we write a list, but nothing's ever actually getting done. Right? So we keep writing these things done and then they don't get done. Or we write the little things down that we are doing to be able to check them off because it feels good. But essentially it's not actually a productivity tool that helps us get rid of the overwhelm. I just looked at it as, okay, we've got all these things to do because by nature I'm very systematic and I like to organize things and put them in categories. So that's what I did. I took all the things that were scattered all across the day and I started saying, okay, how do we concentrate our efforts? So my second and fourth block of the day are my AM and my PM block. And that's where I focus 100% on my family and my home and my marriage, whatever. It has nothing to do with me or my job. It's fully concentrated on getting. It's the before school routine. Right. It's all of those things that have to be done in the AM hours before I start my work block. There's a tidy queue in there where I go through and I tidy up the house that a bomb doesn't look like it went off. And these things just happen every single day. And then I have put one to two hours on my calendar every week to do my random to do's. And so I do have a list of those things.
- [21:37]
B
Okay.
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A
But they're really quite random. Like, I have it open in front of me. It says orthodontist appointment, call Subaru, purchase a camera and follow up with gymnastics.
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B
Right.
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A
Like, I don't do that every week. Those are really random. Yeah.
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B
But I do know we all have.
- [21:53]
A
Those, but every week you have them. Which is why we put about one to two hours as a fundamental need on the calendar to ensure sure that the random things that come up have a time and space slotted for them.
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B
So are you scheduling all of your appointments during that time block? Like when they say when are you available? You're like, I'm available. I know when I'm available because I'm always looking at them thinking, okay, I have this, this day, this, this day. I'm like, throw me some dates because I'll just kind of find when I don't. But you, you have a very set one or two hours per week that they have to fit in or you're going to push it off to the next week.
- [22:26]
A
So that one to two hours for my to dos is when I'm actually doing all my to dos now when I call them and I' trying to find a time to schedule an appointment. I do, like you just mentioned, really advise people to try and keep one day a week that's appointment free. So for me it's Fridays. If I can do something on a Friday, that's when I absolutely try and do it. Now things do come up, appointments have to be made, doctors are really full and you have to get in. We just had this experience for me today, like you gotta get in when they can get you in. And those are random times. But for the most part, like I we just had braces put on the oldest kid and it's like, okay, ortho appointments are going to be happening. So I told them my preferred date of when I want to be going and doing this every six weeks instead of being at the mercy of other people. I try and prioritize one day of the week that's best for me and leave that open.
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B
Yeah, to expect like it's not random. It's like, well, Fridays is the day that most likely. Because there's always going to be something. Like there's just something. And so if you know that that's pretty much happening every Friday, that would make my life easier to know what to expect.
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A
Absolutely. And then it feels like such a gift when there's nothing on that Friday and you're like, yes, no appointments. We have a free Friday, no appointments.
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B
Right.
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A
I started doing that in my business too. So like Wednesday's a hundred percent for coaching and Thursdays are for meetings and interviews. And like I don't on Mondays and Tuesdays and Fridays I never have to worry about whether or not I have to be called into A meeting for my company. I can just put my head down and get work done.
- [23:55]
B
Hmm. See, I am nowhere near this organized and probably it shows because I don't always. Like, nobody in my family knows what to expect necessarily either. Like, do you have a podcast today? And you know, it could be any day of the week. We have designated hours, so I wouldn't ever do a podcast, like, outside of a few hours. But it could be any day, Monday through Thursday, that. That could be thrown on them. So I think that sounds like a really interesting idea. Now people feel like they're overwhelmed and they've never gotten into this routine that you're talking about. That just happens really naturally. Like, you just start on this path and then boom, boom, boom. You're not worried about like checking all the boxes. Like, it's just happening. How do you help people to figure out what their routine might look like?
