Transform Life! 3 Simple Systems for Work at Home Moms

Mamas!

Are you struggling to be productive as a work-from-home mom? (I meannnn aren’t we all?)

Meet my incredible client Chelsi Jo Moore. She has a true gift for creating simple systems for life, motherhood, and business. She maps out for us how to transform your productivity with three simple systems that we can all implement, right now.

If you are ready to take your passions to the next level but need consistent time and energy to be productive while managing a home and children, this episode is for you. Let’s talk about how to schedule your day to get you the results you’ve been searching for.  

Together we can create more space and time for the stuff that actually matters while streamlining the stuff that well…pays dem bills.

I know you are going to love this, mamas!

I pray this blesses you!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00)
Ladies, hold on to them britches. I am going to let you know that today’s episode might just change your life because Holy smokes, it is full of gold. Tangible tips that you can implement right away that are going to transform your life and productivity. And the simple systems that we can implement as work from home moms to create systems and to simplify motherhood and the mess. Because once we simplify motherhood and all the mess that we’re sitting in and living in, if you know what I mean, we have more time and space for self, for business, for spirituality. All right.

(00:47)
I am so flipping excited to bring you one of my elite one-on-one clients Chelsi Jo Moore today, and Chelsi has a brand that is changing lives. It is helping moms completely 180 their systems in their home, the productivity, their to do list, the tasks and really get focused. Systemize your life girl. Today, we’re going to do that. So before we get into this incredible episode with the amazing simply amazing Chelsi Jo, who you guys are going to love so much, I want to remind you that if you’ve been sitting in a space of confusion, if you’ve been sitting in a place of want and wishing, and I just wish I knew how to take action on the business, I wish I could start a podcast, but I don’t know what it would be about.

(01:46)
I want to create the online course, but where do I host it and what would be inside of it and what makes sense for the person that’s listening to me or I don’t have anybody following me. I have no audience at all. Where do I start? I want you to know that I am here for you. It is my number one mission in life to gift Christian mompreneurs and faith fueled women on this planet clarity, a roadmap, an action plan.

(02:17)
And I want to share with you guys, when you hear Chelsi Jo on this interview, I want you to know that when we began working together four short months ago, she didn’t have a clear business plan. She didn’t have a podcast yet, and her podcast, by the way, is highly ranked. And it has so many incredible reviews and downloads already. She doesn’t have a course right now. She’s literally creating her course today. As I record this intro, she didn’t have clients. And now she has women booking motherhood, productivity sessions with her every month. We’ve done that together because it was all inside of Chelsi Jo.

(02:56)
She just needed a mentor to help her bring it to light, to give her the steps, to lay out the roadmap and to pour the belief into her heart. It was all there, everything, but we just need someone to help hold our hand through the steps, to speak belief in life, over the work that we’ve been asked to do. Let me be that for you. If you’ve been thinking about coaching with me now is your time. I’m talking to you, those of you that are feeling like, should I do it? Yes. Your greatest transformation my friend is on the other side of that investment in yourself.

(03:36)
That moment of clarity with a coach, that transformation, because you finally have the action plan to go do the things. So if I am speaking life into you right now, and you know you need this, I want you to reach out to us and book a coaching session. All right, let’s change the narrative. Let’s 180 the business, let’s scale the growth, let’s do the things that you’ve been thinking about. Let’s just do them. It’s your time, sister. It is your time. Go to info@stefaniegass.com. Shoot us an email or come into my DMs. Whatevs like I’m casual.

(04:18)
You guys, there’s no fancy like, Oh, like email my team of 30 people. It’s me and my VA and my podcast editor up in here. So you are welcome to shoot me a DM and ask me questions, but there’s no more excuses. It’s time to grow. All right, info@stefaniegass.com. Let’s get some coaching. Let’s do the things. Anywho, who’s ready for some productivity? Let’s get it.

(04:55)
I don’t even know where to start giving you an intro about Chelsi Jo, because she is so one of a kind, she is the most incredible mama of two girls. She’s married. She’s from Arizona and she’s this like little peach of a human you guys. She grows her own veggies. She’s a crunchy mama. She loves herself some Jesus and she’s about systems and simplifying motherhood so that you can have exceptional productivity in your life and business. She pairs faith, family, and business together so beautifully. And she’s just an inspiration to me. And I’m so excited that she’s going to pour her knowledge into all of you today.

(06:15)
Hey, listen, if you guys have been thinking about getting your life in order, please go listen to Chelsi Jo’s podcast, Systemize Your Life. It’s everywhere you listen to podcasts. I know you’re going to love it. She also offers motherhood productivity sessions and helps you find more time and energy to be productive while managing your home and children and all the things. She’s just a beautiful resource for all of you. So go connect with Chelsi Jo, and you guys are gonna love our discussion today.

