Nifty new features include:

• New bi-weekly*, monthly and manual reset schedules for your routines
• Choose which months of the year routines will appear – for seasonal routines
• Support for iPhone 5 screen resolution
• Improved iPad artwork for retina screens
• Bug fixes for star resets, background music, timer sounds, routine reminders, bluetooth hotspots and more
• HomeRoutines is now a universal app. Whether you originally purchased the iPhone or iPad version, it will now work on either device.

UPDATE, 8 February

We have identified a couple of bugs in HomeRoutines 2.5 (Special thanks to those of you who’ve taken time to let us know!)

The first affects the new bi-weekly routines. Only “Week A” routines are appearing, regardless of which week you have selected.   Bi-weekly reminders are also not appearing correctly.

The second bug is affecting the sync service.  Sometimes changes are sent up to the server but then decide to stay there, rather than coming back down to the app.  This means that syncing between two devices is not working consistently.

We are very sorry that these bugs are marring our new update, which we are otherwise very proud of. We have stayed up late and submitted an update to Apple, but it takes about a week for the App Store to review it and release it to the store.

We will keep you posted as we have any news, and apologies again if you’re affected by the bugs.

Flylady's 11 Commandments from Fordward Moving Mommy

Nikki just shared this colourful Flylady Commandments graphic on the Flylady Facebook page, and the designer Fordward Moving Mommy popped up in the thread. It’s a fantastic summary of the somewhat sprawling Flylady system.

I shared this graphic in a blog post ago, but I had  accidentally credited to a blog that had reposted it.  I’m updating here to credit Holly properly and also mention that she has a free printable version available.

I’m kind of fond of frogs. My maiden name was a little bit froggish (well it had a “croak” in it!) and I used to love the Mercer Mayer books about that mischievous wee froggy and his shenanigans with his boy.

Anyway, there is a lot of advice shared about eating frogs in the productivity-sphere of the internet. It all comes back to a quote from Mark Twain, who said:

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

A hundred-something years later, Bryan Tracey wrote a book called “Eat that frog” which says you should identify the most difficult (strangely crunchy, raw and wriggling) task on your to-do list and do it first thing in the morning instead of having it wreck your day by twitching around the place while you studiously try.to.ignore.it.

When I started writing this I realised it fits in exactly with the post I wrote about getting cracking with your suckiest tasks in 15 minute chunks – only with the added exhortation to do them first thing in the morning. Then you can settle down to browse tumblr other productive uses of your time with an easy conscience.

As usual with Sensible Productivity Advice, other sensible people have written excellent articles about it, so here we go:

• Do your Worst Task First from Gina Trapani on Fast Company
• Start Your Day By Eating a Frog on Simple Mom
• Eat That Frog – Do Your Most Important Tasks In The Morning on Asian Efficiency
• Do the Hardest Things First on I’m an Organizing Junkie

Extra for Experts:

• A list of things Mark Twain would rather eat than live frogs.

I wrote yesterday about rocking your timer, but this morning I read Steady Mom’s post about Suffering for 15 minutes and it was groundbreaking to me.

A lot of advice seems to assume that once you decide to set your timer to do something that you’re going to spring up full of vigor and wipe the small-boy-pee from your toilet floor while singing Happy Happy Joy Joy and doing a vigorous, improvised toilet-cleaning boogie.

But Gretchen Rubin (of The Happiness Project) was honest enough to say that sometimes if you’re dreading a task you just have to bite the bullet and suffer to get ‘er done.

As Gretchen said in the comments of her post:

Somehow telling myself I was going to “suffer” helped put me in the right
frame of mind. It never ended up being as unpleasant as I expected.

What are you dreading working on? I’m inspired by her video talking about digital photos – it’s the time of year that I realise I haven’t edited last years photos, let alone this years.  I guess that will be my 15 minutes tonight!

