0:00

They end up DIYing this whole entire

0:02

plan by themselves with some type

0:04

of expensive planner or some fancy

0:06

notion app or app in the

0:08

phone and then it just doesn't

0:10

end up working because it's not

0:12

a proven method that they know

0:14

that they can depend on over

0:16

and over and over again. These

0:18

things end up making us feel

0:20

like failures but it really doesn't

0:22

have anything to do with you

0:24

at all. Trying to change everything

0:26

at once and getting overwhelmed and

0:28

then giving up... is not a

0:30

reflection of you or your

0:33

capabilities, your family. Welcome

0:35

to Systemize Your Life. This

0:37

is your go-to podcast for

0:39

work-from-home moms who

0:42

are desperate to reclaim control,

0:44

find order, and escape the

0:47

never-ending cycle of overwhelm. Hi,

0:49

I'm your host Chelsea Joe.

0:52

I've dedicated this show to

0:54

modern women just like you, who

0:56

are eager to give their very

0:58

best to their family and work

1:00

all without losing themselves in the

1:02

process. Get ready to discover the

1:04

systems you need to craft powerful

1:06

relationships, get organized, keep up on

1:08

the housework, manage your time like

1:10

a boss, love those babies well,

1:13

and maybe even sneak in a

1:15

date night or two. If you

1:17

are tired of hopelessly watching life

1:19

pass you by, then it's time

1:21

to grab your ticket off that

1:23

hot mess express and join me

1:25

in life where systems do all

1:28

the heavy lifting. This is where

1:30

you transform your chaos into confidence

1:32

and take your life from overwhelmed

1:34

to organized. What do you say,

1:37

friends? Let's do this. Hello, hello.

1:39

I am so excited to be

1:41

here with you. This is going

1:43

to be incredible. I hope you

1:45

have your notes, your pen and

1:47

paper, because we are going to

1:49

jump in to the exact four

1:51

steps that you need to be

1:53

able to go from overwhelmed. into

1:55

organized using a home management system.

1:57

I am Chelsea Joe and if

1:59

you're feeling overwhelmed at all or a

2:01

lot trying to juggle all the pieces of

2:04

running your home while being present for your

2:06

family then you are in the right place.

2:08

Not that long ago, actually just about six

2:10

years ago, I was drowning in to-do list.

2:13

I was missing important things. I was trying

2:15

to keep up and I felt like I

2:17

could never get ahead. I felt like I

2:19

didn't have time for myself. I felt like

2:21

I was pushing everything on the back burner

2:24

and just putting out fires all the time.

2:26

That all changed when I discovered the power

2:28

of simple systems. And today I'm going to

2:30

show you exactly how to go from

2:33

overwhelm to organize using a home management

2:35

system that actually works for busy momss.

2:37

like me and you. And we're going

2:39

to break this down into four simple

2:41

steps. Before we dive in, I want

2:43

to paint a picture for you, okay,

2:45

of what this might look like when

2:47

you have a simple four-step home management

2:49

system in place. Imagine waking up knowing

2:51

every single day exactly what needs to

2:53

get done and when it's going to

2:56

get done, and that you have enough

2:58

time for doing all of the things.

3:00

You have a clear plan for meals.

