10: How I Balance Motherhood and Mental Health Without Forgetting All The Things (because I have both a squirrel brain and spaghetti brain).

This is how I organize everything in my mind and in my life. If you’re like me, you maybe have ADHD or Mom-Brain and you’re overwhelmed and sleep deprived. You might feel like your brain is a bowl of spaghetti. So how do you organize everything in your frazzled mom brain?

I use a simple 3 point system to juggle appointments, marriage, motherhood, friendships, budget, household tasks, business, blog, podcast, and mental health!

I struggled with depression and anxiety for a very long time – now I keep them in check by constantly checking in with myself and questioning what’s working for me and what’s working against me? In the beginning it felt like checking all the boxes was more overwhelming than just being overwhelmed all the time, but I’ve since created this system that works for me and it might just be what works for you too.

Here’s my 3 point mental organization system.

1. SPIRAL NOTEBOOK.

I use a basic spiral notebook to write down all my thoughts, ideas and lists. This is where I process my dreams and ideas and goals. I write down all the projects I’d like to work on with myself, my home and my business, all in one place with no attempt at organizing it all. It’s my brain dumps and notes from online teachings. This is a place where notes can get lost – so I don’t write down top priority notes, like appointments.

This is a place I’ll journal, or brain dump, or write out gratitude. I work towards a positive mindset in this notebook. This is a catch all – a junk drawer – for all the spaghetti and squirrel thoughts.

2. REMINDERS APP.

I created a list for each day of the week, Monday – Sunday, and I organize all my week tasks into the reminders app. I’ll put in an “errands” reminder, then indent with all the things I need to do while I’m out of the house. Or I’ll make a “chores” reminder and I’ll list out my top priority chores for the day – like taking out trash on Monday.

Every Sunday night I’ll sit down and set up my week and make sure I’m ready for any appointments, errands, or kids’ events. This is where I’ll schedule everything that I need to remember throughout the week.

3. MY PAPER PLANNER.

I use my Everyday Joy Planner for all the future planning and daily tracking. I tried mega planners that organize all the things in one bulky place, I tried the basic weekly planners, I tried bullet journals – and none of them were right…

Finally, I designed my own planner – and this is the one for me. I took my greatest mindset and mental health tools and put them in the daily planner pages.

Each week starts with a brain dump for all the things you need to think about this week – and a weekly planning sheet on the same page to organize those thoughts onto.

Each day has it’s own page so there’s plenty of space for everything. It’s set up for time blocking, or category scheduling, but can also be used for appointment scheduling easily.

Everyday this planner asks you to set an intention – because you won’t get where you want to go, if you don’t decide where that is. It has a weather tracker, a mood tracker, a space for reflection, and gratitude everyday. There’s also a block for meal planning/tracking.

I love the space for affirmations on every daily page – or it can always be used for a mantra, quote or bible verse. The act of writing out your affirmation every day and seeing it every time you open your planner to see what you’re supposed to be doing is so pure and simple and encouraging.

One key thing I do when I’ve had a day where I didn’t set out to do a lot of things, I use my daily page as a tracker of what I’m doing throughout the day. This way I can go back and see how I spent my days – because that gets hard to remember honestly.

Reminder: it’s okay to plan days to rest and do basically nothing. I recently had a day planned for rest and it looked like this:

This planner helps you track your habits and cycles. With the mood tracker and the reflection space, it makes it easy to pay attention to how your days are really going – what’s actually working and what things are screwing up your mood and routines. If you struggle with mindfulness, this is going to help you pay attention to yourself, your home, and your days.

This is the Everyday Joy planner, because joy doesn’t happen without planning for it. This is more than just a way to plan your appointments and keep from forgetting birthdays – this is a way to strip away all the crap, clutter and stressors that are keeping you from being happy where you are.

My planner is also where I keep all my monthly goals, menstrual tracking, and important dates on the monthly calendar.

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