Marcia Francois's Blog, page 60

#Konmari – One of the most useful pieces of information in the entire book

I know I’m not alone when I say that I’ve felt guilty about some gifts in the past.

The guilt arrives because the gift is not really your style or something you want/ need but you appreciate the sentiment nonetheless.

In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo says something quite revolutionary about gifts:

The purpose of a present is all about the moment when you received it. You don’t have to keep it, store it or use it if you don’t like it.

In that moment when the person gifted...

The controversial points from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (1)

I mentioned when I started writing about this subject that I’d seen posts pop up all over the place, most good but there was quite a bit of controvery, especially on some blogs.

My goal when I read anything non-fiction is to get something useful from the book. Obviously the more use I get from any book the better it is, but I do know that if I even get ONE idea which saves me 10 minutes a day, that’s 2 and a half days a year, which is sizeable.

So when I saw all the controversy, I naturally a...

4 ways for creative people to get organised

I get so sad sometimes when I hear creative people say that they can’t get organised and that they just don’t have the organising gene.

The thing is God designed their brains to think differently and the different thinking is core to their genius work.

They need different ways to organise themselves as traditional methods won’t work with their thinking styles.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to organising; in fact, I believe that since each person is unique, every single person’s organi...

{Intentional living} Luxury

A few weekends ago I spent a very nice afternoon-evening fully immersing myself in a book. I started the book over breakfast after gym, took a break decluttering kids’ clothes and had a lunch date with Dion, and then in the afternoon I read…. until I finished that night. I took a brief break to make tea (pictured) and to whip up supper, and then back to the book.

While I’m a very avid reader and I read daily, the kind of reading where I can go past the point of no return and just keep reading...

Happy Spring and a goals update

Happy Spring, everybody!

Did you have a good August?

August was a good one for me, despite my low goals achieved (only 62%).

Let’s have a look at some of the highlights: It was my birthday and I celebrated the entire week. We went to the Maboneng District for Mexican food and a little photowalk where I got gorgeous pictures. I still have to go through the photos properly but I picked out a few and this is one of my favourites. The next weekend I had a few friends over for lunch which was rea...

In my bag

Since it’s Goals Night tonight, I thought I’d give you a quick little peek inside my bag while I get on with the business of goals – reviewing, taking stock and setting new ones for the month ahead.

Here we go – bags within bags. One for make-up, one for all things technology (power bank, chargers, and so on) and the little Baggu bag holds my specs/iphone cleaning cloth.

View from the top…this all zips up quite easily

And now, let me get on with it so I can finish my 6th book for the month...

#Konmari – the reason I think the craziness works

One of the key concepts of the Konmari method is that you gather things of the same category throughout your home, bring them together and then start the “does this spark joy?” questioning.

I’m going to talk more about this method vs the room-by-room organising I still advocate in another post, but for now I want to tell you what happened to me with two categories of household items in my home.

As I mentioned before, I need motivation to continue so I started with easy organising – my kitche...

You get to choose – unpopular but true

The first rule of time management (and life!) is realising that you always have a choice.

Always.

Often people tell me they don’t have a choice because of x, y and z.

And actually, with all due respect, that’s not true.

You always have a choice.

I’ll give you this – sometimes those choices are Super Hard (like choosing an awful job with money over the uncertainty of a job hunt) but they’re always there. It also takes courage to admit that those choices exist.

Let me explain.

1. I’ve been sayi...

{Time management} Scheduling regular payments

I want to share something that made me feel oh-so-accomplished last week.

It was during my power hour (which, incidentally, is not very regular, and happens randomly every two weeks or so).

I made a list of all my “life admin” tasks and realised that we have to make a payment to the school to secure our kids’ places for next year.

Now, even though the money is ready in the bank account, I really don’t like to pay things any earlier than I need to. It’s a little money quirk I have where I pre...

My life in Instagrams – May

Beautiful winter sunsets, my favourite colour in winter, and maths for fun

Deciding on a grey, rock painting and pretty notebooks

Winter = reading, sunsets, snuggling and lots of tea

I can’t get enough of beautiful winter light! Gifts from the kids and lots of tea!

handmade jewellery from a friend, my first Burger King burger (in South Africa), beautiful morning light and a 5-year-old that suddenly looks like a teenager :o