11 Happiness Hacks for Life's Busy Seasons

Raise your hand if you're busy?  Did you raise your hand?  I did too.  It doesn't even matter what stage of life you're in ... no kids, mommy to little kids, teens, or empty nesters, we seem all fill up our days and become busy.  And sometimes busy = unhappy.  Today I have 11 Happiness Hacks During Life's Busy Seasons for Mom's.  

Life is stressful sometimes, yo!  As if you didn't already know that, huh?  During some seasons I seem to have everything together.  And during others, I'm a disaster area.  What is the difference?  Well I think it's happiness hacks.  

What is a Happiness Hack?  

 A hack is something simple that can make your life better. So a Happiness Hack is a small action you can take to ensure your happiness.  Most of the time, a hack isn't something that's hard or difficult, but it can lead to much more happiness in your life.

11 Happiness Hacks for Life's Busy Seasons

We cannot avoid busyness and stress.  But we can control our response to it.  I know that in order to keep control of my thoughts and feelings - which are what control my happiness, I have to be really intentional with how I spend my time.  With a tiny bit of planning, or a hack, I can really change the tone of how my day goes and how much happiness I let myself experience.

Happiness Hack #1
Designate a place to put your car/house keys, every time you enter and leave your home.

How many times have you been running out the door only to not be able to find your keys?  No keys = no going anywhere.  And that certainly doesn't contribute to happiness, especially if you're already late taking your kids to school.  An easy solution is to make a parking spot for your keys.

• I hung a small piece of wood, with cup hooks screwed in, on the wall directly inside my door, which is the command center of our house.  

I have found that placing my keys in the exact same place every single time I walk in the door, ensures that I always know where my keys are.  

Happiness Hack #2
Stop Paper Clutter at the Door

Be honest- how much paper clutter do you have in your house?  With mail, school papers, bills, and more - paper can easily get out of control  For me clutter = stress.  So I have to find any way I can to cut down on clutter when I am busy.

• One of the ways I do this is controlling how the mail comes into my house.  After gathering the mail, I either toss it or put it in our action pile.  Then once a week I deal with the action pile - usually on Fridays.  I file all of our receipts, pay the bills that need to be paid and file the papers that need to be filed.
• When my kids bring home paper, I either place in on their clipboard in our command center or I deal with it immediately by signing permission forms and having them put the papers directly into their back packs!

Stopping clutter at the door helps keep things tidy!

Happiness Hack #3
Automate Your Bills or Use Online Bill Pay

Bills are inevitable.  It used to be that we all sat down for hours with our check books, paid the bills, reconciled our checking account and took the bills to the post office.  Now with technology, we can use online bill pay and automated bill pay. 

• We have specific bills come directly out of our checking account.  
• If an unusual bill comes up, like a dr bill, I can go to my online bank account and pay the bill directly.  

Online bill bay and automatic bill drafts have really made life so much easier!  I'm not sure I even know how to write a check any more.

Happiness Hack #4
Use Online Grocery ordering and pick up 

Grocery Shopping is another inevitable chore, but not a very fun one.  It takes so much time to make a list, drive to the store, walk around and add things to a cart, empty the cart at the cash register, pay and then load the groceries back into the cart, push cart outside and load them in the car.  THEN you have to take them inside and unload them again.  Phew.  It's such a tiring process that takes a ton of time.  And during busy seasons, I have to be smarter with my time so I have been totally converted to Online Grocery Ordering and Pick Up.

• I use the Walmart Grocery app to order my groceries.  Then I choose a pick up time, drive to the designated parking spot, wait a few minutes and have my groceries brought directly to my car and loaded.  
• I have also had my groceries delivered a time or two for a low fee.   I sure wish this was around when my kids were small.   

Grocery Pick up and totally changed how I grocery shop.  I no longer dread it as much as I used to.

Happiness Hack #5
Keep up with Housework

Are you a daily housekeeper or someone who saves it up and does it all at once.  Neither is right or wrong, as long as it doesn't stress you out.

• Clutter does stress me out so I have to do some housework every day to keep my house tidy.  
• I use a cleaning schedule and each chore takes a little less than an hour to complete.  So for an hour a day, my house stays mostly clean.  
• I am in the process of revamping my kids' chore charts because I believe everyone who lives in our house needs to do their part in taking care of it.