(06:44)
What’s up? Not much chilling, coming at you all live from the closet right now. All of our children and husbands are everywhere to be found. And we’re like, yeah, how about we meet in the closet? That’s perfect. So Chelsi, everyone heard about how amazing you were in the intro. I talked about how you’re one of my elite clients. We know each other very well, but here’s what I want to say to you before we get into all of this is that you are an expert. You are my dream vision of this mom who like has systems for legit, everything in her life, right?

(07:31)
Chelsi is an expert in systemizing things to create more space and time in your life. Not just so that you can feel more at peace because Lord knows like when my life is in shambles, I’m a stressed out mess, but it then creates more time so that you can be more productive in your business. Would you say that’s the ultimate reason for having systems as a work from home mom? Talk to us a little bit about why you became passionate about this, Chelsi, and why you think it’s so important. Yeah.

(08:02)
I think that when you become a mom, it is really evident that time just escapes, like with the blink of an eye, some of us decide that we’re going to start businesses after we become moms. And then some of us become moms after we have businesses. But yeah, really, it doesn’t matter. The point is, is that you just have a really short, narrow window of time and energy. When you have kids, your time is sucked out. And so is your energy. I started when she was a newborn, I started an event styling and floral design company.

(08:45)
I was trying to do all the things. Plus I had a job outside of the house and I was raising her and I was trying to do it as crunchy as possible, which meant I was making my own baby food. And I was cloth diapering. I was doing all the things. Plus I was working 40 hours a week and I started this company with my mom and I was like, there’s just no way. Things are going to have to get simplified real quick or this is never going to work. And I didn’t want to lose anything. I loved my career, obviously loved being a mom. And then I really, really, really loved this new baby that I had. Right. Which was my business.

(09:16)
I needed to figure out how to do all of it. Cause I couldn’t figure out what I was going to get rid of. And a lot of us moms, we can’t even fathom getting rid of our business. It is our baby, right. And obviously we all have this mom guilt that follows us around because we want our families to be first, but it really could consume your entire life. And so I just knew that there was a way to do it better. I knew that there was a way to do it, all of it at once. If I really sat down and looked at what I was doing and I started making wise decisions with what I was putting my time and energy into and how I was going about my day.

(09:53)
We talk about Enneagram numbers all the time. I’m an Enneagram one, I’m a planner. My job was planning weddings. And I just started planning things out. I started taking notes, I have notebooks. And I just was really paying attention to an infinite amount of details and consolidating them and putting all of those things in a little category and just streamlining everything. And I came up with some stuff that really helped me be able to do all of those three things relatively well and without a whole lot of stress. That’s amazing.

(10:24)
So do you feel like systems has always been inherently natural for you, Chelsi? Or did you feel like you had to have this mindset shift to, Oh, I need systems. And then what is a system and how do I begin? Was there a shift or because you’re in Enneagram one, was it something you’ve always done?

No, I think there absolutely had to be a shift when it came to motherhood because I had never done it before. I had to figure out what in the world, like all of a sudden you can’t just get up and do whatever you feel like anymore.

(10:56)
You can’t just spend an hour and a half getting ready in the bathroom anymore. So I still wanted to feel like a really well put together human and woman. I couldn’t do it anymore. If you go back far enough in my Instagram, you will see a picture of me sitting on my bathroom counter right after I had a baby talking about how good it felt to put mascara on for the first time. And so I realized I’m going to have to start doing things differently. And that’s when the systems came into play.

(11:21)
I realized that if I did the same set of things over and over and over again, and it was sucking the life out of me, that it was a stupid decision. I should probably make a different set of decisions to get myself better outcomes. That’s really what a system is, is you start layering things and going through them one at a time. And when that doesn’t work, you go back and you tweak it until you have something that really, really works for you. And then the same thing in business, obviously I didn’t know what I was doing.

(11:47)
I was just like, Oh, I’m really crafty and frugal. So I could do your wedding for really cheap come hire me. And then I was like, Whoa, there’s client management, all the things. So yeah, I had to figure it out and it was just a lot of Pinterest and Googling and I like to plan things. So that made this perfect for me. But I haven’t always had systems in my life. Yeah.

Well, Chelsi, I have a really good system. It’s sleep in my PJ’s and then wear them for the day. That way I don’t have to do my laundry.

Uncalled for.

Okay. Chelsi, let’s agree to disagree on this one.

(12:26)
I just think what does Brad think about you being in your pajamas all the time. Like he does not care. Does he?

Not at all. Well, maybe he does. I have no idea. Well, look, I did put on mascara for you Chels.