- [24:41]
A
So this is what we do. If you are a mother with children, I always have. You start with your PM block and your after school routine, then your dinner routine, then your kids bedtime routine. And if you have extracurricular activities, we shoot to fit them in between one of those two routines. But those three routines have to be done in your PM block. So from the time your kids get out of school, if you're homeschooling, we obviously could talk about that, but. And I have a suggestion for that. But from the time your kids get done with school, say, let's just say 3:00 hour until they go to bed. Let's say, let's say 8:00, you've got five hours. So we've got an after school routine, but dinner routine, and then we have their bedtime routine. These three things are going to happen within those five hours. So the goal is, all we're doing with your life is focusing on that right now and nothing else. So when I have somebody come to me that's like, none of this feels natural. I have no idea what I'm doing. I just say, let your whole life be whatever you want it to be. But as soon as the clock strikes three, I want you to get laser focused. And so we work on what is your kid's after school routine. We write it out, we put it on the fridge, we put it in their bathroom, we put it in your planner, we put it everywhere so it's in front of your face. And then you're just. Your only job as a mom ever, if you're following my ways of doing things, is you're just shepherding your kids through their own independent routine. So I'm like a hardcore Montessori mom. And I love my kids being able to independently navigate their environment. So I've been doing this with my kids since they could walk. And it's fun to watch the gradual release of responsibility and see what my junior high student is doing with this now, you know, so it's super cool for you to be able to say, okay, now I have. You don't even have to communicate these routines. And I highly suggest you don't communicate the after school routine to your kids until you know what's working and what's not. So you're going to say, okay, when they come home, I'm going to make sure that they get their backpacks unpacked. That's step one. Then I'm going to make sure that they get their lunch boxes unpacked. Great. Then I'm going to make sure they get their homework done. I will have already had a snack prepared for them. That feels like a really good place for our after school routine to start and stop right now. So that's all you're working on doing. Then once you've done that for a few days, then you can start audibly saying, hey, kids, as soon as we get home from school, you guys are going to drop your backpacks, take everything off, shoes off, hands washed, and then what's at time for? And they're going to say, then we clean out our lunch boxes. And they're going to be so annoyed. Right.
- [27:20]
B
Catch on quick.
- [27:20]
A
Help them through that process. They will catch on quick. Especially if you're excited. And like now you can see how we've completely flipped the script from nagging our children, being negative, being annoyed, being frustrated. And our work is done. We're not on our laptop, our phones aren't in front of our faces. We're showing up as a present mom. And we're guiding them through an environment where we're helping them to succeed. And it's such a game changer. It really is.
- [27:46]
B
Yeah. I think it's also really important, like everything you said, to communicate expectations because that's where we've felt fallen into some like, oh, like I thought I would get to do this at this time and, oh, I thought nobody really knew, you know, designating it all out, even if it's loose. But having, yeah, like you have a business and you have hours that you're, you know, you've set it up so that Monday through Thursday you kind of know what you're working with and Then Friday might be, you know, some of those appointments and things like that. But you have an expectation of having, you know, when you're able to do that, like, when you're. Yeah, yeah. That's. That's helped us as well, to kind of say, okay, who's doing what?
- [28:31]
A
Who's.
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B
Who's making dinner, who's prepping? You know? And then I have teenagers that can help with everything now, too, which is a whole different thing, but really nice. Like, I'll. I'll just tell one of my kids, like, I'm going to go outside with the boys, make dinner.
- [28:47]
A
I know. I can't wait. I just heard a really cool. Because my oldest, she actually is phenomenal in the kitchen, so she should actually. She's done it a few times, but she could be really good at this. And I heard some other mom say that, like, she literally has to cook dinner one night a week, and she had enough kids where, like, they could rotate. And I was like, oh, my gosh, wait a minute.
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B
That's an option? Yes.
- [29:12]
A
Frankie can cook dinner at least one night a week. I'm doing it. And so, like, I have this really cool meal planning system that's super. Just so basic. It's so basic, and that's why it's amazing. But, like, she needs to come to that one hour that we do every weekend where we plan the meals, pick her day, and pick her meal instead of me saying, hey, will you do the hamburgers? Right. Like, she's involved in that process. So, like.
- [29:37]
B
Right. She's. It's up to her. Even, like, what it is.
