Feedback from people who consider themselves to be driven or highly motivated

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jmjZelie

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Hello! I am posting this in the Family Life forum because how I apply what I learn will be most relevant to family life, even though some of this will also be relevant to career or spiritual life for others.

I am hoping to get some feedback from people who consider themselves to be highly motivated people. So if you are organized and/or efficient and self-motivated, please brag about yourselves here. I am particularly interested in how you manage making sure most of the duties of your state in life are attended to. Whether or not you feel successful, if you know you try your best to be faithful and diligent, you are the type of person I would like to learn from. You can respond with examples of specific routines or systems you use for yourself or your family and home, or just generally talk about what drives you. Also, I would love to hear from you about your estimation of your memory and your crisis management abilities. Do you feel you are blessed with a good memory? Are you particularly good at staying focused under pressure?

I am asking because this is an area of my life I have been working to improve over the last couple of years, and I have noticed some deficiencies, either in my temperament, which is melancholic, or in my character. I would like to learn how to develop my self from those who have either a natural ability to be diligent and motivated or those who have trained themselves to be so. Thanks!
 
I guess I will toot my own horn a little. 😛

I use lots of checklists. I have a daily checklist of all the things that need to happen in my home, and then a day-of-the-week list that includes other cleaning chores, and then a monthly list for stuff that needs to happen but much less often. My September list actually has most of the “fall cleaning” stuff on it. I keep these posted on the side of my fridge in those sheet protectors, and then mark off each item as it gets completed with a dry erase marker. That way I don’t have to remember if it’s been done, AND my husband doesn’t have to ask me, “What can I do to help?” (I don’t know why but that question has always grated on my nerves. It’s thoughtful, but I’d rather he just look around and find something - and now he can. ;))

I keep a household management binder. I actually don’t refer to it a ton - I originally put it together in case I died so my husband wouldn’t completely flounder…I love him, but organization is not his strong suit :o…in it are the checklists, things like vacation packing lists, a description of how to do some of the cleaning tasks that only get done once or twice a year, and inventories for freezer, pantry, first aid supplies, etc.

We don’t own a lot of stuff. We keep 10 days’ worth of clothing plus outerwear for each size summer/winter. After this baby goes through my stash of baby clothes I’m going to give away/donate/trash (depending on condition) most of it. Most of the baby items will be sold or donated as well just because I don’t want to go through the hassle of storing them, and I know where the good thrift stores are and where the online resources for those sorts of items are if/when I want them again. I store baby clothes in vacuum bags so they don’t take up a ton of space. We’re not quite there, but my goal is two sets of summer sheets and two sets of winter sheets + pillowcases for each bed. I store these under the beds.

My kids are required to pick up their toys every evening before bed. Anything they don’t pick up gets put in “toy time-out” for an undetermined period of days. If they completely forget about it, I’m likely to just donate it. I keep a big box in the basement that gets taken over to our local St Vincent de Paul store or Goodwill whenever it gets full.

Appointments and meetings get put on Google Calendar. My husband uses it for his work calendar and shares it with me so we each know what’s going on with the other. When I get school papers or go through our parish bulletin I’ll add relevant items to the calendar and then pitch the paper. We have a specific evening routine that includes getting everything out for the next morning so we’re not rushed (including laying clothes out).

Are these the kinds of things you’re looking for? :o I find knowing that I have a system for dealing with all of that stuff makes it easy for me to relax because I know it will be taken care of. Otherwise I’d just spend way too much time in my head trying to remember what’s been done or still needs to be done.
 
Also, I’ve gotten a lot of really great organizational and parenting advice from these two blogs by Catholic moms:

Team Whitaker

Catholic All Year

This housekeeping blogger is also quite good, though I don’t read her as much now (she has a lot of sponsored content which I’m not crazy about, although I know she uses her blog to earn money for her family): A Slob Comes Clean. She was the one who got me onto checklists to start with.
 
I’m motivated and I am used to
writing to-do lists for the day and
at the end of the day would see
how I “scored” for that day!
I write down everything that I
want to e-mail or to say in the
confessional by hand if it is
important.
Also I DEPEND a lot on Prayer
to get ideas as to what to do
in a day - visiting people, go
to CAForums, or phoning a
friend.
 