3:02

You know that your house is going

3:04

to stay tidy. It won't look like

3:06

a bomb went off when off at

3:08

the... end of the day and best

3:10

of all you are going to be

3:12

able to have your family actively involved

3:14

in the whole process so you're not

3:16

a dictator you're not yelling you're not

3:18

resentful and you are not taking on

3:20

the burden of everything well everyone sits

3:22

around and treats you like a short

3:24

order cut. That is what a good

3:26

home management system will do for you

3:29

and you absolutely are going to learn how

3:31

to do that right now. It's a lot simpler

3:33

than you think. Here's where so many

3:35

people fall into the trap of

3:37

not setting up a home management

3:39

system. They get afraid, they're not sure

3:41

where to start, they've tried things

3:43

before. You see most moms try running

3:46

their homes by the seat of

3:48

their pants, they play wackamole, they get

3:50

stuck in an overwhelmed cycle, and they

3:52

end up flying by the seat

3:54

of their pants every single day with

3:57

no real progress being made. All

3:59

of their... time at the end

4:01

of the day doesn't really amount

4:03

to much. absolutely exhausted not even

4:06

certain what they did where all

4:08

of their energy went. The to-do

4:10

list just keeps getting longer and

4:13

this leads them and maybe you've

4:15

done this before searching for options

4:18

that typically are super cut and

4:20

dry, they're rigid systems, they're complex,

4:22

it's based on a really intricate

4:25

schedule and things get really complicated

4:27

quickly, pretty hard to wrap your

4:29

brain around or They end up DIYing

4:32

this whole entire plan by themselves

4:34

with some type of expensive planner

4:36

or some fancy notion app or

4:38

app in the phone and then

4:40

it just doesn't end up working

4:42

because it's not a proven method

4:44

that they know that they can

4:46

depend on over and over and

4:48

over again. These things end up

4:50

making us feel like failures but

4:52

it really doesn't have anything to

4:54

do with you at all. Trying

4:56

to change everything at once and

4:58

getting overwhelmed and then giving us...

5:00

is not a reflection of you

5:02

or your capabilities, your family. or

5:05

what you're even capable of at

5:07

all. Oftentimes moms have curveballs thrown

5:09

out them and they don't have

5:11

the right home management system in

5:13

place like a sick kid or

5:16

a busy week at work or

5:18

whatever ends up happening because with

5:20

children this is what happens every

5:22

day is different and they're not

5:24

sure how to adapt to that

5:27

because they're already in that urgent

5:29

fighter flight and so everything is

5:31

urgent but it doesn't have to

5:33

be that way. So let's break

5:36

down. the four simple steps to

5:38

create a home management system that

5:40

actually works so that you can

5:42

go from overwhelmed to organized. I've

5:44

taught this exact home management system

5:47

to thousands of moms and I still

5:49

use it every single day of my life.

5:51

I am running a multiple six-figure

5:53

business with multiple team members that

5:55

I started as an idea in

5:58

my closet when I was trying

6:00

to transition out of being a

6:02

corporate mom, wanted to be a

6:04

stay-at-home mom, ended up being a

6:06

homeschooling mom, I've done all the

6:08

things as a mom, and through

6:10

every single one of those seasons

6:12

that I just mentioned, this is

6:14

the home management system that I

6:16

have been using and I'm still

6:18

using today. So this is where

6:20

your notepad and your worksheet is

6:22

going to come in really handy.

6:24

Step one is a system for

6:26

your time. So how do we

6:28

get time management on board in a

6:30

way that is not your Google calendar?

6:32

It is not a rigid schedule for

6:35

what you have to get done every

6:37

day. Step one is to create a

6:39

system for your time that is what

6:42

I created and it's called the five

6:44

block. time blocking method. So we're going

6:46

to create a schedule based off

6:48

of five time blocks. If you've

6:50

ever tried time blocking, you've looked

6:52

it up on Pinterest, YouTube, Google,

6:55

or the like, it doesn't look like

6:57

mine. It's very different. I know that

6:59

your entire life, including mine, and to

7:01

anyone else that is running a busy

7:03

life can fit and should fit their

7:06

whole life into these five-time blocks. Here's

7:08

the five-time blocks. It is your morning

7:10

routine block. The things that you do

7:13

in the morning before your kids wake

7:15

up. Then it's your AM block. Kids

7:17

are up before school routine. Lots of

7:19

little things happen in there. We'll break

7:21

this down in a little bit. The third

7:24

is your work block. And if you're homeschooling,

7:26

we do that in the AM block as

7:28

well. The fourth is your PM block, and

7:30

now we're just going to mirror the front

7:32

half of the day in the back half of

7:34

the day. So after the work block

7:36

comes at PM block, where we're back

7:38

focused on kids, our home. all hands

7:41

on deck, we're not working, we know

7:43

exactly what needs to get done every

7:45

evening, and then after the kids go

7:47

to bed, we bump into our nighttime

7:49

routine block, where we're turning off our

7:52

screens, we're focusing inward, we're bringing our

7:54

brain down, and we're really reflecting on

7:56

what happened that day and looking forward

7:58

into the next day. Every day we

8:01

repeat those five things. From the time

8:03

you open your eyes until you go

8:05

to bed at night, you are able

8:08

to intentionally use every single minute of

8:10

your day. Instead of this rigid hour-by-hour

8:12

scheduling system that most people use, I've

8:15

actually created these really flexible time blocks.

