Marcia Francois's Blog, page 57

{Konmari} tidying the books – finally

I’ve written quite a bit over the years about how much I love my Kindle but the fact of the matter is that I still have a ton of physical books.

It could have been worse but thankfully, I only keep books I really love/d.

So one weekend I decided I had to finally tackle those shelves and ask The Question, “does this spark joy?”

it’s always a good idea to dust once the shelves are actually clear :)

Marie Kondo, in her life-changing book, does say a few interesting things about the process of d...

Organising | kids’ school lunches

My kids have always been good eaters – part of this is that they like food, and the other part is that I do things in a particular way which has had good results.

When I try a new meal, I ask for a helper in the kitchen (one twin only). This makes the other twin super curious about what’s going on and while I’m cooking, I make a lot of oooh and aaah sounds, and we taste. We then invite the other twin to taste too, so by the time supper rolls around, everyone wants to eat. We don’t snack on c...

Workplace Wednesday | use pretty stationery

I have this thing with work stationery.

You see, I don’t like “boring” stationery so I buy my own nice pens, highlighters and most importantly, notebooks.

And, as you can see in the photo above, I also jazz up my binder clips Here is the tutorial. (Very useful to keep hands busy when you’re on the phone – I actually keep two rolls of washi tape in my stationery drawer at work)

I feel like we’re at work more than 8 hours a day so I want to surround myself with happy things.

My notebooks alwa...

My Sunday evening routine

Are you doing weekly planning yet?

If not, give it a bash, just for one week and let me know how it goes.

For now, I thought I’d share a part of my Sunday evening routine.

What’s been working is combining cooking supper, supervising kids’ lunches and packing my own lunch too. When I’ve been lazy to do my own lunch then, I usually panic at 11 pm when I realise I still have to make lunch decisions. HUGE schlep!

Kids’ lunches

I’ve started teaching the kids to pack their own lunches. My love lan...

Beautiful planner goodness awaits

I need to tell you that Leonie’s Amazing Life and Biz worksbooks (and much, much more) are ready for you. I’ve used these workbooks for the last 4? 5? years.

And…. I also need to apologise for only letting you know now because the to-do list pads are already sold out – so sorry!

Anyway, get over there and get your planner or workbook of choice – I always get the digital versions because postage is so crazy expensive for South Africans, so if you’re local, that might be your best choice too....

Free Christmas printables!

I’m so excited to give you these printables today.

I used to give my subscribers a huge PDF document but when I looked at it, I just couldn’t send it out.

It was far too *much* and didn’t spark joy. And most importantly, it didn’t feel authentic for me to talk about choosing priorities and living simpler, and then sending out a 20-page printable pack.

So, I made what I want to use – two months’ calendars, a page to map out your priorities (so you keep focussed), and a monthly and weekly break...

When is it worth it to buy a book?

I read quite a lot – a little in excess of 5 books a month. I could read more but we’ve already spoken about how we’re all not reading enough.

Still, when I talk about my reading to people, I get a lot of questions about buying books, Kindle vs paper, library vs owning them, and so I thought I’d put together my thought process in the hope that it might help someone.

(let me know if that someone is you – it’s nice when you know your efforts landed somewhere!)

Fiction

I read far too much fict...

My technology bag

It’s so interesting to me how, as some things develop and are supposed to make our lives better, there’s also the flip side, usually a down side.

Like social media – amazing for connecting with like-minded people but it also leads to comparison-itis and can be a huge time-suck.

And how I still adore my iphone 4S but because the battery life is so terrible, I now carry around a technology bag so I can always be powered.

(I do close all my apps and have my background app refresh turned off)

Le...

Do you need to unplug from social media noise?

Let’s face it – if you’re involved in social media, you’ll regularly hear real and Facebook friends mention that the noise is too much.

The social media noise, that is.

We’re all aware of Facebook envy, where you imagine that people’s lives are the sum total of their updates, because nobody posts about the flip side of the coin, real life.

Instagram has made it a little worse for some people, I’d imagine, with beautiful pictures of families, homes, baking, and so on.

I remember when we went...

October goals review

Here are the high- and low lights of my month:

Lowlights I slept an average of 6:55 for the month – my lowest since February It’s quite simple, really – I’ve let my computer time stretch on way into the night so this month my goal is 7:15 on average, with a computer switch-off time of 10:30 sharp. The heat has been largely unbearable and this is evidenced by the fact that we only went for two walks this month (and the same in September). Of course, I also didn’t get near to my fitbit step...