- [29:39]
A
There's a. I know. There's, like, a whole nother level of outsourcing to my children that we're finally getting, too, because they're a little bit older. I'm so great at making them independent and not doing things for them. I'm really good at that. But now it's like, ooh, they actually going to start doing things for me now? Yep. Let's do it.
- [29:56]
B
Yep. Yeah, I know. It's. It's really nice. And. And I always have to, like, it was really easy for me to do that with the older two, but then, like, I have to remind myself to do that with the third and fourth because they're older, too now. And it's just so easy to ask the two oldest because they're so capable. But, like, this morning, I was something on the porch, and I hadn't quite potted this one plant, right? And it was starting to die, and I'm like, You go find me some dirt. He's like, what dirt? I'm like, dirt and plant this better. Like, anything. Just, you know, like, I love giving them jobs that you don't even expressly, like, tell them how to do it. Just, like, get this done, fix this, make this better. I think that that's a really. It's so good way to. Yeah. So then you have systems with all of that. Probably a lot of the moms you're talking to are probably figuring out how to do this all by themselves with a bunch of little kids. Is that typically who you're helping?
- [30:47]
A
Oh, gosh, yes. But honestly, I see it. It's, like, all over the gamut. I mean.
- [30:53]
B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
It doesn't matter. It's been. It's just women overwhelmed.
- [30:57]
B
Yeah. We carry a lot.
- [30:58]
A
But. Yeah, I would say the. Yeah. I mean, we. I see college women.
- [31:04]
B
Yeah.
- [31:05]
A
Young. Young women in college, no kids, not married. Yeah. They're busy and they don't want to do their life like every other college student. They want to take care of themselves. I see empty nesters. There's women that are like, look, I didn't take care of myself through this whole entire process, and now I have so much time on my hands, and I'm really getting nothing done because I don't know how to fill my time. I'm wasting so much.
- [31:26]
B
I will say, I think that season can be harder to figure out what to do with your time. Because right now, with the way my life is, with having eight kids and homeschooling and having a business, there's really never any question mark about how I should spend it. Like, if I'm sitting and it's not bedtime, then I'm forgetting about something. And so you see to rack your brain and think, what am I supposed to be doing? This isn't right. And so it's really easy because it's just. Don't stop. Like, as long as you don't stop, like, you're probably fine. But what. You know, whenever you're having to actually, like, fill these blocks in intentionally. And there's also a certain momentum that happens when you don't stop that you probably have to overcome whenever you do have a bit more time on your hands. I could see. And I've been in that position. When I first got married, I hadn't yet. Like, I graduated from college in 07. And then I got pregnant and married, married and pregnant really quick and had the baby in 08. And so in that time, I didn't go get A job. Because I'm like, well, what would be the point? Like, I know I'm going to be having this baby in 08. So I had a lot of time on my hands, and I look back and I was the least productive person. Like, I just couldn't figure out what to do with it.
- [32:34]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And I think even with the downtime that we do have, 90% of people are just scrolling on their phones. And so I have, like, so much to say about how important it is to not constantly be suckered into the scroll.
- [32:55]
B
Well, let's. Let's go there, because I think so you get questions. You know, we get questions, and people say, yeah, but I'm too overwhelmed to even think about a system. And a lot of times that is my question. How much time are you spending? Because that's not just a neutral activity. I think that pulls your brain even further down to the point where it, like, derails. At least for me, it derails everything.
- [33:19]
A
Everything. Because now I want to buy four things, probably 14 things. And then, I mean, now I've magically have, like, three, four, five other things on my brain that I want to accomplish. A hike. I want to go on. I already know all good stuff. I want to take my family on. It's not negative. There's some negative. But, like, my feed's not full of anything negative. You know, I'm coming out with a positive mindset of all this stuff I want to tackle. But guess what? Like, I don't need that in my brain. Overwhelmed, fully motivated. I know exactly what I'm supposed to do. And, like, I just need to put my head down and do it. So I. It's really. It's really a simple fix. I just delete the apps off my phone. I just don't even have them. They're, like, actually deleted. And people don't know that. All you have to do is go to the app store, download it, and within, like, a few minutes, it saved your password, you put it back on. But I will go. Weeks of just deleting apps on my phone, and I'm like, don't make me go back, so you can't make me.