8:17

So some Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I

8:19

have a longer work block because... will

8:22

homeschool in that morning or I hit

8:24

the gym before I start work and

8:26

Tuesday Thursdays are really short. I go

8:29

straight to work. So it's very flexible,

8:31

but my whole life fits. It's these

8:33

buckets in these categories, right? And so

8:36

I have flexibility that meets the real

8:38

life demands that I deal with. Number

8:40

two, here's the second step to be

8:43

able to create a home management system

8:45

that will get you organized and get

8:47

you out of being overwhelmed is a

8:50

system for all of your to-does. This

8:52

is all about managing that to-do list.

8:54

The to-do list that's never ending. My

8:57

to-do list on any given day has

8:59

two to five things on it for

9:01

the whole week. Sorry, the whole week

9:04

has two to five things on it.

9:06

And it's not because I don't have

9:08

a lot to do. Again, my kids

9:11

are in multiple extracurriculars. My husband works

9:13

from home and is a firefighter. I

9:15

run a business. I support. external family

9:18

members, older family members. I also am

9:20

pretty heavily involved in ministry work and

9:22

I run my company and I take

9:25

care of my home and our laundry

9:27

and our schedule and the meal planning

9:29

and the food and the cooking and

9:32

the cleaning and the cleaning and my

9:34

husband helps with bills. We'll talk about

9:37

that a little bit too, but I

9:39

do have a lot on my to-do

9:41

list. We've got braces and we need

9:44

to get in because there's a wire

9:46

poking like it's all the things, and

9:48

I definitely have to manage all of

9:51

those. is reduced by about 90%. And

9:53

this step number two in your home

9:55

management system, which is a key component,

9:58

will reduce your to do list by

10:00

about 90%. simply by using a fundamental

10:02

needs system. So this is the system

10:05

that will allow you to address the

10:07

fundamental core needs that you and your

10:09

family have every single week on autopilot.

10:12

So instead of writing an in-list to-do

10:14

list, I'm organizing basic fundamental needs like

10:16

nourishment, rest, connection, growth, and certain random

10:19

one-off tasks as well. This gives you

10:21

a sense of predictability, something that are

10:23

and our spirit and our hearts can

10:26

really depend on to feel safe, to

10:28

relax, get out of that alarming reactionary,

10:30

everything's burning on fire, fight or flight.

10:33

feeling constantly, our nervous system relaxes, this

10:35

is something that will absolutely change

10:37

your life. So how does this fundamental

10:39

needs system work? Well I want you

10:42

to be able to ensure that you're

10:44

prioritizing what truly matters instead of all

10:46

the things falling through the cracks all

10:49

the time. So your fundamental needs system,

10:51

really essentially I have eight and I

10:53

call it the grade eight. And this

10:56

is what I like to teach. A

10:58

fundamental need system assesses the eight key

11:00

things that you should be working on

11:03

every single week. I put them in

11:05

my Google calendar and my paper planner

11:07

because I teach a hybrid. I teach

11:10

a hybrid time management system, which I

11:12

have right here with me actually. This

11:14

is the five block method that I

11:17

mentioned earlier and what it looks like.

11:19

This is my paper planner and these

11:21

are my time blocks. And these are

11:24

my routine stacks that I put inside

11:26

of them. And all of these cute

11:28

little highlighted notes with a heart next

11:31

to them. These are my fundamental needs.

11:33

And so the core things that are

11:36

fundamental that I have to get done

11:38

every week, and I recommend you putting

11:40

these in place, are a Sunday reset

11:43

to be able to reset your entire

11:45

home management system. Some type of family

11:47

fun that doesn't include screen. Maybe it's

11:50

outside. Maybe it's 30 minutes of just

11:52

some communication cards or conversation cards. Maybe

11:54

it's kickball. Maybe it's something that you're

11:57

intentionally connecting on Mondays or Fridays on

11:59

the way home from a sports activity,

12:01

right? And then. any kind of physical

12:04

movement, a work block, or a homeschool

12:06

block, depending on which one of those

12:08

you're doing, or both, if you're doing

12:11

both, then a date night. Then also

12:13

a to-do. So I put aside one

12:15

to two hours every week to tackle

12:18

the random things. Like my random to-do

12:20

list says make an appointment for the

12:22

dentist, for Bailey, finish my communication board,

12:25

send over documentations to the school, and

12:27

call Verizon. And so those are like.

