I’ve been slowly building my “hacks” to simplify and reduce mental load for chores. Here are some simple things I’m implementing that seem to give me peaceful mornings/evenings and most of weekends. It also prevents me feeling overwhelmed of having so many pending things and no time to do, and minimize number of choices to make. They are not revolutionary but took me a while to finally get to them.
- Plan weekly workouts by creating a weekly workout playlist in YouTube. I do it on Sunday, selecting the 3 workouts from EPIC heat program for the following week (which I really like), and 2 workouts from the Glow method. I also have a save list of warm up and cool down routines for the running part. This way, I don’t need to “choose” something on the spot, but just play and go.
- Meal prep. I do most of meal prep for protein on weekends, usually 2-3 dishes and I freeze most of them, so we constantly have a selection of protein made in the freezer during the week. If I get to make a new protein dish during the week, I’d make a big batch and freeze the rest. I also prepare potato/sweet potato, steamed/baked, always have rice and bean cooked as well. Then I’ll make 2 types of breakfast items. Husband usually washes the vegetables for dinner (2 kinds) before he goes to pick up the girls. I also prep something for my work lunch, something vegan, usually veggies with beans/tofu and rice. Super simple. With this, I spend 10-20 min to prepare for dinner when I come home after work and still have a balanced meal at the table.
- Hiring running coach to plan my running, again to not have to make decisions on the spot. Now that we’ve been working for a while, he knows me and can “push” me in a gentle way which oftenly ends up being more accurate of my capabilities than myself.
- Update garmin workout for the week. I don’t have many workouts runs yet, but if I do, I try to plan it in my Garmin watch on Sunday so in the morning of the run it’s already scheduled.
- Store my running clothes in my office room downstairs. Instead of storing them in my closet upstairs, I took them down to the location where I am before I go out for the run. It saves me a walk up to the stairs and find cloth in the dark as husband is usually asleep.
- Pay bills at same day of the month. I used to pay bills when they come which made me feel always need to remember paying them. Now that I know when is the due date, I pick the last/first day of the month to pay them all at once. I write in a card to remind myself when doing monthly planning which bills to pay. In our current context: rent, condominio fee, electricity, water, pool man, piano lessons, Kumon, mandarin, swimming, internet.
- Schedule quarterly maintenance on my calendar so I don’t forget as there are many.
Last week’s hectic work led me to poor sleep because I didn’t give my mind enough downtime before bedtime. This week, schedule permitting, I am doing the following:
- Finish dinner by 6:30pm. Tidy up, pack work bag for the next day, pack kids lunch, put the phone in my office downstairs.
- 7pm: go to my room with a book and read until one or both girls come to me. Then we chat, for 10 min, 50 min, then return to book until I get sleepy.
- Ideally, light off before 9pm.
I’ve had two nights so far and I slept very well. I find it amusing that the most obvious thing takes me so long to realize. I know it may not be feasible every night but for those that I could, I should keep doing this to secure a good night of rest.
Do you have hacks to simplify your life? What’s your night routine before bed?
Our New Journey 
I love how you’ve built so many smart hacks into your routine – no wonder your mornings and evenings feel calmer!
I’m curious about why you need to programme your Garmin manually – my coach used an app that synced directly with the Garmin app, so the workouts popped up automatically.
I agree with the lights off before 9pm – it works wonders to my sleep!
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We use excel based training program so I program it myself.
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Is Lizzy good about putting herself to bed? G generally goes to bed around 9 these days! What do they do from 7-9 while you wait for them? (Not to mention A doesn’t typically get home until 9-9:15 lately!).
I’ve heard great things about HEAT glad you like it!
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Yes Lizzy goes to sleep by herself. Their target time to go to bed is 8pm. From dinner to bed, they practice piano, do Kumon, play with cats.
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I am impressed with your meal prepping. I don’t really do that at all… ha. Also cannot imagine my kids when younger just leaving me alone after 6 pm! lol. Definitely did not happen here! I guess we usually didn’t even eat dinner until at least that time, and our kids also usually had soccer or swim etc until later into the evening… usually they’d take showers/baths and then I’d read to them and they never went to bed before usually 8:30 or so. By the time I’d clean up the kitchen, house, etc I usually never could sit down I feel like until 9 pm. This is so interesting and different from what I experienced, but I maybe it’s also lighter right now since the girls don’t have swim team or as many activities yet, with you being newer to Brasilia.
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They do have swimming and Kumon but they are usually back by 6pm so we aim to finish dinner before 6:30. They do the dish cleaning or we leave it to the nanny if it’s the night before she comes. Sofia I don’t need remind her to do homework, Lizzy still requires some reminder but she finishes them alone. I usually do the tidy up when I get home, 5 or 5:30 while prepping dinner so after dinner, I start winding down. The main reason for earlier schedule is that I naturally wake up before 5am so quite tired by 7pm.
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So smart, Coco! One thing I do that is LIFE CHANGING (for me) is that I put my workout clothes in the downstairs bathroom to put on first thing in the morning. Our bedroom is upstairs, so in the morning I go downstairs, start the coffee, drink some water, and then get dressed. I have my extra sunscreen and face wash, toothbrush, etc., in that bathroom as well, so I just immediately get dressed in my workout clothes and I don’t wake my husband up! I’ve been doing this forever and it’s a perfect way to get going in the morning.
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Yes that’s exactly what I figured. Not sure why took me so long! Please share your hacks too Nicole.
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Ah, meal prep makes such a difference. I’m so happy during the week when I’ve done it the previous weekend. The problem is, I often don’t want to spend that much time on the weekend cooking! I can’t seem to find the right balance here.
All your hacks are great- decide once, prep things ahead of time. I also keep my running clothes in a different area than the bedroom, in case I need to get ready before my husband is awake. My bedtime routine is similar to yours- mine just occurs a little later. I need to start pushing it earlier- now that school has started I’m getting up earlier, and not getting enough sleep.
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All of that planning when your life is so busy is a great way to have more peace and calm, I commend you.
I also plan my workouts, I can’t stand it being first thing in the morning, wasting time trying to figure out what I want to do.
I don’t do any kind of meal prep, but yours sounds like it makes meal time SO much easier.
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I am trying to get back into doing more meal prep on the weekends. I used to do a sort of DIY prep dish where I would prep as much as I could ahead of time so meals came together faster on weeknights. I’m also focusing on upping my protein to see if it will help with body composition.
I try to sketch out my workouts for the week. What I do depends on which days I go into the office. I wish I could do some workouts after work but ours kids are still quite high maintenance so I am not ‘off the clock’ until 8:15 which is too late for a workout! But as they get older it should be easier to fit some workouts in after work when they are at activities or doing homework/etc.
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this is a great reminder… I want to get more out of my evenings but my kids are still young- 5 and 7 so they need me or my husband or both of us. Although this weekend they’ve been kind of surprisingly independent… school starts for them next week, so my ideal plan is to have them in bed by 8- the absolute latest. Otherwise I will be very tired the next day..
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Meal prep is a great way to limit the amount of food you eat. When you are hungry, everything sounds good. So if you limit yourself to what you have, it makes a difference.
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