Pedicures and massages aren't cutting the mustard anymore. Society is crying out for self care. How can we fill our cups to continue supporting our families? In May Planning Day, I thought about what I wanted to do for my own self care. Sometimes it's the smallest things but we don't realize doing that thing would fill your cup. So I am sharing my ideas in this episode.

10 Self Care Ideas

10. Get time outside doing what you enjoy - for me I will be enjoying our deck, our back yard, and sunsets

9. CEO Days - I will take time, once a month on a Monday, to plan how I will take care of myself, run my home, and have peace of mind because I had focused thinking and planned.

8. Identify and Protect project time - once I realized a 4 hour chunk of time on Saturdays for projects, I have protected it to keep it for myself.

7. Exercise - you get old due to lack of movement. I don't want that. I want a healthy body to support me into my 100's.

6. Have Strategic Time with Humans - those people you want to spend time with. Make calendar dates to keep your marriage strong, see friends, support your children in a way that is gratifying to you, and whoever else you want to catch up with.

5. Learn - I got a book series I loved in the past. I plan to devour it this summer. But think about what you like and get books reserved, podcasts downloaded, order books through amazon, put together your watch list on your preferred streaming service. Like what would you like to learn about?

4. Try New Foods - I have my chicken salad meal but I am thinking about exploring alternatives. But maybe you like to cook? Or maybe you are wanting to eat healthier, what does that look like for you? I will also be setting the habit to meal prep on Sundays.

3. Personal Reset - Go through your personal spaces like your closet, bathroom, or nightstand and decide if the things in there are supporting where you are going and who you are becoming. Discard or donate the rest.

2. Medical Deep Dive - I have a feeling most will skip this one but I am all about my medical binder this summer. I want to see where there are well test gaps and get the screening or baseline numbers from the tests I have avoided. We don't let our kids skip these things so why do we skip them for ourselves?

AND NUMBER ONE: Join Escaping Quicksand Self Care Retreat! You can join in person or virtually. You will get four hours on June 26th, 2026, to think about YOU! Get registered and get ready to escape that quicksand!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• Register for the Escaping Quicksand Self Care Retreat

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media

Have you ever heard "planned neglect" anywhere else but Organize 365? Probably not because it's a term I coined to describe what I do to more effectively manage my responsibilities and time. One can't do everything so you must determine what is the highest value you provide to your work, community, or family and implement planned neglect for a certain amount of time to manage it all.

I Must Have Mentioned "Planned Neglect" Before

I was fairly shocked when I asked AI to give me some feedback based on a few episodes I shared. It explained the "framework" I have put in place. Ha! Much to my surprise because I hadn't realized I offered a framework. I must have talked about it a few times on the podcast. But it wasn't wrong. You need to identify the timeline when you will be using this planned neglect. Then you should tell your family so they know what's happening when you start to cut corners to free up time for you to better utilize your highest value in this phase of life. Then you need to extend a lot of grace to yourself. It's ok that you have lowered your standards. It doesn't have to be forever just while something else needs more of you. Then you need to implement these temporary habits. And understand that this particular shortcut you have used in the past may not help you the same as it has in the past. You may need to figure out a different way to make life easier for a certain amount of time.

So back in the day when the dinosaurs were still roaming around, I identified planned neglect. I needed a little more time to work on my direct sales business. I thought about what could I neglect to give my attention to focus on my business? So I started with a nanny for 10 hours one day a week. Once my business grew even more I hired an assistant to help just 5 hours a week. Then there was the time I realized I was driving 25 hours a week. It was time to outsource laundry. It was beautiful for a while when I would drop off my laundry and pick it up folded and hung. And I have shared a few phases of life when paper plates became the china of choice in the Woodruff household.

Coming Out of "Planned Neglect"

Now that the PhD is coming to an end I have really wrestled with what I want to do with that time. I acknowledge that I will go back to cleaning my house and maintaining my own window boxes. I have really been thinking about the planned neglect I have practiced and it's time to reverse some of those habits. It dawned on me that while I am back to using real plates for lunch and dinner, I will continue to use paper plates and bowls of different sizes for breakfast. Also, I hadn't realized pursuing the PhD meant my health and body would suffer. I hadn't put any thought into my nutrition and I certainly wasn't moving as much as a person should. So now that I am coming out of planned neglect I have started to use some of that time to go to the gym. And I have decided I no longer want to spend that money on the Tovala meals. It was worth the money when I didn't have time to grocery shop or meal prep. But now, I have time to focus on my nutrition so I am not ordering Tovala meals. Who knows, I may utilize them again in a season I need to.