You know, I was sitting there this morning, getting ready and I’m like, okay, Stefanie’s either going to protest and she’s going to show up like the hairy, scary or show up and look okay.

I love the fact that you just said all the hairy scary. That is beyond epic because you know me so well.

(13:05)
So anyway, you guys listen to Chelsi, get dressed, get your life together. Okay. So then is there a difference between a system and a routine or do you think they’re the same?

No, I definitely think that you can have a system that you don’t routinely do.

Okay. Okay. So somebody could give you a system for doing your laundry, but if you don’t routinely do it, your laundry is never going to get done. Right? A routine is something that you do over and over and over again.

(13:34)
A system is a set of chronological steps that if you do them out of order, it doesn’t work. So, you know my system for meal planning. I have to do it in a certain way. And I do that every single Saturday. Now, if I don’t do that system every single Saturday, then I’m out of that routine of doing it. I could do that same system on Tuesday. And sometimes I do that system on Friday if Saturday I can’t go. And like right now, I’m not going to the grocery store every week, but I’m still using that kind of framework for meal planning, but I’m not doing it in the same routine that I was doing it before.

(14:14)
So would you say that this whole simplifying systems, which means you’re coming up with the roadmaps for various things, but you’re going to teach us and then secondly, having structured flexibility behind it is what makes it a success?

Yeah. I definitely think that not being so regimented in your routines that you can’t give and take with whatever you feel like, what your kids feel like, what the world feels like at any given moment. Right? So we’re all feeling that pressure right now and things do feel different, but guess what?

(14:44)
My systems they’re still here, even though I’m like hunkered down at home for weeks and weeks and weeks on end, I still have the same systems. But my routine looks a little bit different and I’m super flexible in that way. I think Enneagram ones and that personality type really gets a bad rap sometimes for being militant and being overly structured. And I can, because that’s my personality, fall into a negative space where I’m super regimented, but there’s so much good. And goodness to be learned from having systems in your life.

(15:20)
The relief is incredible. Yeah. And I mean, for me, what I would say is I have all the routines in the world. Like I do things every week, a hundred percent they’re getting done, but I have no systems behind it, which is such an interesting concept for me. The more I’ve gotten to know you and watched even the simple, taskmeister.com that you shared with our mastermind group. And it’s like, Oh wow. There’s like all these super cool tools. I just go at stuff. And that’s the three in me Chelsi that, you know, we talked that personality types differ.

(15:57)
So let me ask you this question. Do you think every personality type and every Enneagram type is a good fit for systems? Yeah, absolutely. There is no successful company that you will go to that doesn’t have systems. They all have systems. They have onboarding systems. What you do when you’re a new hire, they have systems for everything, if they’re efficient and if they’re successful. I used to work inside of a cube as an interpreter.

(16:21)
So we would interpret phone calls and we were the third person in between a deaf person and a hearing person. And they would track how long it would take us to click the button, to hang up, to click the button, to go back into the queue. They had their system down Pat to know how to squeeze every ounce out of their interpreters. I think that is over using and abusing. But the point is to say that if you want the efficiency, you need systems, they have to be there. Or you’re just wasting time and energy on things that are unnecessary.

Oh my gosh. Amen to that.

(16:58)
You guys know I believe that time is money. Time is more valuable than money. So systems create productivity, which create more time, right. And also efficiency, which I’m all about it. So let’s shift to the women, listening to this show as you know, Chelsi, because you’re one of them, are super driven mompreneurs. We’re all working businesses and raising kids. So what do you think if you had to tell me the top two systems that we can implement as mompreneurs that are going to make the most impact in having time productivity and efficiency in our lives?

(17:36)
Can you gift us those today and talk us through tangible steps of implementing them in our life? Yeah, absolutely. So I’m going to leave a little third bonus one out there. If you can just hang on to the very end, may have already hinted at it, but it’s so vital. But the first two are, they’re like the meat and potatoes of everything that I do in my life. And the first one, if any of the people that listen to you already listen to me, they will absolutely be like, yes, this is her thing, but it’s to know, and to have a system for your fundamental needs.

(18:06)
The only way that you can be efficient in your business and with your children and anywhere that you are is to know that you’re taking care of yourself. And I don’t loosely throw around the word self care, because that’s not what this is. This is really truly having a system in place to make sure every single week you are taking care of the fundamental needs that you need to be able to feel whole, to be able to sustain output of energy that your family is demanding of you, that your business is demanding of you, that your church is demanding of you, that your community is demanding of you.

(18:43)
Everybody wants to take something from you and you’re allowed to take time for yourself. But so many people are overwhelmed with how to do that because they don’t have a system for it. So I created in my house, we have a great eight and that is the system for my fundamental needs. Now everybody might have a few different tweaks to that because everybody has a few different needs. But for the most part, they are all the same. And what I would recommend is to have these eight, to be able to care for your fundamental needs every single week.

