Productivity @ Home

Unfreeze Your Brain with Kahn Academy

Every Wednesday, I share my thoughts on Learning and Personal Development.

Sometime in the early first grade, I came to the conclusion that I was "bad" at Math. I attribute it both to my own personal attitude and to a teacher who perhaps herself didn't like math and wasn't too great at teaching it. I managed to survive those elementary school years, high school math, and even barely scraping by in Pre-Calc my first semester at Notre Dame before landing in the "dummy math" class second semester. My classmates there, largely members of various Fighting Irish sports teams, were also bright people who just didn't "get" the whole math thing.

In our home, the division of parenting labor found me squarely in charge of helping with most homework except anything related to math. Once the boys evolved beyond memorization of times tables, I was out of my league.

So imagine my surprise when I recently discoverd the amazing Kahn Academy and found myself voluntarily watching videos of Math lessons! The Kahn Academy, a not-for-profit educational endeavor launched by Salmon Kahn in 2006, is truly revolutionizing the way people learn using technology tools and a systematic approach to teach not only math, but also science, humanities and even test preparation. It's a terrific resource not only for the students in our lives, but also for "grown ups" who -- like myself -- gave up all hope of learning math years ago.

A quick visit to the Kahn Academy website is sure to inspire you to spend ten minutes per day learning something new -- whether it's simple equations or a history lesson, this style of learning offers us the ability to go from "bad" at something to proficient in no time!

Have you used Kahn Academy for yourself or a student in your life? What other types of online services help you and your family to learn and grow?

The Pre-Fab Food Debate

Every Tuesday, I share my thoughts on Family Life.

I found myself fascinated recently by the article "Serving pre-prepared food doesn't mean you're a bad parent" over at CNN. Maybe I'm simply looking for ways to assuage my personal guilt and not cooking from scratch every night of the week -- and I'll freely admit to using Chipotle as a personal productivity crutch far too frequently...

That being said, I think the debate in the comments section of the CNN article points to not only the great divide moms feel over this topic, but also the amazing stress something as vital as feeding our families can create in our homes.

As the CNN article states, many families are seeking shortcuts when it comes to meal preparation:

Nearly half of all Americans use partially prepared foods or ready-to-cook foods to feed their families, according to a 2010 Mintel survey.

Now that there are only three of us living in my household, and frequently only two of us at the dinner table due to my teen's practice schedule and my husband's eratic work schedule, I find myself more concerned with sitting down to the dinner table together than with what's actually being served. I'm not stating that this is a good thing -- I'm just confessing to my personal reality at the moment and seeking your suggestions and ideas for making "easy" more healthy.

I tend to do a great deal of our shopping at Trader Joes and Whole Foods these days, combining fresh produce with partially pre-prepared items. We're also blessed to have a bevy of Farmer's Markets in my home town and ample access to beautiful fruits and vegetables. 

How do you cope with busy meal times? What time-savings strategies do you employ to cut down on prep time? What helps you to keep a healthy balance in your family's meals?

 

Winter Cleaning for Your Home Office

Every Monday, I share my thoughts on Working @ Home.

As we anticipate the crazy busyness of December, I'm looking at these last three bonus days of November as a chance to organize my life and my home office a bit before the hectic schedule kicks in. I recently relocated to a lovely new home office in the former dining room of our house. It's a larger space than I had before with room for floor to ceiling bookshelves, great lighting and easy access to my kitchen and laundry room. But because it is also easily visible, I want to do my best to keep the piles to a minimum and keep things looking nice for my family and visitors. 

I tend to be a "stacker" -- meaning that things that need doing or processing land up in large stacks on my ample desk. For the past few weeks, I've been looking at what falls into these stacks, and trying to organize them into categories. This will hopefully help me to develop a workflow and see what's causing some items to remain stalled in the stacks!

