Latest / The Christian Homemaking Podcast: Simply Convivial with Mystie Winckler / The 12-Week Year Gave Me a Homemaking Breakthrough I Didn't Expect

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The 12-Week Year Gave Me a Homemaking Breakthrough I Didn't Expect · The Christian Homemaking Podcast: Simply Convivial with Mystie Winckler

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  I learned the idea of planning life in shorter chunks from The 12 Week Year,
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  and I loved the premise of this book.
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  I was always making annual plans, but I needed to stop pretending that January
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  me knew what October me would need.
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  I needed to work in shorter time horizons.
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  I needed more focus, more clarity, more visible progress.
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  I needed to review my plans more regularly, reset my life
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  and my home more consistently
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  And so the 12-week year seemed like the solution.
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  But what I found was that even 12 weeks still felt too long for my life with small
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  children and babies and homeschooling.
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  After all, in 12 weeks, our life can change dramatically.
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  A baby can start crawling.
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  A homeschool schedule can fall apart.
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  The weather could change completely.
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  Someone will suddenly need something that throws a wrench in the plans.
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  And so what I did was I took the concept of the 12-week year
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  and shortened it even more.
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  I made a six-week plan
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  This one change gave me a homemaking breakthrough that I was not expecting.
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  I stopped trying to make one perfect plan that would work indefinitely.
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  So in this episode, I'm gonna show you why six-week planning works so
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  well for homemakers, what I actually do during this interval planning,
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  that's what I call it, and the biggest mistake that makes even this kind of
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  short-term planning unrealistic This six-week planning system helps me plan
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  for real family life without constantly feeling behind every time life changes.
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  Now, if practical Christian homemaking without perfectionism sounds useful,
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  then you have come to the right place.
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  Be sure to subscribe here at the Christian homemaking podcast, Simply Convivial.
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  I'm Misty Winkler, homeschooling mom, homemaker, grandma, and author
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  of the book Simplified Organization: Learn to Love What Must Be Done.
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  I talk here all about making plans that serve real family life rather than setting
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  up another standard that you will fail at.
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  And as we talk about this bigger time horizon planning, even if
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  it's only six weeks, still it's the day-to-day where the plans are made
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  or not made, are made or broken.
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  So if the daily planning or the daily execution is where things tend to unravel
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  for you, then you're totally normal.
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  And my free workshop, Overwhelmed to Organized: The One Practice that
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  Changes Everything, will teach you the daily card practice that I use
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  inside this bigger planning framework.
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  Just go to simplyconvivial.com/organized
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  after you watch this video to get that free training.
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  That link is also in the description, and I'll mention it again at the end
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  A shorter time horizon for our goals helps create focus because we make
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  more achievable goals, more realistic goals rather than big goals because we
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  think we have all year to get it done
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  If we break it down even to 12 weeks, we still might bite off more than
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  we could chew because three months is still actually a long time.
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  And in family life, a lot can change in three months.
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  In six weeks
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  We're gonna have to work on that goal right away for us to make any progress.
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  It's very obvious that the goal has to be something that we're doing right now, not
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  postponing for next week or next month
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  A six-week plan is short enough that I can keep on one page the important things
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  that are happening in this timeframe and see that I'm actually moving them forward.
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  Every birthday that has to be celebrated, every appointment
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  that needs to be made or kept
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  the homeschool lessons that are happening, whether or not we're
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  traveling or going to a baby shower.
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  Within that context of the actual things happening in six weeks, I can also see
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  how much time and bandwidth I really have available for big projects, and
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  it's probably way less than I expect.
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  And yet, because the interval, and yet because the interval changes every
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  six weeks, I also don't feel like I have to get everything done now.
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  When I put something off to the next interval, it's not
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  indefinite procrastination.
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  Really, just within a few weeks, I'll be looking at it again and evaluating
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  how we're doing, whether or not that project is something I should be
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  spending time on now Because a lot of the things that I would love to
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  put on my to-do list really are not urgent and maybe not even important.
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  If I work on one, not five, then I'll be making consistent progress
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  So every interval is not like a miniature New Year's Day with a big
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  resolution binge to make over everything.
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  Interval planning helps me think incrementally, with an iterating
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  mindset, where we just make one small change after another.
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  We evaluate w- how things went and what small changes we need to make
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  moving forward every six weeks.
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  And when I started interval planning every six weeks, the most important parameter
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  that I gave myself was that I could not change my planner template or buy a
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  new planner or change up what was on my project list until the next interval.
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  Because I was wasting a lot of time making a brand-new plan, spending
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  too much time changing my template or rejiggering everything as a mode of coping
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  and procrastination, not productivity.
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  So when I gave myself a reset time to plan the next interval, I would create my plans
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  and decide on my planner for that interval and no changes were allowed for six weeks.
