Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Light a Candle!

Today's challenge is so easy, but it will brighten up your day!  I want you to light a candle!  Some of you may think this is funny because you keep candles lit in your home all the time.  I don't.  I have lots of them, and when I see them I think “Oh, I don't want to have a pretty candle lit until everything is perfectly clean.”  The problem is, I have 3 little kids.  Therefore, my house is pretty much NEVER perfectly clean.  I don't live in a dump, but there is always something – dishes, or toys, or spilled food on the floor.  I never get to enjoy my candles because I am always waiting until everything is perfect. 

Why wait?  Let's just enjoy a little bit of beauty and a nice aroma even if there are couple dishes in the sink!   

If you're just now joining us, you can read all about the Anti-Procrastination challenge here.

This post may be linked to one of these parties.

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Clean out your Nightstand

I don't know about you, but my nightstand tends to gather quite a collection of random items.  Glasses of water, books, tissues, and miscellaneous lotion bottles are all items that tend to land on or in my nightstand.  Since my nightstand has a door that can be shut, I often end up throwing a book in there when I'm half asleep, and then it becomes forgotten. 

I just found 8 books in my nightstand that I'm not currently reading.  Eight!  I got them all out and put them all away. 

Go put any dishes in the sink, replace empty tissue boxes with new ones, and throw away half-used bottles of lotion that you don't use any more.   Make sure every item on or in your nightstand is something that you use on a regular basis. 

If you're just now joining us, you can read all about the Anti-Procrastination challenge here.

This post may be linked to one of these parties.

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Choose a Goal Toward Which to Work

This Anti-Procrastination thing is working its way into every single area of my life, not just in keeping my house clean.  I am realizing more and more that I am all the time saying “I need to…” or “I really should…”.

Talking about these things is not helping me reach any of my goals for my life.  If I continue on the same path that I'm on, I will enter old age realizing that I have wasted my life.

While goals are very good things, they will get you nowhere if you don't take the necessary steps to carry them out. 

Today I want you to think about your goals for your life.  (If you've never written them down, you need to start by doing that.)  Choose one of those goals and make a  list of the steps that need to be taken in order to reach it.  Then, just start.  NOW.  I mean, right now.  Get off the computer and go start.
   

My personal task was to start exercising.  Immediately.

Here's my little secret.  I hate exercising.  I hate it.  I really, really hate it, and I make every excuse possible to avoid it. Me:  “I need to wait until the baby is sleeping through the night.”  My conscience: Okay, he is.  Now what?  Me: “Well, there's just not a good time to do it.  If I do it in the morning or during naptime, I'll wake up the kids.  After they're up there's just no time to do it.  I mean after all, I'm running around all day, fixing their food, changing diapers, cleaning up messes, doing laundry…”  My conscience: “Are you finished with your excuses?  You're just not doing it because you don't want to.  You're procrastinating. You've been making these same excuses since the day your first child was born 4 years ago.”  Me: “4 years!  Have I really been saying for 4 years that I'm going to start exercising just as soon as…whatever?”

So, here's the grand Anti-Procrastination challenge lady, waking up to the fact that she is being a lazy bum.  So I started exercising today.  No fancy program or DVD's.  No gym membership.  Right now, I don't even have a set time to do it.  I just keep doing a few squats or situps throughout the day for a couple minutes at a time.  I think I've gotten over the biggest hurdle, which was just starting.  As I continue, I'm sure I will get into a routine that I like and find a good time to do it.  I just needed to let go of my excuses and get started.

So, what area of life are procrastinating in?  Are you going to get to the end of your life and realize that you didn't even reach half of the goals you wanted to reach?  You can do something to change that, right now.       

This post may be linked to one of these parties.

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Clean out your Spice Cabinet

Today's challenge should be pretty quick and easy.  I'm not asking you to organize your spices (although you certainly can if you want to!).  I just want you to go through and throw away anything that is old or that you do not use.  There is no sense in letting things you do not use take up room and make it harder to find the ones you do use.  Old spices lose their flavor and basically do you no good anyway. 

 If this is your first time visiting The Imperfect Homemaker, you may be wondering what The Anti-Procrastination Challenge is.

Basically, I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to complete one task every day that I would normally put off until all of my “regular cleaning” is done.  I've done things like clean out a drawer, vacuum under the couch, clean out my coupons, etc.  Just recently, I realized that maybe some of you are like me and do better when you have a little nudge, so I decided to start posting a challenge for you to complete every day as well.  If you go here, you can see all the challenges I've posted so far.

Be sure to subscribe to email updates or follow me on Facebook so you won't miss any of the challenges! 

This post may be linked to one of these parties.

15 Self-Directed Activities for Toddlers

One of the biggest challenges I face while making dinner is how to keep the children busy.  They are constantly hanging on my legs and telling me they're hungry.  They don't seem to understand that the more they whine the longer it will be before I can get dinner finished and they can eat.

That's why I started having them sit at the table to work on an activity while I cook.  I have a cabinet that has fun things that they can do by themselves.  They only get to do these activities while I'm cooking so that they stay fresh and fun.

A lot of the things I have are educational games I have bought on clearance.  But there are a lot of different ideas around the web that you can make yourself.  I have three criteria for the activities that I choose to make or buy:

1. They aren't expensive or extremely time-consuming to make
2. They aren't too babyish for my 4 year old but not too hard for my 2 year to do by herself
3. They won't create a big mess.

Here is a round up of some ideas that meet all of those qualifications.:

Popsicle Stick Puzzles

Popsicle stick color matching

Build a cupcake

Building with velcro and craft sticks

Pipe cleaners and a spice jar

Button practice with felt

Clothespin Color Match

Weaving with pipe cleaners and a cooling rack

Practicing shapes with stickers

Popsicle Stick Shape matching

Pom poms and tweezers

Printable Sewing Cards

Block puzzles

I spy book

Magnetic items and a cookie sheet

Update:  after seeing how great a demand there is for independent activities for the little ones, I compiled a whole book of them!

These activities are all tested by kids and moms!  They're sure to keep your child's attention without requiring lots of set-up !

Grab your copy now!

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Pinterest

I've been working you hard doing some not-so-fun tasks.  Let's do something fun today!  It's time to actually do something you've pinned on Pinterest.  Go take a look at your boards and choose one thing to do today, whether it's making a new recipe or craft, doing an activity with your kids, or whatever. Just do something!  If you can't complete a project start-to-finish today, I want you to at least write down whatever supplies or ingredients you might need on your shopping list so you can get started as soon as possible. 

I've been experimenting with some of the homemade cleaners and such that I have pinned.  I have yet to find one that I love, though.  I'm going to keep experimenting, and when I've found a recipe I especially like, I will post it here for you.

All right, time to go get busy; you've got a job to do!

If this is your first time visiting The Imperfect Homemaker, you may be wondering what The Anti-Procrastination Challenge is.

Basically, I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to complete one task every day that I would normally put off until all of my “regular cleaning” is done.  I've done things like clean out a drawer, vacuum under the couch, clean out my coupons, etc.  Just recently, I realized that maybe some of you are like me and do better when you have a little nudge, so I decided to start posting a challenge for you to complete every day as well.  If you go here, you can see all the challenges I've posted so far.

Be sure to subscribe to email updates or follow me on Facebook so you won't miss any of the challenges!