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Routine Practice – Preparing to Get Out the Door

Habits & Routines

13 Aug

Routine, former procrastinators, is a great way to help us do what needs doing when it needs doing.  This week we tackle getting to work or school. Whether you and your family catch a bus, pile into a car, or commute to the kitchen table you must physically transition to work.

Let’s concentrate on three areas:  getting out the door – or over to the table – in the morning.  Next, ending the day ready for tomorrow morning.  And the biggie, practicing your plan before school starts.

Adapt the following ideas to suit you.  Think ahead; bring the family into planning.  This encourages everybody to feel responsible for helping things work.  Give each the opportunity to explain what is important to him or her which can help you figure out a workable approach. For example:

What’s our aim? Leave the house at 7:30.

What’s needed first?  Everybody dress, make beds, prepare breakfast, eat, make lunches, clean up, gather back packs and materials, feed and walk the dog.

What can we do the night before and when?  After dinner make lunches, check backpacks and place by the door.  Before bed, layout the next day’s clothes and shoes.

How will we approach the morning?  Establish get up time and use of alarms.  Set the time everyone gathers in the kitchen for pre-assigned chores.  Who does what?

How will we build in margin?  Add 5 minutes to each task?  Start 15 minutes sooner?

What attitudes will we maintain?  Be patient, respectful, kind, helpful.

Evening basics include determining bedtimes, bed prep and bathroom use, homework hours, dinner time, chores, prepositioning shoes and clothes.

Now, the big one.  Practice your planned routines before school starts – especially the morning one.  Several days in advance, begin getting up at school year time and go through the motions of the plan.  This primes sleepyheads for the new wake up time.  Remember to watch the clock.  Practice will enable everyone to get the hang of what to do, when, and how before the pressure of a real bus out front.  It will enable you to find problems in the plan before they impact real school days.  It will free you more to tend to the baby or special needs. It will help you be realistic and eliminate much frustration.

You can also make it a game of “practice and pretend” during the day.  Afterwards do something fun.  Have popsicles. Share the illustration from “The Gift of Routine” August 6, 2018.  Explain that your morning routine will be like bowling bumpers helping all of you go where you need to, prepared, and in a good humor.  Then everybody go bowling!  Call ahead to make sure bumpers are available.

Practice equips everyone to cooperate.  How often did I get upset when my expectations weren’t met, yet I never took the time to train children or teens how to do something? Just telling is not training.  Training involves practice.  Go there.

What’s your planned routine?  What days will you practice?

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BETH STERNE
Welcome! It's great to have you here. I'm a follower of Christ and a learner of new ways. By His grace, I am gaining victory over procrastination. This is where I share struggles I face and lessons I'm learning. Join me and other sisters as we put off procrastination and put on peace.

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"Beth’s procrastination talk led me to understand procrastination as a heart issue in need of God’s restoration not just a change of my ways. Beth’s personal experiences helped me discover practical ways to attack my own procrastination. As a result I have become a more loving wife, mother and friend who is able to use the gifts God has given me more fully. I highly endorse this talk and would love to hear it again and again."
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Carole S.

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2018-08-16T14:42:59-04:00

Carole S.

“Beth’s presentation on procrastination was truly eye-opening. I knew I had a problem with procrastination, but never thought twice about how it impacted my relationships and showed God that I wasn’t onboard with His plan. I began to see each instance took away from being fruitful; I was living for myself! After this revelation, I have been working on procrastinating less. I can see places opening up in my life for more peaceful moments, more time with and for friends and family, and more time for God’s plan to unfold. It’s amazing to know there’s more to life for me than a life full of “should haves” as a result of procrastination.”
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Rebecca F.

“After Beth came and shared about procrastination, many realized that it is possible through the Lord's power to stop putting off what God has called us to do. One mother finally started a blog and another posted a ladies; tea for her church months in advance so that ...she would not put off having it. Although I thought I was not someone who procrastinates, I realized I had some relationships that I needed to work on. Procrastination, I learned, is not just about getting things turned in on time, it's about listening to God and doing what He says to do when He tells you to and obeying God's Word.”
https://putoffprocrastination.com/testimonials/rebecca-f/
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Beth Sterne - Put Off Procrastination
Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise! It has
no commander, no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
Proverbs 6:6-8
... you have put off the old man with
his deeds, and have put on the new
man who is renewed in knowledge
according to the image of Him who
created him.
Colossians 3:9-10

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