(19:15)
So I can take you through this step by step, but I also have a workbook that you can download to help because before I go into that, what I want to say is that there are a lot of women that like to gift themselves with something that makes them I feel good. And that is not what I recommend. Now, those are nice treats and those do make us feel good. But the point of knowing what your fundamental needs are, is to really be aligned with the person that you were created to be. So for me, I know how much time alone I need.

(19:45)
I know how much time I need to be spending in the Bible. I know how much time I need to be spending with my spouse and with my kids. And I know how much time I need to be giving to myself every single week to be able to have whole food and meal prepping and how much time I need to give to my house, all those kinds of things. So have a workbook that you could go through, and it absolutely helps you to know where you’re at on the scale right now and help you find the needs that are lacking, that you need more kind of energy put into to bring them up to par and which areas you’re already doing really well in right now.

(20:19)
It just gives you the foundation to be able to set up a system for your fundamental needs. I love that. Where do they get that at Chelsi?

It is on my website. I’m pretty sure you’ll have a link for it in your show, how we can add a link.

Okay. And give us some examples of, because everyone’s visual like me, were like, Ooh, this sounds so nice. All these fundamental needs, that is the core foundation of getting to know yourself, doing that self-inventory.

(20:50)
So here’s an example of how we’re different Chelsi. When my life was falling apart I got out a sheet of paper and wrote down the woman I wanted to become. Have you heard me talk about that before? Uh huh. I was in essence doing fundamental needs journaling, I had no idea that was a thing, right? I was writing, who does God want me to be? And how many hours does this take and this take? And what are the categories? What does it look like?

(21:10)
It all started from that sheet of paper. Yeah. And that’s what it is. It was just messy. And it works though. It works so beautifully because I kept coming back to, if my life doesn’t fit that piece of paper, it’s not going, it’s not flying. Things need to change. Something needs to get outsourced. I got to change the formula because the formula must equal that woman that’s God is calling me to be, which is an essence of what you are helping these women start with. Cause that would be the foundational steps. Yeah.

(21:42)
No one ever teaches their children to sit down and assess what their needs are. Maybe these next couple generations might, but we did not get lessons in school or from our parents that said how much time do you need as a mom to be away from your children? What does that look like for you? I was actually told the direct opposite. You love your children every single day. You want to do nothing except for be around them. They give you your source of joy.

(22:08)
You love cooking and cleaning and you love looking amazing for your husband when he gets home from work. Like you love all those things you do. Okay. Well, what happens when you don’t? And you know, when I married Blaine, I already had a daughter. Most people that follow me know that I came out of a very negative cyclical relationship. And that really was a huge wake up call where I realized that for the first two years of her life, I was the furthest thing from the mom and the woman that God designed me to be because of what I was allowing to happen in my life every day.

(22:51)
So I changed that up and I got my feet underneath me, I got a foundation that was rooted in what my belief system is. And then Blaine came along and then we got married and we had another baby. And I realized that even within that marriage, if we were so equally yoked and all the things, but it didn’t matter. We still needed to have a system to make sure that every single week we were getting these eight fundamental needs on the calendar. Because when we weren’t guess what, six weeks would go by and we haven’t had a date and it’s been three weeks and the toilets haven’t been cleaned, I feel responsible for it because I’m the “homemaker.”

(23:31)
No, I’m not. I’m working too. And there was just so much stuff to juggle. And I know moms fall into that all the time. So he and I sat down together per my request multiple times in a row. And then he started to come along and see that this was a great idea. And it was helping me to not be a basket case all the time, because with a few intentional tweaks, you take the kids for this amount of time and you get a happy wife all the time. Like that was such a no brainer, but you know, it took so much fear and really gross feelings inside for me to sit down and be like, Hey, Blaine, I need to talk to you about this.

(24:09)
I need to tell you that I am not the Susie homemaker that you thought I was. By the way, he never said that. I assumed that he thought that about me. And that is a problem. You have to sit down and put these things on paper, figure out what your needs are and sit down and talk to your husband about them. So let me give you that visual that you asked for. So what this looks like is I’m just going to talk to you about the eight that we do.

(24:33)
So on Sundays, every single Sunday, we have what we call a Sunday sit down and we plan and we connect for the week. We ask each other a set of questions that help us really connect so that we know how to pray for each other every week so that we know what was hard for them. The week before we have these set of questions that we talk about, I have a whole podcast about that too. Then we also go over our week and we go over our budget. And so it’s just a time for us to talk about adult things with our kids not around.

