Hey It’s Marie Forleo, and you are watching MarieTV - THE place to be if you want a business
and life you love.
And this is Q&A Tuesday and our question today comes from Jade.
And Jade writes,
Marie, I recently started working from home after
being in an office for the past eight years.
I'm 28 and without kids, yet I am finding it really stressful to balance my work and
my home life.
My husband helps out with the cooking and cleaning, but I can't help but feeling overwhelmed
at the thought of taking time out of my work day to do anything for myself like getting
ready, cleaning up last night's dishes, making food, or doing the laundry.
When I first imagined working from home I thought I would miraculously have "more time"
to do things.
So far I feel like I am failing because I can't seem to stick to a schedule.
Do you have a fool-proof list for balancing work and life?
I've heard different things, like waking up really early or making a calendar helps but
so far I've not been very successful with that.
Can you help?
Jade, girl, get ready for a classic Marie smackdown.
Let’s be real here.
You are 28 years old, you got no kids and your husband helps out with the cooking and
the cleaning?
Ooh woman!
You have got it made in the shade and you just don’t know it.
The first thing we need to do here is give you a SERIOUS reality check on how you are
spending your time.
Here’s the deal, you say “you feel overwhelmed at the thought of taking time to do anything
for yourself like getting ready, cleaning up last night's dishes, or making food or
doing laundry...”
How do I say this, Jade?
1.
Getting ready for your day should take 30 minutes tops!
If you are spending more time than that in the shower, girl.
Stop it!
Just stop it!
I do not know what you are doing in the shower, but it should not take you more than 30 minutes.
2.
Cleaning up last night dishes: DUDE I cannot believe this - you need to just do your dishes
RIGHT after you guys eat!!
We do this in my house and it’s called PCU: Project Clean Up.
The moment that we’re done eating, we call out PCU out loud.
Everybody at the table just gets up, we take our dishes into the kitchen, we put them in
the dishwasher or we wash them, and it’s done in 10 minutes flat.
Simple!
3.
With food and laundry: This should not be rocket science.
There are two of you!
When it comes to food, you gotta keep your house stocked with healthy items like veggies
and fruits and just plan your meals in advance.
And when it comes to laundry, just do it twice a week.
Two people should not be generating that much dirty laundry!
Here’s the thing Jade.
You said you heard that waking up early or making a calendar helps.
Here’s the thing, you *heard* right.
Those things do help!
-- IF you actually DO them.
Jade, I’ve got good news for you.
I’ve made a new daily work schedule for you.
If you follow this for 5 days in a row, I promise, you can kiss overwhelm buuh byyye.
7:00 - 8:00 am Wake up and work out 8:00 - 9:00 am Shower, dress, and eat breakfast
9:00 - 12:30 pm Work it girl!
And don’t do email.
12:30 - 1:30 pm Have some lunch, woman!
1:30 - 3:30 pm Work it girl!
3:30 - 4:30 Take a break.
Maybe walk away from the computer, get some fresh air, or do some random house work.
4:00 - 5:30 pm Work it girl!
5:30 - 6:30 pm Reply to emails, plan your next day, and close up shop.
If you have resistance to waking up on time or sticking to a calendar you need to use
my “Catch A Flight” technique.
Did you ever notice that when you need to wake up at some ungodly hour like 4am to catch
a flight, you actually do it?
That proves that you are capable of waking up early and sticking to a calendar.
Now the reason that that works is because the flight time is non-negotiable.
That’s how you need to start looking at your calendar.
The start times and the end times are firm.
You need to stop screwing around or you’re going to miss your flight to the island of
success!
This is your mistake Jade: You keep saying “yeah yeah - keeping a schedule sounds good,
I SHOULD do that” and then you don’t.
Jade, you’ve been hanging out too long with shouldo and meanto.
And they are the laziest mutha humpas on the planet.
It’s time to get rid of shoulddo and meanto and hang out with Do-do!
Aw, good ol’ Do
Do just gets it done.
Everyday, dodoo makes sure to do what she has to do.
As Aristotle said, and it’s a Tweetable:
“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
- Aristotle
Jade, I hope this loving yet very necessary smackdown helps.
Please let us know how it goes.
Now let’s hear from you.
Do you have a trick for sticking to a schedule or getting things done?
How do you get rid of Shouldo and Meanto (those lazy mutha humpas), and make sure you do do
what you mean to do?
I want you to share your best tips and tricks!
And please be specific.
And remember, the best stuff happens AFTER the episode over at MarieForleo.com so please
go ahead and leave a comment there.
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