- [34:21]
B
And it's. And that's enough for me to break the habit. Like, when it's deleted, I don't. I don't look for it anymore. And so therefore, I don't scroll. And I'll even, like, I'll have a sponsored. I have three sponsored things coming up in the next couple weeks on Instagram, and I will delete it between every single one.
- [34:39]
A
I will.
- [34:39]
B
And that might sound hypocritical because it's like, well, you're obviously like getting on there to. Yes, but if you guys all quit and get off of it too, I won't get those sponsors anymore. And that's totally fine. I truly encourage it. Go ahead. Like, the people are still there, but I wish you'd just get off of it. I don't know how.
- [34:59]
A
I'm the same way, honestly. It's a tool for our companies and until there's a different tool, then we'll use a different tool, like. But the tool I decided a long time ago was not going to use me. And so I use it to the best of my ability. Whenever we have really big promotions in our company, I'm literally pumping out so much marketing that people are wanting to be a part of my community. And so I want to be available for them to connect with me in the DMS and chat with me so that when their heart is hard pressed to really make a change and join my program so that they can put these systems in their lives, I'm available. Well, when we're not in that season, I'm not available in that way. I'm not. You know, we have other ways for the people in my community to be connected and to get the support that they need. And like, we just came out of a really heavy promotion season and I'm so addicted. It's disgusting.
- [35:56]
B
Right?
- [35:56]
A
And like, how can I delete it quickly? So quickly, so quick.
- [35:59]
B
Yes. That's why I have to delete it in between time. Because as soon as my brain knows it's there, I'm like, oh, what's so and so doing?
- [36:06]
A
Ooh.
- [36:06]
B
And then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, I got sucked in again.
- [36:09]
A
That's so bad. And like, when you do delete it and you find yourself tapping or tapping a black screen and you're like, that's.
- [36:17]
B
When it really hits you.
- [36:18]
A
Yeah. Yep. It's bad news.
- [36:22]
B
It is. And it does feel. And I've had people say, well, but, you know, you make your living online and I do. And there's, you know, if Instagram went away, I think there's slower forms of media that I would be happy to just stay on and avoid. I mean, honestly, I've never, I've never done TikTok. I have a tick tock. But just that.
- [36:49]
A
Ugh.
- [36:49]
B
Just the. Just give me one more. One more. One more funny thing, one more interesting thing. One more. Like you said, good Hike. Beautiful thing. Maybe, you know, I could do that with my house. It's. It's the reason a lot of women are so overwhelmed.
- [37:02]
A
I think it is because now I'm like, I really want to make that ginormous, gorgeous Halloween decoration, so I should probably go do that. I don't. I don't a. It's not in the budget to go spend 400 on Halloween decorations because I already have four tubs of it in my garage. I don't need more, you know? So, yeah, I could talk about that forever because it. It's what impedes people, and they're like, I don't have time. I'm like, okay, the first part of our time inventory is show me the details of your phone. It'll.
- [37:32]
B
Yeah.
- [37:33]
A
It does not lie.
- [37:34]
B
It doesn't lie. I have noticed in the last several years, as I've paid more and more attention, that I actually have a lot of time. And as someone who has, you know, quite a few obligations, that probably sounds like. I don't know, it probably sounds unbelievable. But there. There's a lot of just little pockets throughout the day where I'm like, man, especially if you do remove the apps that were a problem before, you might discover that you actually have a lot of time.
- [38:06]
A
Yeah, there's a. It's just not being used well. And everyone always tells me, on a slightly different note, that they're not organized, they're not systemized. They don't like that kind of lifestyle. And the truth is, is that every single person is running systems in their home and in their life. They're just not working for them. Or they are. Right? It's one of the two. Your system is either working for you or it's not, or you're somewhere in between, and you're still tweaking and refining, which is what, you know, it's. That's what we're doing. We have some systems that are working really well, and then we have other systems that, you know, we need to tweak and refine. As your kids grow, as your job changes, as the seasons change, we tweak these routines, and we tweak our systems to be able to support what we're doing. But everybody has a system in place. It's just a matter of finding one that has worked for so many other people and probably would be easy for you to just swipe and plug into your life and use to.
