What I Do When I'm Completely Overwhelmed by My To-Do List.

Alternate title: What I've been doing every day lately because my to-do list is trying to straight up murder me. 
Anyone else have those days (Weeks? Months?) where you want to be productive, you have every intention of being a champion and blasting your way through your list and getting ish done...only to end the day frazzled and overwhelmed? And somehow, even though you worked your butt off the whole day, a good 80% off your list wasn't even touched? 
This has been me the last few weeks. I've been so motivated and so excited to take my days on...and then every night, I'm so confused at how I got so little done that day. So I started doing this one little thing that has been a tremendous help. What is it? 
Simple: I write down every. single. thing. Everything on my list, everything I need to get done, everything I'm expecting myself to do that day. I mean everything. If I'm expecting myself to deep clean the kitchen, I don't just write down "clean kitchen." I write mop kitchen, clean kitchen baseboards, clean out the refrigerator. Every. Little. Thing. 
This is incredibly helpful for two reasons: First, it gets everything in the forefront of my mind and puts me in the headspace to get stuff done. But most importantly, it helps me be realistic. Looking at a page full of tasks and knowing how many hours I have to do them, logically I know they aren't all getting done. What may have seemed doable in my brain now is clearly impossible, because there are only 24 hours in a day. 
Having everything written down in front of me helps to quickly see and sort through what has to get done that day and what can wait until tomorrow, or the weekend. This may seem like a no-brainer, but before I wrote everything down, (you know, in the delusional times when I just knew I'd get it all done), I would just pick a random task to start with, spend two hours on it, only to realize it was the least of my priorities that day. Make sense? 
If you're like me and your to-do list seems to be drowning you every day, give this a try this week. Take a few minutes when you wake up, get a cup of coffee, and write it all down. Then be realistic and move the not-as-important-things to a different day. Set yourself up for success by starting with a list that is actually doable instead of a list that you would have to be able to freeze time to even have a chance at completing. But also, let me know if you figure out that whole freezing time thing. 
What are some things you do to deal with overwhelming to-do lists?

How I Taught Myself to Like Greek Yogurt.

Some days, I blog about personal things, like becoming a mom when I thought I didn't want a baby. Some days, I blog about deep feelings, like when life is hard. And then some days, I come here and write about greek yogurt. 
Blogging is weird. And I love it. 
Moving on. 
I have never, ever liked greek yogurt. And by I've never liked it, I mean cannot stand the taste of it. I like normal yogurt, just so long as it's flavored. Yogurt is such a healthy breakfast! So imagine my surprise once I got pregnant and actually had to start paying attention to the things I ate (ugh) when I realized that the yogurt I was eating in the name of health was actually just artificially flavored sugar.  Sigh. 
I tried to make myself like greek yogurt towards the end of my pregnancy because the little baby inside of my HATED EVERYTHING. I basically went 40 straight weeks eating no meat unless it was in the form of Chick-Fil-A nuggets. And also, no vegetables. What can I say, he had good tastes from the beginning. So it goes without saying that I was in desperate need of some protein. 
I pinterested it (duh) and tried mixing in granola. Which was great, but I could still taste the greek yogurt, so, nope. 
Then, I actually had Jack, and lost every ounce of my appetite (but not every ounce of the weight he so generously gave me, funny how that works) but obviously needed to eat, so I decided to revisit the whole greek yogurt mystery. 
Enter: almond butter. 

I will stop here to say that someone DID tell me to do this, but it was in the first week of being a mom and I just can't remember who it was. If you are reading this and it was you, please tell me and I will gladly give you credit for this life-changing advice.  You mix almond butter with greek yogurt, and suddenly, you can taste something other than the greek yogurt. And it's actually pretty delicious. 

So. Dang. Simple. 
I am not lying to you when I tell you that I now eat this every single morning. 

I mix my magic almond yogurt with blueberries, coconut, almonds, granola...whatever I have on hand, really. And I'm in the camp that while it's good to be healthy, life is too short to be miserable because of non-delicious food, so you can trust me that this is actually good. And easy. And doesn't have to be warmed up 84 times before I actually get a chance to eat it. Win-win-win.

Are you a greek yogurt fan?

I am Becoming my Mother: The 27-Fling Boogie.

When I was little, my mom read a book called Fly Lady, and it was the worst thing that ever happened to me.

I kid, I kid. I've read it as an adult and it's actually pretty good.

Anyway, it was a book about cleaning and organizing and decluttering. It had these little "exercises" to help you on your way to having a decluttered house, many of which haunted my childhood.

Especially the 27 fling boogie.

How can anything with such a silly name bother a child so much, you ask? Well, as a kid (and now, who am I kidding), I did not like to let go of things. I had a reason to keep everything: Someone I knew gave it to me, I liked the way it looked in my room, it didn't matter that it was broken--it was irreplaceable, no I didn't need a new one. Okay, maybe I did, but I needed to keep the old one, too. I had too much stuff, a lot of which was really just trash.

I present to you, the 27 fling boogie. 

1. Get your supplies: A trash bag and a timer. 
2. Set the timer for 15 minutes. 
3. Go through your house and throw things away. Trash, things you don't want, things no longer needed, junk mail. Do not stop until you have thrown 27 things away. 
4. When the time runs out, DO NOT LOOK IN THE TRASH BAG. Do not review your choices. Toss the bag in the trash and move on. 

When my mom would make me throw away a toy, I would instantly form a deep attachment to it. I kid you not, I would start imagining all of the fun I would never get to have with it, like a slow motion movie with sad music playing in the background, until I had worked myself into a state of devastation over the loss of a broken toy that had been living forgotten in my closet for six months.

No, YOU have a problem. 

This week, I've had the urge to really clean and organize every inch of my tiny apartment. Boredom? Early nesting? Who knows. But when it's been awhile since you've cleaned everything, and you want to clean everything, it can be really, really overwhelming to begin.

And do you know what comes in handy in those moments? My old archenemy, the 27 fling boogie.

You may think there's no way you have enough junk around your house to actually throw 27 things away more than once, but let me tell you this: It hides in plain sight. I just went to clean my desk, and do you know how many pieces of useless mail were stacked on it? Seventeen. SEVENTEEN pieces of trash. See? It's easier than you may think.

So here's to a day of getting organized and spending some time with my nemesis, the boogie, who actually is starting to become a really good friend.

I really am becoming my mother.

What's your favorite way to get organized fast?