Is it just me or do you ever feel like you are spinning 18 million plates trying to keep up with the demands of work and family and friends and life and all the things?

Girl, the struggle is so real like it's very real to me right now in this exact moment that I am recording this podcast episode.

But I will say that lately Matt and I have been implementing Sunday Sabbath or Sunday rhythms and it has been so life giving and by rhythm, I mean rhythms of rest and by that, I mean we keep our phones off all day throughout the day until after dinner and spend the afternoon napping and walking and reading by our wood burning stove and playing worship music and just being in the word and being with each other.

And it's not something that we share on our stories or post on socials. It's really just our time for us. It helps us reset before the coming week and it gives our souls a break from the hustle in both work and in our personal lives.

But I get a lot of questions regarding like how do you get it all done and honestly my response lately has been I get it all done by not getting it all done and by being okay with not doing or being at all.

That's actually very contrasting if that's the right word like it doesn't really align very well with my natural inklings. I want to be able to do it all and be it all. I've had many seasons in my life where I've tried to respond to every single person's request and be available and make all the things and do all the things and I'm still very much making a lot of things.

I'm not that that's not to say that I'm not but my point is I think I've just through implementing this rhythm it's helped me be like you know what it's okay to just not like this is actually giving me permission to know that the sky isn't going to fall if I take a break you know so.

I don't know I could sound counter intuitive but it's really true and I found that the less that I push myself to constantly be on and achieving without any breaks the more productive I actually am in the blocks that I designate to knock out my top goals like it sounds kind of crazy but it's like.

I think I'm just so much more intentional with that time that I allow myself because it's more limited time so anyways I want to give you a few tips to creating rhythms in your life to specifically kind of monthly rhythms to help you feel and be a little bit more organized in both your personal life and in your in your work life or professional life just a little bit more balanced and I think it can be easy to get off kilter and I also think sometimes I get tired of like all the motivational gurus and all the motivational mayhem that's like.

Set big goals take massive actions like that's a great sound bite like that sounds awesome and I like it totally pumps me up but in practical reality it's difficult to really implement and stick with when you have these like monstrous mountainous goals especially several of them that you're trying to like achieve at one time and you're just trying to like improve your life in all areas and it's like not sustainable because you also have a lot of obligations and things you have to do so it's like how can we create disciplines and rhythms and routines rather than just goals and you know what I mean.

Rather than just goals like my friend Jefferson Bethkey talks about this in his book to how with the hustle he talks about rhythms and routines and formations over just like big goals so anyways I'm going to dive into that a little bit this episode but specifically I want to give you five tips or five steps that you can take at the beginning of every month to create like a monthly rhythm monthly consistent thing couple things that you do every month to really set yourself up for the month to clear your mind to get your schedule ready to be very intentional and more purposeful with your time so let's do it.

You're listening to she with Jordan Lee Dooley a personal development podcast for the everyday woman come invited leave ignited here's your host Jordan Lee Dooley.

Okay so just like I mentioned the weekly Sunday rhythm that Matt and I have implemented developing monthly routines can also be really really helpful so these are five steps that you can do with the beginning of each month to stay organized at work and in your personal life okay so at the beginning of each month I want you to take a day or maybe two days ideally on a weekend like the first day of the day.

Saturday of every month or however you want to do it to do the following the first one is to schedule your appointments so you know like how those things that pop up like the eye doctor appointment you're like shoot I need to schedule that like I'm you know way behind or you know I oh shoot I forgot to get my hair appointment like when those things pop up and it's like sewing convenient and you have to squeeze it at a time that doesn't really work but you can make work.

I don't know I guess the point is take a few minutes at the beginning of every month to schedule your hair appointments or your nail appointment or your whatever medical appointments you might have or even like coffee appointments or like meetings like actual meetings like that are a little bit more appointment oriented try to schedule those ahead of time and do do that like first first Saturday of every month or first Friday of every month and make it happen because I think the biggest thing I found I actually recently had experience with this because I didn't do this very well in a week.

I was like a last minute eyebrow appointment because I was like shoot I have to film for stuff and I haven't had my eyebrows done in like forever and I look like I have 17 caterpillars 17 probably like to I don't have 17 eyebrows but I just felt like I had like scraggle muffin eyebrows and it was like there was just caterpillars crawling on my face and I was like shoot I really needed to get that done and I had to squeeze it in the last minute it was like not the most convenient time but that's the point is when you can be a little bit more proactive about this and actually say like okay I'm going to do it.

I'm going to set aside 20 minutes the first Friday of every month to focus on getting this done if there's nothing coming up that month like great I'll just enjoy 20 minutes to not have anything on my schedule but taking 15 to 20 minutes to do this doesn't take much time and it saves you a lot of headache later in the month.

So first thing I would say is schedule any and all appointments at the beginning of the month.

The second thing is to deep clean your home or your living space just take an afternoon to do a couple things that you normally wouldn't do like I know we probably all do laundry and dishes regularly right but we don't all like mop our floors every day and change the sheets on our bed and I mean I would hope you change your sheets more than once a month but my point is like that's not like a daily or buy it like every other day kind of thing or you know dusting or cleaning bathrooms so take one afternoon or one morning.

The beginning of the month the first Friday of the month the first Saturday of the month to mop your kitchen floor to dust to clean the bathroom or bathrooms in your house starting each month with a clean home can be such a game changer for your mental clarity and your productivity so set aside like make that like your you time like throw on a podcaster throw on some music and take like three hours to just say I'm going to clean the bathrooms I'm going to mop or sweep the floors and I'm going to dust because I haven't right and I don't know I've just found that when I have a clean home and when I actually do that I'm going to do that.

I'm just like I feel ready and set for the month and I might still have some things that I need to get rid of or take to you know the to like salvation army or whatever but the point is when it feels clean it's like I feel like I can start with a clean slate so deep clean your home would be another thing that I would say to do rhythmically at the beginning of every month or consistently at the beginning of every month.

The third thing that I would say is to choose a book to start and to complete so if you're anything like me you might pick up like three books at the same time like start reading one and then three days later you start reading another one and then you forget about it and like a week later you pick up another one and then you go back to the one you started and then you forget about that because you left in your car or whatever so there's nothing wrong with reading multiple books at a time but I know from my personal experience it can be tough to finish them because you're picking up one after another so I'm going to do that.

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