Take five minutes. Just five. Set a timer. If you’re on the couch or in bed, look to see the closest surface to you. It’s probably the coffee table or your nightstand. For those five minutes, just focus on that one surface. Clear it off, throw stuff away, maybe even dust it. So when your five minutes is done and you’re back in bed, you have one clear surface to look at. You have an accomplishment to focus on. You did something. You don’t have to do everything. – Unf*** Your Habitat: The Depression/Messy House Cycle

Setting a timer to get started is a very motivating way to work.  If the world is falling down around you (or feels like it) and you have what seems like three week’s worth of work to do in one afternoon, can seem much easier to just hide in a comfy chair or the safe place inside the computer.  That’s how it is to me anyway.  Or sometimes you just honestly can’t be bothered.

Either way, try setting a timer for a small chunk of time, and promising yourself to concentrate on one area or one task for that amount of time.  Merlin Mann calls this “Running a dash”

You might choose 2 minutes, or 5 minutes, or 11, or 15.

Once you get started (the laptop is put away, you’re on your feet, you’re doing things) it’s easier to keep going, just until the timer goes off. Then you can stop, and you’re ahead of where you were.

If you have a series of tasks to do, once you’re on a roll, you might want to alternate timed “working” blocks with timed “relaxing” blocks. You can do this anyway you like, of course.

• Leo Babauta’s Favourite Procrastination Hack is a 30 minute work chunk /10 minutes play.
• UnF*** My Habitat goes with 20 minutes/10 minutes.
• The FlyLady’s “Crisis Cleaning” mode goes with 3 x 15 minute chunks, followed by a 15 minute break.
• HabitHacker points out that if you work in 11 minute chunks, you can do two of those in a row and then an 8 minute break, and it adds up to a neat half-hour.
• Merlin Mann suggests doing 10 minutes work followed by a 2 minute break.  Repeating times five, for an hour’s work.

Pick a time that feels good to you and suits the time you have available. Work for that time. Stop for a cup of tea when the timer goes off. It’s as easy (and as difficult) as that.

Jesper asked us a question yesterday on the HomeRoutines facebook page.

Why are all the articles linked to in pink, and with “romantic” typefonts, and the most frequently used word on this page “mom”? Can’t guys be home cleaning/organizing freaks as well?

Oh, how it pains me to be asked that, because I purposely didn’t make the app itself all pink and flowery because, seriously, everybody needs to do dishes and laundry. It’s not just for the ladies (even if the “likers” on the HomeRoutines page are 96.2% female as of today)  But there does seem to be a preponderance of “Mommy Bloggers” talking on the subject of the domestic arts and their own personal struggles with maintaining some sense of order and dignity in their household.

However, there are some male voices on the subject, so here are some writers that don’t have the words “Mom” “Lady” or “Housewife” in their blog names.

Kurt Vonnegut’s housework contract with his pregnant wife, January 26, 1947

I, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., that is, do hereby swear that I will be faithful to the commitments hereunder listed:

I. With the agreement that my wife will not nag, heckle, or otherwise disturb me on the subject, I promise to scrub the bathroom and kitchen floors once a week, on a day and hour of my own choosing.

…

Furthermore, while I am undertaking these tasks I will refrain from indulging in such remarks as “Shit,” “Goddamn sonofabitch,” and similar vulgarities, as such language is nerve-wracking to have around the house when nothing more drastic is taking place than the facing of Necessity.

Leo Babauta, The Habit of Starting at Zen Habits

The biggest reason people fail at creating and sticking to new habits is that they don’t keep doing it.

That seems obvious: if you don’t keep doing a habit, it won’t really become a habit. So what’s the solution to this obvious problem? Find a way to keep doing it.

When you look at it this way, the key to forming a habit is not how much you do of the habit each day (exercise for 30 minutes, write 1,000 words, etc.), but whether you do it at all. So the key is just getting started.

Let me emphasize that: the key to forming a habit is starting each day.

Zen Habits is one of my favourite websites. You might also like to read his older articles:

• How To Tackle your Clutter,
• Handle Chores, House Cleaning and Errands with Simple Systems
• Tips to Establish a Morning and Evening Routine
• Purpose your Day – Your Most Important Task

Plus, pretty much his entire archive.