My goals for this week's office organization effort include:

• Better organize the shelving space in my office
• Decrease desktop clutter by devising a filing system for items that need handling -- eradicate stacks!
• Dust and clean the hardwood floors. Dust the blinds
• Go through the myriad "sticky notes" stuck near my computer and complete those tasks or remove them
• Organize my "reading corner", creating a tickler file for items to be read and a basket for daily reading items
• Clean up my computer desktop

This should be enough to keep me more than busy for these last few days of November. If you're looking for a helpful article on organizing your home office space, check out this great one from Real Simple that offers several great product ideas to help you regain control of the chaos.

What would you put on your office's "to do" list to help you get better organized?

Works of Mercy from The Daily Saint

I caught this fantastic presentation today on my favorite personal productivity blog, The Daily Saint. the show shares Mike St. Pierre's recent presentation on Acts of Mercy. As we enter the season of giving, Mike's overview can be a great springboard for reaching out to others during the frenetic pace of the holidays. 

Works of mercy

View more presentations from Mike St. Pierre

Preparing Your Heart and Your Home

Many of my readers will be celebrating with me as we begin the liturgical season of Advent today, counting the days and weeks until Christmas. As P@H is not a religious blog, but one that emphasizes "getting things done where it matters most", I'll simply share that even if you don't celebrate Advent spiritually, this time of preparation can be a wonderful way to focus on being your best this holiday season.

Unfortunately, we've heard all the stories and read all the statistics on the myriad ways in which Christmas has become a secularized, commercialized "me" fest. News programs show us rabid shoppers macing each other to get to the best deals. Our kids are taught to make wish lists that inevitably lead to disappointment. Our calendars are so overbooked that the season which should be most focused on family time passes us by with a whirl of social obligations.

But it doesn't have to be this way. The Christmas season is also filled with opportunities for great joy and service. We are reminded of the neediest in our communities and given ample opportunity to serve them. We write letters (with stamps!) to friends and loved ones and gather for lingering meals. And we focus on giving, a virtue that's always in season.

This Advent, I invite you to take stock of your personal commitments and to prioritize those that most closely draw you to your desired Christmas -- a time of faith, family and fun. Be realistic about what can fit into your schedule. Open your home a few times to friends, even if you simply serve a frozen pizza and a smile. Write long letters or make long distance calls to elderly relatives. Spend as much on food and clothing for those in need as you do on electronics purchases. And, most of all, take time to savor the season -- it will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Tis the Season for Productivity @ Home

As we prepare to enter the Christmas season, I'm pondering now more than ever the need to be organized and effective in running my home and business so that I can savor precious time with family and friends this year. I also want to place an increased emphasis on my personal, spiritual preparation for Christmas -- finding time to do this means being more intentional in my work and better about embracing free time to enjoy my loved ones.

It feels challenging sometimes not to approach Christmas as a series of "to do" lists. My particular faith background helps me to keep this as a sacred period of prayer and preparation, but even if you are not a person of faith, I hope you too will find time to embrace the weeks leading up to Christmas as a time for emotional and spiritual connectedness, not mass consumerism. I was reminded of the necessity of this in my own life yesterday when I spent a few mid-morning hours with my teen at the Mall on "Black Friday".  All around us were families and shoppers, intent on finding those ellusive bargains. What was I doing there? In fact -- crazy as it sounds -- I just wanted to spend a few hours with my son. Perhaps I should have dragged him on a hike or bike ride, but instead we spent some great time window shopping and chatting. So as counterintuitive as it may seem, we found a moment of peace and joy amidst that craziness yesterday.

My goal for the upcoming month and in leading up to new year is to reclaim a sense of the organization and control that has been missing in my world during the past six months when my busyness has led me to a feeling of disorder. Perhaps you've had these times in your own life: moments when you were so busy that you could barely keep on top of the basics.

I know the personal rules that help me to reclaim a sense of "wholeness" -- you likely know yours as well. Now, the trick is enforcing them.

'Tis the Season.