12:29

I sit down for two hours, well

12:32

actually that was only like 30 minutes,

12:34

it was very quick this week and

12:36

so I only had to schedule 30

12:39

minutes for those things. And then meal

12:41

planning and zone cleaning, those are the

12:43

last of the fundamental needs. So whenever

12:46

you take all of those and you

12:48

put them in to your home management

12:50

system and you repeat them every single

12:53

week, this takes most everything off of

12:55

your to do list except the random

12:57

things that are left. This is... The

13:00

magic, which is not even that magical,

13:02

this is the very simple straightforward system

13:04

that you can use. That is called

13:07

my Fundamental Needs System and that is

13:09

something that we will give you more

13:11

resources on at the end of this

13:14

presentation. Okay, let's move into step number

13:16

three. This is amazing. This is specifically

13:18

going to be focusing on keeping up

13:21

with the housework. You need a system

13:23

to be able to keep up with

13:25

the dishes and the laundry and the

13:28

toilets and tidying everything This is so

13:30

vital. This is one of the things

13:33

that consumes women the most it feels

13:35

like drudgery and I really want to

13:37

challenge you to pour into this area

13:40

of your home management system. Now, this

13:42

really focuses on three core systems that

13:44

I want to share with you and

13:47

by putting these in place, which are

13:49

actually part of your fundamental needs system.

13:51

So we've already covered when you're going

13:54

to be doing them, but the specific

13:56

systems that I'm talking about, one is

13:58

a zone cleaning system. And so fundamentally

14:01

we have to hit that every single

14:03

week. And we clean our, I teach

14:05

to clean your home in zones. You're

14:08

going to set up your house into

14:10

four zones and every week you hit

14:12

a zone. If you need to hit

14:15

a zone twice a month, like your

14:17

kitchen, and I'm talking about the deep

14:19

cleaning. Imagine you were going to hire

14:22

out, and you also could definitely outsource

14:24

this, but if you are cleaning your

14:26

house on your own, which most of

14:29

us are, or a lot of us

14:31

are, imagine how often you would want

14:33

them to come deep clean your home.

14:36

Would it be once a month? Would

14:38

it be twice a month? Would it

14:40

be every week? Twice a month feels

14:43

great. So you would double up your

14:45

zones. You would do zone one and

14:47

two then three and four Then one

14:50

and two and three and four in

14:52

the four weeks of that month Now

14:54

how do you keep your house tidy

14:57

in between deep cleaning? Will you put

14:59

tidy cues in? And so the place

15:01

where I put all my tidy cues

15:04

are right in the middle, which I'm

15:06

going to show you a different week

15:08

here I put my tidy cues between

15:11

a transition of time blocks match and

15:13

meet each other. You can put a

15:15

little asterisk there, which I actually already

15:18

have this memorized, like the back of

15:20

my hand and my whole entire family

15:22

does this without even thinking about it

15:25

anymore. But if you look here, you'll

15:27

see that I just put a little

15:30

star or an asterisk in and that

15:32

is my tidy cue. You could write

15:34

the name of that tidy cue. But

15:37

essentially what it means is you're building

15:39

in five to 15 minutes before before.

15:41

you transition into the new block to

15:44

leave your environment better than the way

15:46

that you found it. And I did

15:48

this hand over hand with my little

15:51

kids when they were young and we're

15:53

still doing it. There's seven and almost

15:55

13 now. And so we have to

15:58

give verbal prompts and reminders, hey, you

16:00

left a napkin out. But essentially, everyone

16:02

knows that we leave our environment better

16:05

than the way that we found it.

16:07

And the last and most important part

16:09

of keeping up with the house chores

16:12

here in step three is to ensure

16:14

that you have a meal planning system

16:16

on board. So this is a third

16:19

system that's really important in this step.

16:21

very antiquated old school system that is

16:23

not complicated that really consists of menu

16:26

cards like little index cards that you

16:28

can make super cute. And so essentially

16:30

you're going to take your family's top

16:33

10 favorite meals, you're going to put

16:35

them on index cards, and you're going

16:37

to put them in an index box.