I am really good at the organizational half of things, and I am a generally tidy person. Where I am still really struggling is a feeling of “too much!” and looking around and not knowing what needs to be done and what I should do first. I am a homeschooling mother, and consequently I have only tiny pockets of time during the weekdays to do something other than overseeing lessons, plus I have a busy toddler and a nursling.

I have a perpetual basket of laundry waiting to be folded on the sofa, and I have wasted so much laundry detergent and water this past month in re washing loads I forgot to take out of the washer. I live in SoCal, where we are only a few years into a serious drought. I can’t be wasting resources like that. 😦

I also haven’t sat down and done the beginning of the year administrative work for homeschooling yet and we are 3weeks in to the new year!:o

Those are my greatest problems right now, and they are perennial problems for me in my vocation: staying caught up on laundry and administrative work. I know that part of it is my temperament, but more/most of it are my character flaws. I can have wonderful plans and lists, but if I don’t just sit down and start working on my big, ongoing jobs a bit at a time, then I will never be caught up and I will never have peace in this area of my life. (And my kids will always have to be hunting for clean underwear in the hamper.)
 
I keep a master planner but discuss daily goals with my husband the night before. I ask his (name removed by moderator)ut if he needs anything from me. Since he has a long commute, I try to take care of the smaller tasks. Granted, it helps having one child (it’s not what we desired), but his needs always come first–therapy appointments, cyber school attendance, med checks, flu shots.

We do live a fairly boring life, so we are not out on the go much. This keeps hecticity to a reasonable level.
 
I confess, I’m not entirely sure what you’re looking for…ways to be more driven or successful yourself? I think most people would say I’m fairly successful in many ways. I raise a large family, and do half way decently in a couple of artistic fields. I have been told “you don’t exist,” because the things I manage are, well, let’s just say, so out of the ordinary.

What drives me? I believe it’s that I was born to do, plain and simple. I am in the arts, and I can’t not do the things I do.

Priorities–some of which others may not agree with. Because I can’t not do what I do each day, my house is not spotless. It’s not a disaster, but not as beautiful and neat and clean as I’d like to live in.

Lists–I do best when I have a written list and simply plow through, checking items off. For whatever reason, being able to put that check mark on each item motivates me. Not to mention, if I don’t have it in writing, I simply don’t remember I’m supposed to be doing it.

Faith-- Following God? I offer this with utmost humility, and perhaps it’s more accurate to say that God called me and gave me a strong will to begin with. I was ordered by my father NOT to go into my field, and at the age of 16, with an alcoholic father, had no fear at all of telling him I would indeed go into the field of my choosing, especially if I was paying for the degree. I can only be grateful for that, and cannot explain it, nor take credit for it. I still wonder where God is leading me, and yet, I have never once doubted, when I’m pursuing artistic endeavors, that I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.

Do I feel successful? People look at what I accomplish and are amazed. And yet, no, I don’t feel successful. I’m not a millionaire. At least one part of my house is in desperate need of repair/remodeling, and as a single mother of a large family, I dread that expense, and so have been living with something I’m embarrassed to have guests see.

On the other hand, I count success in other terms than the things that drive me, and I think I’ve perhaps been successful not because of my ‘work’ but because most of my children still go to Mass, even as adults, and the one who doesn’t still values his faith and morals very highly.
 
Yes it’s hard to stay motivated with repetitive tasks.

I am not a list person. I do what needs to be done, right away if possible-- I have certain days and routines for other things–such as laundry and paperwork and get through the bulk onthese days.

What keeps me motivated is constantly focusing on the end result. I work in high pressure, commissioned,luxury goods sales in a capacity that I am responsible for the teams sales as well as my own.

So I apply this strategy to home as well-focus on the results, and do the steps that get you to this and give yourself ample time to do things. Chunk out your day- for laundry-have 3 loads done by lunch etc…

It is important to give yourself achievable goals too. You want to stretch yourself but not have unrealisitc expectations that constantly frustrate. If for a week or so of applying yourself to getting caught up totally–and it is just not working–evaluate the road blocks and eliminate them.

Reward yourself too–did you save money by doing the laundry in one shot? Great–go get your nails done or buy a nice candle for your efforts.
 
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