- [39:09]
B
I could see how it have to be tailored maybe slightly for someone's personality and how they operate, but I think it is a lie to ourselves when we say, oh, I don't like. Because I've definitely done that. Like, well, I'm. I actually told somebody many years ago, I'm not. I'm not organized. I'm just not the type of person. She was like, I don't think you understand what being not organized is because she considered herself not organized. And she was like, I don't think. Because I don't organize in the same way. I feel like the other people do, but in my own way. Like you said, there's a system, there's an organization. I don't run, like, this super tight ship like some people. And maybe that's what I'm thinking, but in some way, yes, there's a. There's. There is a system that's developed over time that does need tweaking here and there, different seasons. Like, you said you had a launch recently in your business. And I know that those kind of things can make life different for a short amount of time.
- [40:08]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, there's a difference between being organized and having a system. Like, you can organize something and then it gets disorganized very quickly because there was no system to maintain what you organized.
- [40:20]
B
Oh, yeah, that's me. Yes.
- [40:23]
A
That's why I'm like, yes. I never wanted to teach organization because I wouldn't consider myself a professional organizer. Do I love organizing my home? Absolutely, I do. Just decided that I would invest in acrylic bins so they look cute and you can see through them in baskets with type.
- [40:38]
C
Yep.
- [40:39]
A
Okay. But like, all my life it's been cut up cereal boxes in the leftover Ziploc baggie box that I taped together with duct tape to organize. Like, I've always been organized, but, like, I'm not somebody that you're going to see putting professional pictures of, like, my professional organized house, you know, but yes.
- [40:56]
B
It'S, you know, where things are and things.
- [40:57]
A
Yes.
- [40:58]
B
Yeah. Have a place.
- [40:59]
A
Yeah. And so we're orderly and we're tidy. I just feel like, yes. If you are the person that's like, no, you don't understand. Like, we need to get rid of stuff. Absolutely. I take people through the process of escaping their clutter and created a really simple method for being able to, you know, get out from underneath the clutter. But then it's like, how do we maintain this on a regular basis with systems?
- [41:22]
B
Yep. That's where. That's the rub. Because I one time said this to my sister because I truly am not naturally organized, and she was like, okay, listen, here's what you do. You just always put something in a spot, and then whenever you get it out, you put it back in that spot. And I'm like, wow, genius. I was like, yeah, that's the hard part. I realize that's very obvious for you because her whole family is like that. And so she's just like, I don't understand the question. So you can't find something. Just put it in the same spot every time. Like, yeah, that. See, that's where. That's where we struggle.
- [42:00]
A
Yeah, absolutely. It's funny, I use this kind of cool, you know, simple to remember, but this term called a tidy cue. And we layer them in at the transition of every time block, because most people don't have that natural tendency to put the thing back. And then it's always fun to be like, let me take a step back and be like, okay, I was there in the kitchen. I sat there at the table. I was there on the couch. And then I can only imagine what it's like with eight, 10 people in the house.
- [42:35]
B
Yes, exactly.
- [42:36]
A
Oh, my gosh.
- [42:38]
B
And none of us are naturally that way. Like, it's been a struggle the whole time to make sure people put things back. Like, we. I have learned over the years, okay, stuff does need a spot. You can't just put it where you think it should go. Okay, stuff needs a spot. And then now we're still in the phase of. Now we put the. The thing in the spot.
- [42:55]
A
Yeah.
- [42:55]
B
But ultimately, having way less possessions is the only thing that works for us.
- [43:00]
A
Absolutely.
- [43:00]
B
We have to be so minimal or we'll struggle.
- [43:06]
A
The kids won't succeed at it for sure, let alone an adult. Yeah.
- [43:11]
B
Yep. Okay. One question I do want to. Before we. Before we close out, I had some questions about, like, what about seasons of survival or burnout, like, chronic illness, relationship strains, financial instincts. When people feel like they can't, there's something else taking all of their attention. How do you help them figure out systems in those, like, very off seasons?