It doesn't matter how often you clean your house, but staying on top of it will help with happiness!

Happiness Hack #6
Designate a Specific Area for Backpacks and Shoes

In addition to not knowing where your car keys are, have you every tried to leave the house and can't find 1 last shoe or a homework assignment?  That is a very real scenario for a lot of moms.  But all of that goes away when you have a specific spot in your home for back packs and shoes.

• Several years ago, I made a landing zone for my kids backpacks and shoes.  It is located in bathroom, just inside our garage door.  My kids have gotten into good habits of stopping there first to hang their back packs and take off their shoes, right when they get home from school.

Your landing zone doesn't have to be something fancy.  Nor will your children use it correctly without a lot of yelling encouraging from you.  But it is totally worth it when shoes and backpacks are right where they are supposed to be!

 

Happiness Hack #7
Standardize Times for Waking Up and Leaving For School

When you are busy, it seems to be much more chaotic trying to go anywhere on time.  But once you realize that school starts and gets out at the same time every single day, you can standardize what time you wake up, how much time you use to get ready and what time you need to leave your house.

• My kids wake up at the same time each day.  They go through the same grooming routine and we leave a the same time.  I help them wake up and then I set a kitchen timer to let them know how much time they have until we need to leave.  IT has totally worked like a charm and there is very little yelling and stress in the mornings.  

It may seem a little bit anal to have strict times, but those boundaries around time really make our mornings run much more smooth.  

Happiness Hack #8
Plan Time for Your Personal Daily Routines

You know how we are always told to put on our oxygen masks before attempting to put them on our children?  That same rule applies to every aspect of our life.  You have to take care of yourself first and them you can take care of others.

• I am someone who NEEDS quiet time.  I need time to reflect, make plans and think my own thoughts.  If I don't get that quiet time, I suffer, plain and simple.  The good news is that it isn't too hard to find quiet time.  Yes you read that right-  It's not too hard to find quiet time, even with a busy schedule.   Since I need quiet time, I have to sacrifice other things that do not feed my goals.  For example, when I am in a busy season, I don't watch much tv.  
• When I am in a busy season, I become very intentional with my time by making sure I have quite time, making sure to get enough sleep, drink a bunch of water and work out a little.  

When we are busy, the first thing we want to give up is our personal time.  But really, it should be the last thing we give up.  Again, you cannot take care of anyone else if you don't take care of yourself first.

Happiness Hack #9

Good Morning Routine with journaling

Mornings set the tone for our day.  If we are chaotic in the morning, that chaos carries on through out the rest of the day.  But if we calmly face our mornings, that mellow lasts for the day.

• Ever since I developed a morning routine, I have done SO MUCH BETTER with my thoughts and feelings.  Every morning, I get up earlier than my kids and take about 20 minutes to read my scriptures and write in my journal.  If you are a big feeler, like I am, journaling gets all those feels out of your heart and mind, and put onto paper where they can be put into better perspective.

A Good Morning Routine doesn't seem like a big deal, but it makes all the difference when life is chaotic.  

Happiness Hack #10
Meal Plan

Guys I hate to break this to you but your family is going to want to have dinner, every night, for the rest of your life.  Ugh.  That's a lot of pressure.  But since it has to happen, you might as well be intentional about it.  So make a meal plan- just do it.  

• On Sunday afternoons, I look at our calendar and plan meals for the upcoming week.  I have a list of meals my family likes, so I plug those in and write down what groceries we will need.  Then I put in a grocery pick up order right from my phone while I'm planning.  And then my meal planning and grocery shopping is done for the week!

Taking less than an hour once a week to plan your meals, makes a huge difference.  If you're not already meal planning, just try it!

Happiness Hack #11
Make Time To Do Things You Enjoy

Much like happiness hack #8, you have to make time for yourself.  I know this seems counter- intuitive to do when you're busy, but this is probably one of the most important things you can do!  

• I enjoy reading so I always make time for it.  I love going to the library and seeing all of the possibles titles I can check out.   I also check things out from our online library.  It is rare that I even buy a book anymore, unless it's at the used book store.  

If you aren't taking care of you, then no one is.  And you will get burnt out.

While we cannot control all of the things that stress us out in our lives, we can control our reactions to the stress.  And the best way to do that is to use these 11 Happiness Hacks for Life's Busy Seasons.  

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