(25:04)
We make sure that it’s at nap time and our oldest one, I’ve gone through the mom guilt. And I have to look at her and her sad puppy, dog eyes and tell her, I’m sorry, we cannot play with you right now. Mom and dad need to do this so that we can be here for you during the week. And it’s hard. Okay. I want her to do that when she’s older, I want her to be that kind of mom. So I do that to her, even though I never saw someone do that to me, I believe in that. And we’ll see what she says when she’s grown up. She’s going to be so whole and happy.

(25:35)
So then we sit down every single week and we put in Monday through Friday, our personal time for work, we put down when we’re going to do a to-do section. So we have two hours every week that we dedicate to doing what is on our to do list. And that is so it’s not growing bigger every single week. We’re actually making headway with it. And it also means that we’re not putting too much time and energy into it on any one given day. So we have two hours for that. We do our cleaning, we have a date night. We have meal prepping and planning that I do every Saturday, we have the gym that we get in multiple times a week.

(26:12)
Those things live in our calendar and they live in our schedule every single week.

And I love that you said you have your children do your fundamental needs with you as well. Yeah. It’s such a beautiful thing to think about because for me, I was like, Oh yeah, that’s something I need, never once did it cross my mind, Chelsi, about doing that with them? Is that horrible?

(26:36)
I just never thought about it until you said that I’m like, well, hello. That makes such perfect sense. And I just, I love the open communication that brings to bring everybody to the table with like, Hey, what makes you whole? Hey, what makes you whole and how does that fit and how do we make this week fit everyone’s needs? And I think that’s just such a beautiful system. I love that.

Yeah. The other thing that we have in there is family night that I didn’t mention.

(27:02)
So we also make sure that we have a family night every single week where we’re completely unplugged and we’re just doing something with the kids. And a lot of that came from exactly what you just said, that this is about the teaching, our kids, what open communication looks like about what our needs are, that there is no cookie cutter, perfect role of a husband and a wife, other than biblically speaking, what we choose to teach our kids.

(27:28)
And when they’re older, we hope that they will practice that too. But even if there’s a time in their life where they’ve fallen away from that, I believe that if they are rooted in what they hear coming from the inside of them, that it’s going to be really hard for them to fall from that path. And when you two are really rooted in what you hear coming from inside, it’s really hard to fall away from the core of what you were created to do. That’s why this is so important to me, because again, I was trapped in this place in my life where everything that I was created to do was being robbed from me.

(28:03)
I was allowing that to happen for far too long. And I was like, no, I know I was created to be the mom that wants to do A, B, C and D and that included running a business. So I think it just takes a chance. It takes all of you moms taking a chance on what this would look like, try it for a week or two. And I promise, this is what I tell all my moms. I promise it’s gonna feel weird at first. And I know it’s going to be scary to talk to your husband, but after you get through it, the change that happens, that’s what will motivate you to keep going.

(28:38)
I didn’t do it as structured as this Chelsi, but when I went through that exercise, it created the boundaries I needed too. It created all of those boundaries of, I am not willing to work X amount, regardless of what’s going on. And I have to make time for blank. So it was like, it’s what defined the foundation for me. But it was also this huge jumping off point of who I am now three years after writing on that piece of paper, that letter to myself or whatever.

(29:08)
Now I’m so hardcore with boundaries that it’s ridiculous, but it’s created this life of really my dreams. It’s exactly what I wrote down. So imperative, amen to that system. I think I’m with you, you’ve got to start with foundational core work like that. So now you’ve got that set up. You feeling groovy. You’re like, okay, Chels and Stef, got my eight things all squared away, had the conversation with boo thing. He’s good. We’re doing this stuff. It feels good, but my life is still a mess. I’m still very unproductive. Everything’s everywhere.

(29:45)
Here’s the kicker ladies. Chelsi and I get off on this. Sometimes you’re either willing to do the work to make the changes or you’re not. So you’re going to hear Chelsi spout some gold right now about how to create a system or systems. She has a bonus one too for actually being more productive, actually be more efficient. You can hear her and you can leave us and you can go on feeling like a hot mess, or you can do the work to then create the routine behind the system and do the things for change.

(30:19)
We didn’t become successful in running a business and having children and running a household and all the things without being super intentional about making the choices to change. So that was just my soapbox on this Chelsi, because I know you’re going to spit gold, but I wanted to get their attention that they have to implement what you teach right now. This is not easy. I’ll tell you that. And there is no woman that you look at that looks like she has it all together, that has a successful business, tat’s not working her tail off, but it is a whole different working your tail off.

(30:51)
The kind of work that you’re doing right now, yelling at your kids and constantly picking up messes and never, ever, ever having your act together and going to bed at the end of the night, feeling like a failure that is a whole other different kind of hard work that I know you don’t want to be doing. It’s just how to do it differently. And the way that you do it differently is you put a whole lot of intention behind what you’re doing with your time.

