Guest Post: Lauren from The Merry Mrs. Mobley

My Guest Post today is from Lauren, The Merry Mrs. Mobley! Lauren and I met at NC State and she is a fellow teacher and also love middle schoolers as much as I do ( Yes we know we are crazy and that they are ensane moody teenagers.. but we LOVE THEM) Check out her post on how she stays organized in her life !

My name is Lauren and I am the merry mrs. mobley!

I am so excited to be here posting for Brianna while she and her hubby are soaking up Charleston! Brianna and I met many moons ago in an Intro to Education class at NC State (Go Wolfpack!). This sweet girl continues to blow me away with the way she beautifully balances all that she has going on. If anyone deserves a few days of R&R, it’s her! In honor of al that she has going on I’m going to post about organizing and balancing life when things get crazy.

Being a teacher I can empathize with having a lot to do. In fact, I can’t tell you the last time I didn’t leave the school, get home, and continue working. While it’s not ideal, it’s just the way our profession works. The issue comes when you allow your job to interfere with your family time. I make a point to not work in the evenings after David gets home from work. It’s not fair to him, or our marriage, for me to ignore him. It’s all about balance.

Something else that keeps me going are to-do lists! I am the queen of the to-do list, ask my poor husband who often gets the brunt of my lists. I make lists for things to do at home, at school, weekend work, house tasks, grocery lists, church responsibilities etc. You name it, I probably already have a list made on how to accomplish that task. I’m old-school and like to write things on paper. Maybe it’s the satisfaction of crossing it off, maybe it’s the fact that I can revisit past lists. I’m not sure, but my list notebook is like an extra limb to me. Now don’t get me wrong, I do use my iPhone and my laptop for some list making, but my primary list can be found in a cute little notebook I bought for that very reason.

The third most essential thing to keep in mind when things get crazy is to make a plan. If I think I’m the queen of to-do lists, then I’m the king of planning. I am a big planner. Always have been. There is just something about knowing what’s going to happen next that soothes me. Now, I realize that things don’t always go according to plan and that it’s important to be flexible. In our profession you become very cognizant of that! But it’s nice to have a general idea of what the next step is. For example I know that every Sunday we’re going to do laundry and I’m going to plan our weekly meals and my outfits for work. Setting aside a few minutes to do these things on Sunday saves me oodles of time later in the week! I also always go into the grocery for a list and coupons to match my list. If I went in all willy-nilly we’d be in the poor house thanks to all the random purchases I would make!

Yea, so I may be a little crazy about my organizing and planning, but by being crazy now I’m making life smoother later! Hopefully Brianna is not doing any planning other than what drink to order on the beach next;-)

SO if your not an organizer.. I hope you got some tips. If you are I bet you were saying, "ME TOO!" alot why you read all the things she does. I know I did.

So if you don't follow Lauren check her out at  The Merry Mrs. Mobley