The 21 Day Rhythm Reset

Day 15: Reduce the Cognitive Load

Listen here (speed it to 1.5x if you're like me!)... or read below!

Last week we identified barriers to caring for ourselves and ended the week with identifying our time suckers.

In my experience, these time suckers keep us from feeling like we're in any kind of rhythm, which is our big focus of this week: How our daily and weekly rhythms can bring us more peace.

There are some time suckers we all need to be better about like social media, but I don't know about you, but I also have a lot of time suckers that have to get done like laundry, cleaning, making food... in the midst of the big rocks I value like quality time with my family, working on Baby-Led Play, and trying to prioritize healthy habits like sleep and working out.

I saw a post on Instagram that might have been from Jamie Glowacki author of Oh Crap! Potty Training where she talked about how to schedule your week to help get back more time by eliminating the wasted time spent trying to figure things out on the fly.

Let me give you examples.

Let's take chores.

What are all the main chores you have to do?

Here are mine:

• Vacuum

• Mop Kitchen

• Wipe down white cabinets

• Dust/polish furniture

• Clean bathrooms

• Do laundry

• Put away laundry

• Cook & clean up mess

• Water plants

These also happen to mostly be activities (minus the vacuuming because Wyatt hates the noise) that I can do when Wyatt is around! We'll talk more about how I do this with a baby or toddler in tow later this week).

I've broken them down into scheduled days:

Monday: Clean bathrooms

Tuesday: Alternate mopping/wiping kitchen cabinets/ dusting

Wednesday: Vacuum Upstairs, Roomba downstairs

Thursday: Do Laundry

Friday: Laundry away

Saturday & Sunday: Meal Prep & water plants

This keeps me from spending any time thinking about what needs to get done or going back and forth on which has higher priority. I just look at the day and do it.

Now let's take something that drains the life out of a lot of us: food prep. Some families may prefer to eat out or get food delivered. You may not need this part of the planning if you do. One thing that reduces the cognitive load yet again, is having a schedule.

For example:

Monday: Pasta night

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Stir Fry

Friday: Leftovers or eat out

Saturday: Soup

Sunday: Soup

We're vegetarian so yours might look a little different like "chicken" as a category.

I also aim to make double batches of things so we have leftovers to eat another day and less cooking!

Once you have the themes set up, brain dump a couple recipes that fit each category. On your food prep day(s), choose a recipe, then prep as much as you can for the week so you just have to assemble when it comes time for dinner. I like to do 2 days with less time spent each day.

Then I usually alternate between two different breakfasts and lunches to keep things super simple.

I'm including a link to my weekly planning sheet and some photos to show you how I use it!

Scheduling and taking the thought out of each day has bought me so much more time and therefore so much more peace in my week.