(31:13)
So now that you know what you want to be doing, you need to know where it’s going to live. And the other system, the second system that I require people to go through, if they really want to see this happen is to have a framework for your week. Now, for me, I choose to have my framework on Monday through Friday, my Saturdays and Sundays have a few systems in them, but they’re relatively free of any type of really intense structure because I believe in rest.

(31:44)
I believe in connecting and I believe in some time to unplug and space to breathe. So my framework and my roadmap to be able to schedule your own framework for yourself consists of five blocks of time. And so you have a morning, an a.m., a mid-day, a p.m., and a nighttime. Everything that you do during the day needs to fit into one of those blocks. And here is where the efficiency comes in. When you’re in one block of time, you’re never thinking or doing anything else that lives in another block of time. That allows you to be completely focused and intentional, while your wheels aren’t spinning.

(32:29)
You’re able to slow down. You’re able to make eye contact with the people around you, or you’re able to really pour into that Instagram post that you’ve been trying to create. And your kids been tapping on you 15,000 times. Now you have to delete it for the 12th time. You have to be so intentional about what it is that you want to do. And that’s where the fundamental needs come in. And then you need to make sure that everything else that you layer in on top of that lives in one of these blocks of time.

(32:55)
So in my morning block and my nighttime and my mid day, so take all five of your fingers and you think of your thumb, your pinky, and your middle finger. Those are times for you and you only, okay? Your AM and your PM is when you give all your dedication to your home and to your children. And so I really try my very best to not do any work at all on my business, inside of my AM and my PM block, which typically consists of when my children are awake.

(33:29)
And then when my children are sleeping, I dedicate all that time to me. So I never suggest for my moms to ever do their house cleaning when their kids are in bed. I think that that is sacred time for you and for your husband and for your creator, for you to be connecting with what it is that you need to do. That’s pretty much it, in a nutshell on how I build a framework for moms, and it can get a little bit different for those that have unique schedules, but no one has a more unique schedule than me.

(33:56)
My husband is a firefighter and he works on rotation. And that is why we came up with this framework because I was losing my mind, trying to figure out how to keep everything consistent and how to make everything fit when we never have the same schedule from one week to the next. So this works, no matter if you do a Monday through Friday type thing, it works. Even when you’re in quarantine, it works. If you’re on a rotation, it works no matter what. So how do you decide then what to plug into the slots, Chelsi? Because I think that map sounds so beautiful and ideal.

(34:36)
I can just hear the moms right now. I can hear them going, okay. But like, how specific do I get, do I go by the five minutes? Do I go by the 15 minutes? Am I plugging in everything I do? What if my kid poops on the floor? How do I handle that? And where do I work? You know, all the questions you help moms with this. Yeah, I do. And that’s where the flexibility comes in. That’s the beauty of it being flexible with yourself and having a system in place because it’s a framework, right? Like it’s not a minute by minute.

(35:06)
This is why I never, ever recommend that moms use minute by minute or timestamped planners. Because nothing, when you have kids goes according to time, this is just a block. Like sometimes I wake up at five o’clock in the morning and sometimes I stayed up really late jamming with my husband and I sleep in until six o’clock. What I know for sure is there are a certain set of things that have to get done every single week. Those are my eight fundamental needs, my great eight.

(35:32)
I put them all down in a calendar. And that’s how I know they start with that. So I know that every single day where things are going to be when I’m getting my meal planning done, when our family time is, and then I layer in the other things that have to be done. And I know that throughout a week, I have 15 hours that I can give to my business. That’s what I have right now. And I make sure that that’s in there. I do the same process with my business too. I do it in motherhood and I do it in business.

(36:04)
So when you’re trying to figure out what it is, where you’re going to put all of these things, you have to sit down and spend some time looking at it. At the beginning of the week, you have to get everything that’s in your head. You have to do a brain dump, put it down and prioritize it. I have a whole podcast episode on how to do that too. So that’s how you know where to put things. And you know what? I do not design it to be so incredibly restrictive that you’re panicking.

(36:29)
When your kid poops on the floor, it’s not a big deal, right? Because what you didn’t get done, there’s always a buffer. You shouldn’t be cramming so many things in. It’s pretty relaxed. And that’s how I like to be all the time. Anyway, you should give yourself enough space to breathe and make that eye contact that I talked about and be really present in each of these. So maybe there are some moms that are going to try and cram pack those five blocks of time, a little too full, but that’s the trial and error that they’re going to have to go through.