UnFilth Your Habitat

UnFYH is great. (The site doesn’t use the word “filth” by the way, rather another word beginning with F. It’s just their euphemism to allow their app to be in the app store) It is a categorically non pink, romatic, mom-ish blog, but it does happen to have a female author. Nevertheless, anybody, bloke or otherwise, who gets cringy at too many shabby chic, distressed-chalkboard, homemade muffins, kale chips and vintage apron posts when they just want to work out how to even start to clean their [filthy] bedroom – Unfilth Your Habitat is a great place. With copious swearing. And celebratory animated gifs. On Tumblr.  The community built around it on Tumblr is inspirational as well, with lots of tagged pictures and posts with befores and afters.

OK, now I have a problem

I thought I remembered two other guys.  One of them turned out to be just a screen name (he called himself “Hearth Master” on a bulletin board, and I thought that was pretty sweet) and the other was a guy who I swear wrote about keeping his house clean and referred to “Crap avoidance strategies” for avoiding the creation of piles of mess, but I can’t find him on the internet and the keywords I remember are a little problematic.

Who else is good and not too pink-rickrack/vintage-apron/feather-duster? I will update the post

I try and keep the regular, recurring tasks under control by corralling them into routines and zone tasks, but there are always one-off jobs and projects to keep under control.

You can follow all sorts of powerful techniques to identify what to do next; what is urgent vs what is important, and what is urgent AND important, and so on. But there is only so much list-writing and task-juggling you can do before it turns into just another form of procrastination.

How about this:

1. Choose your three Most Important Tasks tasks to do today.
2. Write them in your to do list.
3. Try and do those three.

Even if you get just one of them done, you’ll be further ahead than if you didn’t do any of those extra jobs.   I managed to get all my Most Important Tasks done today.  (Showing off!)

My Most Important Tasks  for today:

1) Take the girls to buy new shoes, because Belle’s sneakers AND her boots had fallen to bits and having her walk into school like a bare-footed waif child isn’t a great look in the middle of winter.

2)Update my order for the  fruit and vege box to be delivered tomorrow to have veges and fruit because we managed to eat most of our veges this week.

3)Follow up the cheque that I thought was to pay the fees for Brownies, but it turns out was something to do with the renovations.  Whoops. Pay the outstanding fees for Brownies.

Twice a week I take my rambunctious boy-toddler to a local playgroup hosted in a church hall. It runs from 9:30 till 11:30, there is instant coffee and chocolate cookies, interesting toys and a sloping path for the kids to hurtle up and down riding on plastic tricycles. It is also securely fenced in, so I can take my eyes off him to make a cuppa without him making a run for the hills or the main road.

Around 11am, a mysterious force calls us and all the parents there begin to pack up and clean up.  There’s no great rush, no list of tasks pinned to the wall, but we all just pick a job and finish it, then look around for another one to do.  By 11:30, someone’s vacuumed the hall and we’re ready to lock up and leave.

I was wondering why I found it so much easier to tidy up after playgroup than at home, and I realised there are several reasons.

• Working together is easier
  Many hands make light work and so on, but it’s much more encouraging when there are other people working companionably alongside you.  You can still chat, and ask someone else if you’re not sure where something goes. Furthermore, you can’t exactly sit on your bum fiddling with your phone while everyone else tidies up.
• Everything is part of a set and has its own container
  I don’t like toys with bits at home, but here the Weebles come out of the Weeble box, and then at the end of playgroup they go back in the Weeble box and the Weeble box lid goes on top, and then it goes out to the storage shed ’til next time.
• It’s someone else’s system
  It’s not my responsibility to justify the quality or quantity of the toys, the storage system, or the number of cups and saucers in the hall kitchen.  I have to focus on the task at hand. Wash the dishes, dry the dishes, turn the dishes over,  hang the tea-towel on the rack, wipe the bench and it’s done.
• There is a limited number of possible tasks, and they are all correct
  The hall tea towels are magically washed and dried (I guess the church ladies do that?). The lady who runs the playgroup makes sure there is playdough made and that there are sufficient teabags and bickies.  All I can do is choose between stacking chairs, putting toys in containers, washing the dishes, wiping the children’s table, sweeping, and carrying things out to the storage shed.  Any job I choose is the right job.