As I come out of planned neglect I am going to take back my body and health. I will also be giving time back to working on Organize 365®. You have already seen a little bit of this as I have eliminated the work products. I am launching my new book "Escaping Quicksand" and will likely write more books. And I am getting ready to focus on The Productive Home CEO and new terminology to go with it being the Household CEO. I also want to explore how to use this new authority in academia to benefit household managers and their systems.

And at home I will be filling in all the blanks in my information management binders from The Paper Solution® and taking one day a month to focus on my CEO position in the Woodruff house. Planned neglect is simply looking at your tasks, deciding how you can lower your standards of that task and then implementing a new habit for a certain amount of time. Mine was the PhD recently, what is yours?

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Hope you are mentally hungry, because I'm unloading a lot of food for thought. Greg and I were in the car discussing the perception of a vacation vs. a trip. And that of course led to the time you take off for said vacation/trip. And that got me thinking overall about how transformational this summer is going to be for me. Good news! You have a front seat to all of it!

Vacation vs. a Trip

Ok, so we're in the car talking about vacations vs. trips. And Greg joked "You never take vacations." And he's kind of right because in my life I guess I couldn't really take a vacation. When I was a stay at home mom, we just went to FL. I didn't have to submit vacation time. As a teacher, I just always worked and thought of summer as my vacation time. If you are a teacher you know it's quite the contrary!! And when we do go to FL I do more work than at home. I turn into a 1950's wife so Greg can fully enjoy his vacation. And I love doing that for him and the kids. Greg thinks it's a vacation because he's with his family, gets to go fishing, and go to the beach. I will say London felt like a vacation to me. We had no expectations, I didn't do any laundry or cooking, and we had fun.

When my parents took us to Disney, we attended an art class. Yep, went to Disney to attend school. But we took a lot of trips in my childhood where we learned about thing and places and now that's what I enjoy too. My trips feel like vacation more to me but again Greg jokes they are trips. But I do think in reflection of this summer being so transformational with the PhD coming to an end and Greg thinking about retirement, I'd like to go on more vacations.

PTO, Sick Days, Retirement

This led us to talking about PTO, sick days and Greg wanting to retire. His mom fell a little while back and he was the closest primary care giver. It was funny to watch him go through it. When you take someone else to the Dr. you should just take a half day and use your sick time. Greg was like "But I wasn't sick." Right but it was a medical appointment. I always took the kids to the dr. so Greg never had to think about that. Then he asked what exactly was PTO. So we talked about how many hours he has accrued and how neither of us take sick time or PTO. We are hearty and we work. But what about when Greg doesn't work and I still want to? Will I take advantage of some PTO? I don't know but these are questions I want to start asking myself as the household CEO.

Welcome To My Transformational Summer

I took advantage of a lot of planned neglect and worked a lot of hours pursuing my PhD. Now that it's done, I want to decide what things I will let back in or not. There will be a lot of open time now and I want to think about how I will use that time. I decided on one thing and that was my Paper Solution™ Binders. I feel like I neglected them a little so I'd like to really spend time getting them up to par. I never did the workbooks so I am doing them now. Before the PhD Abby was pregnant, now she has two children. Greg wants to retire. All of this has financial implications on our budget. I feel like I need some CEO time. So I decided in the middle of the month I will set aside two hours to just think about our household financial goals and I came up with seven questions which will help me decide if I am taking care of me in a way that fills my cup so I can continue to take care of my house and family too. Yes, I am going to offer this "co-working" time once a month. You too deserve time to think without your family around. And you too deserve time to take care of things for your household manager responsibilities that need to be done Monday- Friday, 9am -5pm.

I want this household CEO time, to be a time for you to be able to really think through your household management, through a leadership lens, to make sure that you are stewarding all of the resources you have, well. And that you are taking care of yourself so you can be of service to all of those around you, for as long as possible, and in the best health as possible. I hope you'll join me June 15th from 9am - 11am.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media