(37:00)
That’s the hard work, you have to be willing to take the time to come back to the drawing board every single weekend and say what didn’t work for me last week. Let’s not do that again. What did work for me? Okay. Let’s do more of that. And it becomes an evolution of what works for you. The point is, is that you are using this framework to guide you in how to go about your day so that you’re productive and intentional. Amen to all of those things.

(37:26)
I’ve been using a super planner system that’s kind of similar to this. Chelsie we’ve talked about mine. I use a time-stamped one, but I move things. I spend at least one hour every Sunday mapping every single thing out for that whole week. Everything. And it’s hitting the fundamental needs. Scriptures, Bible studies, workouts I’ve been a little slack in that area.

(37:58)
However, we’ve got, what else? All the meetings, the clients, the podcast recording, just everything. It’s all gotta be there. And I’ll tell you that something crazy just to prove that Chelsi’s right. When I was at the Brendon Burchard event, he had everyone stand up that plans their life in a planner, including their goals and their daily stuff. Plans their life proactively and has done it for at least six months. There was a room of 2,500 people. 60 of us stood up, 60 and he pointed at the 60 people. And he said, I can guarantee you every one of these 60 people that stood up runs a really successful business.

(38:40)
You’re all wondering why you’re not, you’ve got to proactively plan, especially if you have kids and run a business and do them both from home. Yeah, my husband, literally, when we were dating, I knew I was going to marry him because he said this thing and I was like, Oh, that is gold. He said, fail to plan, plan to fail. And I was like, wait, what? That’s a word jumble. No, let me say it again. Fail to plan, plan on failing. You are not going to succeed at your week, if you don’t have a plan for what in the world you’re doing.

(39:15)
Let me just tell you, like, I’m not perfect at this. Two weeks ago, my husband was home on a Sunday. Some Sundays he’s not he’s at work. So we have to do our Sunday sit down on Saturday, or we have to FaceTime while he’s at work to do our Sunday sit down. We just know, now that this has to happen two weeks ago, we did ours, but then I didn’t get my time to plan for me.

(39:35)
Every single time that it came down to my 15 hours that are chunked out through the week to work on my business. Guess what? I ended up scrolling social media, and I wasted so much time. And I was nasty. I was upset, I had anxiety, I felt horrible. And it was my fault. I sat down and I told my husband, I was like, no, I can’t do this anymore. I love you. And you’re cute, but you’re a distraction. And I need an hour on Sundays. Get your cute butt outta here today.

(40:05)
We were out on the patio and my husband’s standing there like scanning his trees, you know? I mean like men look at their plants, weirdo. Anyway. I was like, wow, your butt looks so nice right now. And he bounces a little bit. And I was like, what are you doing? He’s like, try it. I was like, no, stop. I was like, please stop. Our cute husbands have got to go when planning, you have to make the choice. You have to make the choice to change your life.

(40:43)
It sounds so almost like elementary. I don’t know how you feel Chelsi, but people like, how do you do all the things you do and how are you running this big business? I plan it, I just plan it, I just know that I have to plan it, but yet, so many people are failing at this so they can use your system. Your system is such a great gateway. They look at Stefanie’s planning and they run out the door. But I think Chelsi’s planning. It’s kind of loose. And it’s like an easy gateway into being a planner.

(41:26)
So you have a printable that they can print, can use your paper printouts. Right, Chelsi? Yeah, it’s a guide and it’s totally free to download. And it shows you exactly what I would recommend you putting in each time block. It shows what I put in my time block. It shows what different days of the week look like. And it just kind of helps to give you an understanding of how you can get started with this. If people sat down and they looked at the types of decisions that I make and the hard decisions that I make in a day, they would probably turn around and run too.

(41:58)
But I don’t want to make anybody do that. I didn’t start that way and neither did you, and they’re not going to start that way either. And I think it’s so easy for people to join on my Instagram and say, Oh, well, I’m not going to be able to do that because it’s overwhelming. So I really try and break it down little by little by little. And I’ve noticed that a lot of people have a hard time implementing this because they’re trying to implement all of it at the same time.

(42:22)
You just can’t throw up a wall in a day, you have to lay a foundation. You have to put brick by brick, by brick. And then eventually it is this nice, beautiful wall that supports and that has a function. So it’s no different. You have to build you’re successful and productive and ideal week, one small, small step at a time. So if you even just start out with whatever that most important thing is for you, you go down and you figure out your fundamental needs are, if you’re not doing any of this right now, you just pick out one thing maybe this week and for the next four weeks, we’re just going to make sure that once a week we have family night and that’s it.