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  It's manageable.
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  It's doable, uh, 'cause it's not forever.
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  And I actually get practice using what I have written so that the next time I
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  do come through and make changes, it's based on what I know I actually need or
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  want in my real living and doing life, instead of just what sounds theoretically
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  like will be the perfect solution
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  Now, of course, in The 12 Week Year, the author talks about fitting a year's worth
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  of resolution or work into 12 weeks.
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  And I mean, he kind of doesn't, but he kind of does.
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  Where you are accomplishing New Year's resolutions type projects or overhauls
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  within 12 weeks because you feel that time crunch, and so you get moving
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  faster than if you made a New Year's resolution, which is true enough.
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  But as moms, we need to not be thinking about remaking everything that often, even
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  12 weeks, and definitely not six weeks.
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  But if I
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  stick with the same plan for six weeks, pick one project to work on for six
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  weeks, and keep in view the different actual events in my life that I need
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  to plan and make happen, like birthdays
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  or holidays, then I'm staying on top of my real life and making progress
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  without fitting a whole bunch of life makeover hopes and dreams and
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  wishful thinking on top of that
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  I also make more manageable goals.
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  Like instead of finishing the scrapbook project, I can say, "Make three pages."
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  I make much more reasonable goals when I know I'm only making it for six
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  weeks than if I were making it even for 12 weeks, but definitely for a year.
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  Looking at my life as a six-week interval also reminds me that if I
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  clean and organize the fridge, not every week, but once every six weeks,
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  we'll be good enough to stay functional.
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  That's a regular maintenance system.
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  If I organize the pantry, not whenever that feels like the most fun
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  project to do or the most distracting project I would rather do, but just
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  give it 30 minutes once every six weeks, that's a maintenance plan.
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  And it's a maintenance plan I can fit in around birthdays, travel,
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  holidays, having people over.
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  Every six weeks, I can say, "Well, how many times can we invite people over?"
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  And start getting those on the calendar regularly, where I'm evaluating that and
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  selecting those invitations and actually sending the texts at a particular time
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  every six weeks
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  It's a rhythm that allows me to stay on top of my life and really
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  make strides in progress while also committing to realistic maintenance
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  And after doing this for more than a decade now, I give each
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  interval a name or a theme.
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  Because birthdays don't change, and some intervals are actually just
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  birthday interval, and I know that no other projects are going to happen.
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  This is just the time that I'm going to be doing that.
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  There's the holiday interval from Thanksgiving to New Year, where
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  that's the focus of the interval.
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  Anything that doesn't fit the celebrations that need to happen f- during that time
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  just really don't belong in that interval.
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  There will be another one coming up.
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  There will be the January one, where I will totally feel like cleaning
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  and organizing the entire house, which can't be an interval project.
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  But I can procrastinate making that judgment call for what I will actually
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  clean and organize to the next interval.
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  Because there's a regular review system built in where I pick the next thing,
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  make some significant progress, evaluate, remake that system, remake that plan again
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  And so instead of just vaguely feeling like I need to get my life together, I
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  need to get a hold of things, I'm steadily Staying on top of what's happening in my
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  life by keeping a six-week interval plan
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  After all, homemaking has no real finish line.
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  We don't finish.
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  We don't complete it.
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  There is always going to be another room to organize, another routine that
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  falls apart and has to be reevaluated, a new project, a better habit to
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  install, a new problem to solve.
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  There might even be a whole new house to move to and reorganize and figure
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  out the systems and the habits and the routines that fit a new house.
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  Or you add another child, and that's totally changes the flow and the
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  dynamic of the home and the days.
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  Interval planning allows for those changes, gives you space and a
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  framework for adjusting to those changes that real life always brings about
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  So if big picture planning has never worked for you before,
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  if you're always forgetting
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  your New Year's resolutions Maybe you've even tried quarterly planning before
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  or the 12-week year, and even that just doesn't seem to fit your life.
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  Try six-week interval planning.
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  Start by writing down the birthdays, the events, the celebrations that
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  you as mom make happen, and then see what other availability you
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  have after those responsibilities.
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  Seasonal clothing changes, these things that we have to do on a consistent basis
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  And then don't add every wishful thinking project on top of that,
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  but small but significant iterations on your routines or your plans, and
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  then stick with it for six weeks before evaluating and adapting again.
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  This will completely change how you view the different projects on your list and
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  your time available, and your ability to actually get a handle on your life.
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  I have an article about interval planning that I will also put in the description
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  below, so you can check that out.
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  And even interval plans still do happen on a day-to-day basis.
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  So if you need daily execution help, then you wanna go watch my free training, From
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  Overwhelmed to Organized, which you can find at simplyconvivial.com/organized.
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  With these systems, we will repent, rejoice, repeat