- [43:35]
A
Yeah, that's such a great question. And I will say probably the opposite of what your gut would tell you, but I ride right on the fence. You obviously need to prioritize and serve what needs to be served. Okay. That has to be done. Time has to be given where time has to be given. But I think that's when we should not be abandoning our system. So that's, for me, when the fundamental needs come in super heavy. So I had some major issues that I worked for through when I first got Married and I was healing through my diet and through supplements and through a lot of different things and I had to have time to do that. I'm actually in a season of that right now and my systems now are more important to me than they ever were. I have to really ensure.
- [44:27]
B
Yeah.
- [44:28]
A
That, you know, if we just circle back to those fundamental needs, like maybe you're, you're like for me, CrossFit was off the table for a while, but walking every morning came into play. So where I normally plugged CrossFit in, I'm not walking during that time. So now walking comes inside of my morning routine block when normally I was actually going to CrossFit during my AM block. So I got to move things around. But I have all of my puzzle pieces in front of me so I see what I'm working with and I can make a different picture with my puzzle pieces every week. So when you're in that season of survival mode, I think it's really important for you to sit down and know what is actually very important to you right now. What are you wanting to put your time and energy into and reassess what your fundamental needs are during that season. But the System is still 100% valid and really important. It's just what those fundamental needs are might be different right now.
- [45:25]
B
Right? Yeah.
- [45:25]
A
And so I assess them every quarter. They've been the same for years, but I still go back through and I look, are these serving my family? Are they serving me? I am a faith based entrepreneur and so that is really important to me to make sure that the things that I'm hustling towards and working towards and the way that I show up in my marriage and my home and for my family are actually aligning not just emotionally with myself, but also spiritually with what I feel like I'm called to be doing. And I make adjustments where I need to and physically too. You know, physically, whenever I'm doing a cleanse and I have to have more time to prep my food and I, you know, I have to change what my workouts look like. So I'm still using my systems even I would say, and I don't use this word very often a little bit more rigorously because it's intended to be very flexible. But I feel like, especially if you're trying to heal a relationship with yourself, with your creator, with your spouse, with your children, so any kind of relationship, or if you're physically trying to heal so emotionally, spiritually, physically and even financially, if you're trying to heal financially These systems are even more important. Right. That's when it's time to buckle down and get really serious about what we're putting our time towards.
- [46:43]
B
Right. It makes sense. It is. Sometimes we think, okay, I need to be motivated to do something like this. But in reality, this is supposed to be giving you the freedom and the time and the space to accomplish things maybe that need attention. So, yeah, all the things you mentioned you would just is put those things on your priority list to fit in. And I could see how that would be even more valuable than when you're in a time where everything feels kind of easy and no problem. Yeah, I think the tendency to pull back.
- [47:14]
A
Yeah, it is. Yeah. So that's a really great question.
- [47:17]
B
Awesome. Well, this has been very encouraging. Please tell the listeners where they can follow up with you and where they can learn more. And we'll also be leaving links down in the description box box in the show notes.
- [47:27]
A
Yeah. Well, if you love podcasts and come over and check out systemize your life, got a top 10 ranked podcast that's been hanging out for over 500 episodes. So there's lots of really great information over there for you. So just type in systemize your life. And then if you head over to my website, chelseajoe.co, we actually have a quiz that helps you know what system you should focus on first. Is it your home? Is it in your business? What does that look like? And it's free. It takes about 60 seconds to go through. And you can find that@chelseajoe.co quiz. And then we will deliver the system completely broken down for you, ready for you to implement. And then we've got a couple podcast episodes that come with it to kind of help support you as you're implementing it.
- [48:10]
B
All right. So many great resources. And I like the idea of while you're trying to figure all this out, popping that podcast podcast in your ear and getting your encouragement. That sounds great.
- [48:20]
A
Yeah.
- [48:21]
B
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Chelsea Jo. I really appreciate it.
- [48:23]
A
Thank you.
- [48:24]
B
Well, as always, thank you so much for listening. And I will see you in the next episode of the simple farmhouse life podcast.