(43:02)
Then you can put in the next thing. Now I’m going to make sure that every single morning, I’m up 15 minutes before my kids. And I get in time to insert what you really want to do that morning. You have to start with one thing and slowly but surely you’ll have a full fledged system. If you’re a go getter and your kids are more independent, you might be able to tackle a few at a time. But yeah, some of us aren’t in that season of life when we can’t do that. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t start with something. Those are amazing. Thank you, Chelsi.

(43:27)
I think those are the two things I want all of you to start with. And that is going to just truly not only impact your business because you’re more happy. You’re more joyful. You are more centered and know who you are and what you need. And also it gives you that foundation of actually planning in all the things that make you that woman. So those two things paired together. If you just walk away from this episode, with those two things, I would be super happy. I would be more happy if you can message us and commit, message Chelsi and I on Instagram or share this episode and commit to us that you’re going to do this for 90 days to create some new habits and routines in your life.

(44:11)
We would love to watch you walk that journey and let us know how it’s working for you. Chelsi, before we share with them where they can come find you and binge listen all your episodes. You had a bonus system. Yes. And it seems so ridiculous, but it’s my meal planning system and it’s super straightforward. And the reason why this is so is because A it has completely changed my life and B it’s changed a lot of mom’s lives.

It’s not a new system, it’s a meal menu board. And so I have a board that hangs in my house and it has every day of the week with a little clip next to it. And then it has an old fashioned index card. I made cute ones that you can download from my website, if you want them to look pretty, but you can also just use an index card that you get from the dollar store.

(44:54)
You write all of your family’s favorite meals on those cards. And you plan out on the weekend, what you’re having every single night of the week. Back of the card has all the ingredients that go in that meal on it. Yeah. So if you have to ask your husband to cook dinner, he knows exactly what goes in it and he can cook it. If the kids are old enough and independent enough, they can cook it for you. Or if they’re learning to read and they ask you a million times a day, what’s for dinner, it’s up there.

(45:20)
The biggest part is to make sure that you’re not spending an excruciating long amount of time, every single weekend, trying to figure out what are we going to eat this week? And you’re also not running out last minute to figure out what are we going to have for dinner tonight? It’s already planned out. It’s a visible for everyone. And it is a total game changer, no more scrolling Pinterest for other people’s recipes, every single weekend. Cause I was doing that at one point.

(45:47)
What I love is having the index cards. Cause we have the favorites and my husband will say stuff like I could eat this every week and he’ll say that. And then here we come next week. I’m going, what should I make for dinner? And then like two months later, I make that thing again. And he’s like, Oh, I could eat this every week. I’m like, yeah, I forgot. So if I had these cards every time he said that, and then we have this basket where they’re looking through like, Ooh, let’s have this this week. I love that idea so much.

(46:18)
That was for me, that bonus tip lady. Cause I feel like the other two, those are so good, but like I’m doing pretty good on those. But that third one, Chelsi, you just had that in your arsenal for me. And I’m so grateful. Yeah. They actually fit in an old fashioned recipe box, which you can buy. Now they’re popular. Those cards fit perfectly in there and it gets your kids involved. Hey, come help me plan meals. And they look through and they pick out what meals they want for that week. If you have busy nights, you know, to pick out the one, that’s like a complete stove top or microwaveable dinner that doesn’t have to be cooked, game changer. So good. So good.

(46:54)
You are such a blessing. Thank you for gracing us with your incredible knowledge. I’m excited. I got to stare at your beautiful face all this time in your closet, you look beautiful as always. Share with the girls, Chelsi, where can they find your show? And what’s your website. They can grab all your freebies. The website is chelsijo.co and the podcast is Systemize Your Life with Chelsi Jo. And you can come over also and hang out with me on Instagram. Chelsijo.co. I know you guys are just as in love with Chelsie Jo as I am now.

(47:31)
I’m so blessed to get to work with her all the time. Cause it’s like I’m hanging out with my BFF. I hope you learned a lot of tactical, tangible, amazing tips and tricks that you can start to implement right away because Chelsi, she knows what’s up and y’all go check her out. And I just want to leave you with a prayer sister friend, that if you are sitting in a space of mess, that you are able to find that moment of peace that you ask God to silence all the noise for you and give you divine clarity.

(48:06)
He will gift you what you need to get organized to systemize the things that you know need to be systemized so that you can become more productive. I pray you ask God to give you the mentors, the podcast, the books, the coaches, the things that you are lacking that will speak life into your calling, into your mission work here on earth. I pray that if you are confused that God gives you the breakthrough moment, the divine download of what to do next that you trust into that fully.

(48:37)
Even when it doesn’t make sense, even when it’s confusing, even when the how is super unclear, you know that God put that idea there on purpose and that you can trust it and fuel your dreams with His undying faith. I believe in you. God believes in you. We are all here together in this sisterhood. Love you. I’ll see you soon. As always, love and light, Stef.