At home, on the other hand, the possibilities are literally endless:

Right now, I can see that

• the lounge needs a vacuum, again
• there is a washing basket with the random socks in it that I hate to pair up
• I emptied the dishwasher after lunch but didn’t reload it yet
• It’s nearly time to put some pizza dough in the breadmaker for dinner
• The shoe rack is overflowing
• I still haven’t posted that one gift from the baby shower I didn’t go to
• The cat thinks it is his dinnertime too
• Someone has dropped playdough on the carpet

… and so on.

But I realised that if I apply my experiences at playgroup tidy-up time to my own home, I can step beyond the anxious overwhelmed feeling, put down Words With Friends and “get off my chuff and do stuff” (as one of the ladies on the Facebook puts it)

• Working together is easier
  It’s companionable if there is someone else to work with. I find I am energised when Tim and I can work together for an hour on a Saturday morning and do a bit of a housework rampage.  The girls tidy up their rooms at the same time.  Everyone keeps moving and we have a brief moment when the kitchen, bathroom and lounge are all clean and vacuumed and all the rubbish bins are emptied.  Same goes for tidying up after dinner. It’s even better if we’ve invited someone for dinner. There’s nothing that makes you aware of the dust that gathers along the edge of the tiles in the toilet room than a guest going in there.
• Everything is part of a set and has its own container
  Like I said, I don’t like toys with bits at home, but limiting the toys in the lounge to duplo, books and a big toybox to biff any remainders back into helps keep it manageable.  I know where most things go, I’m just not very good at putting them there.
• It’s someone else’s system
  OK, this is the one I get hung up on.  But if I focus on getting my daily routine tasks done, that is the priority, with the added sidelines of getting the kids to and from school and wiping sticky faces as required. If I find myself getting distracted by the need to redesign my “system” and organise my entire life right now then that is just an insidious form of perfectionist procrastinating and doesn’t do a damn thing about the dishes.  (That’s pretty much the main reason I designed HomeRoutines, by the way – to get the system that I could use and not get distracted by “tweaking” the whole time and then having to print out again…)

• There is a limited number of possible tasks, and they are all correct
  This point was the one that was an epiphany for me. If I’m feeling overwhelmed, I can set my timer, walk into the kitchen and start working. It’s the starting that is often the difficult thing, rather than sitting on the sofa feeling defeated. Furthermore, as long as I don’t get sidelined into decluttering a closed cupboard rather than facing up to the duplo bricks all over the lounge floor, or digitising CDs instead of making lunch, then whatever I start doing is the right thing.  Especially compared to not doing anything.

So if I am reading The Tiger Who Came to Tea, or straightening the bookshelf, or loading the dishwasher, or wiping the marmite off the face of Captain Sticky, or sorting out the school uniforms for next term, or baking lunchbox muffins, or sweeping, or starting the difficult part of peeling a banana, or putting crayons back in their bucket – or even digitising those CDs or decluttering a few things out of that one cupboard:

all of those are right when compared to playing Where’s My Perry on my phone to distract myself from thinking I don’t know where to start.

And I’m setting my timer now and going to Do Some Stuff.

Excerpt of Flylady's 11 Commandments from Fordward Moving Mommy

I recently discovered this fantastic blog called Happy Home Habits.  It’s written by  Lisa, who has been following The Flylady’s system for 10 years.  In celebration, she decided to repeat the 31 days of Baby Steps, starting with the most important first step of Shining her sink.

On her way through the process, she has shared a lot of advice from her experience of following and adapting the system to her own home.

One of the great things about the “Baby Steps” system – and the reason that The Flylady has so many followers -  is that it forces you to build up your routines and habits slowly, so you don’t become overwhelmed and revert to your old ways feeling like a failure.  Happy Home Habits has a post for each step, with relevant printables and examples for such things as meal planning, to-do lists, and weekly plans.

I highly recommend this series to be read alongside the Flylady’s Baby Steps, or simply have a look at Lisa’s sensible advice on developing your own routines and habits.

• The Morning Routine
• Creating your Afternoon Routine
• Creating your Basic Weekly Plan
• The Before Bed Routine
  

Due to this bug, if you open HomeRoutines for iPad in portrait orientation, the Home button won’t be visible.  Fortunately, if you rotate your iPad to landscape, the Home button will reappear, and will stay there after you rotate back to portrait.

We have also submitted an urgent update  to Apple to fix this, and it should be available within a couple of days.