How to Do a Half Day Reset
Background: I originally wrote this for myself when I first started homeschooling our older son. I was consistently getting our learning work done, but I was getting… absolutely nothing else done with any kind of regularity and we didn’t have hired help at the time to help us keep on top of things. Several times a day, I would find myself flitting around chaotically from room to room making inefficient progress if I was making any progress at all. I decided I needed a system, and in true Jess fashion, I immediately neglected all responsibilities to make my own system without ever considering that someone else might have already made a good enough system I could find with a 2-minute google search??? Anyways. I have shared it with several people now and all found it valuable so I am sharing it with you! Enjoy resetting whether you have 30 minutes or 3 hours. Let me know how it goes.
How to Do a Half Day Reset
You are not skilled at executive functioning. Do what this list tells you, in the order it tells you to do it. Don’t deviate even though you think you want to or can handle it today. You probably can’t and you will get frustrated or burn out before you get to the end of the list because of how much more cognitive effort you’re putting in by taking fate into your own hands.
Talk to Roger about how much time can be put towards enabling this list. Only plan to do that much stuff. Don’t take on more, you will get too stressed out by the time crunch.
Laundry. Walk through the entire house with a laundry basket and collect up any errant laundry you find. Start a load based on the schedule and keep it going as needed.
Dishes. Empty the dishwasher. Walk through the entire house with a laundry basket and collect up any dishes you find. Just dishes. Load and run the dishwasher and keep it going as needed.
Doing Laundry and Dishes first ensures they are running while you do everything else.
Garbage. Walk through the entire house with a garbage bag and collect up any garbage you find. Just garbage. Empty the bins if they’re more than ⅔ full. You’ll be glad you did.
Flat Surfaces. Walk through the entire house, except the play room, with a laundry basket and collect everything on a flat surface. Don’t put it away, just collect it in the basket and bring it to the living room. If there’s a lot of stuff (when is there not?), sort things in labelled baskets based on where they go: upstairs, downstairs, repair. If you want to donate something, put it directly in the donate bucket in the front hall. Leave things that go on the main floor in the original basket. When you’re done, move the baskets to the appropriate floor. Repair basket goes in the laundry room.
You’ve had a massive impact if you’ve made it this far. The space will FEEL way less chaotic even if there’s still stuff to be put away and laundry/dishes to be rotated.
Admin Braindump. Get everything out of your head. Organize tasks in sections by admin day: M-Asana, T-Library & Inbox Zero, W-Compt/Benefits, Tr-Family Meeting Prep, F-Calendar, Sa-$$ Review, Su-School Prep, Other. Don’t do the tasks. Don’t even look at the computer, you’ll get sucked in because you prefer cognitive work.
Empty the Baskets. Decide how much time you can dedicate to tidying right now. Put on that length of playlist from your library. Rope in some helpers if you want to manage people (hint: you definitely don’t want to manage people even if you think you can handle it today). You’d be surprised how much can get done in 10 minutes. More than 30 minutes will probably feel like a slog.
Rotate. Laundry, Dishes, and anything else. Put everything away right away.
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): Feed the tiny humans. Heck, feed yourself if you haven’t eaten yet. Take a shower. Socialize (lol, probably not). Get some exercise. Leave the damn house.