16:40

And these are meals every weekend. You

16:42

can add to them, but start with

16:44

10, because that'll give you two weeks

16:47

of meals, right? Because that'll give you

16:49

two weeks of meals, right? And you

16:51

might give you two weeks of meals,

16:54

right? And you're going to throw in.

16:56

definitely watermelon and corn on the cob

16:58

and and steak right like I don't

17:01

know what your family's favorites are but

17:03

you put that on the front of

17:05

the card and the kids can go

17:08

and they can pick it out and

17:10

they just take that and they clip

17:12

it on or you magnet that on

17:15

and Monday through Sunday you have all

17:17

of your meals ready to go and

17:19

no one will ever ask you what's

17:22

for dinner ever again all right let's

17:24

move into the fifth and final step

17:27

of creating a home management system that

17:29

will get you completely organized move you

17:31

out of overwhelm and it It is

17:34

ensuring, this is my favorite, that your

17:36

family is involved in your home management.

17:38

There's two parts to this. First, let

17:41

me just say that you were never

17:43

intended to do all of this on

17:45

your own. You have so many capable

17:48

hands and legs and brains in your

17:50

family and what's super important for you

17:52

to visualize in your mind and I

17:55

always tell moms that I work with

17:57

this. If you know the drill then

17:59

they will know the drill. So the

18:02

first key part of this is ensuring

18:04

that you do have a home management

18:06

system in place that you can actually

18:09

start outsourcing bits and pieces of the

18:11

Well, how do you do that? One,

18:13

you do a strengths assessment. You are

18:16

starting to look at what people's strengths

18:18

are. Are they good at taking out

18:20

the trash? Do they seem to be

18:23

on it? They don't... you know, riff

18:25

back attitude when you say, hey, would

18:27

you take out the trash? They like

18:30

that, right? Do they like to vacuum?

18:32

Do they like to clean toilets because

18:34

they're foreign? That's fun for them. Obviously,

18:37

I support a very chemical free home

18:39

and so my kids are very involved

18:41

in cleaning because we don't use chemicals

18:44

to clean. And then there's so many

18:46

different things from finances and all of

18:48

your fundamental needs and setting up the

18:51

calendar. you'll be like absolutely not happening

18:53

but there are things that your family

18:55

is really great at and you nurture

18:58

them and you nurture your home on

19:00

a regular basis and you'll be able

19:02

to know like that what they are

19:05

and aren't inclined to do so that's

19:07

the assessment that I want you to

19:09

do just be really observant and second

19:12

is ensuring that you're going to set

19:14

up a communication board for them to

19:16

be able to know what this home

19:19

management system is. The communication that you're

19:21

going to outwardly convey to them is

19:24

just a space on your wall in

19:26

your home that has a calendar there,

19:28

it has your meal plan there, it

19:31

has those little to-doos that you talked

19:33

about doing for the week, like making

19:35

a dentist appointment, let me see what

19:38

we're all the ones that I ticked

19:40

off on that week, making a dentist

19:42

appointment, finishing up a few things on

19:45

the communication board, making a phone call

19:47

to Verizon and sending some documents over.

19:49

to the school. I pop those on

19:52

that list and everybody else can pitch

19:54

in and help me. They also can

19:56

put their own things on the list

19:59

so that you can help each other.

20:01

These are really really really important pieces

20:03

of being able to communicate out to

20:06

them. Also for those of you who

20:08

are a digital based family being that

20:10

it is 2025 now I do have

20:13

a calendar of all of our appointments

20:15

in my Google calendar and that is

20:17

shared with our teens and with my

20:20

husband 100% and so that is another

20:22

kind of next step level of ensuring

20:24

that everyone knows where everyone is supposed

20:27

to be at all times. That is

20:29

a big piece of communicating the home

20:31

management system. So there's all of the

20:34

steps that are very straightforward to be

20:36

able to build a home management system.

20:38

These steps, if you build them slowly

20:41

over time, so I'm going to talk

20:43

about practically how to put these in

20:45

place. are really going to create a

20:48

functional home management system for you. Good

20:50

news is I actually have step one

20:52

and two completely done for you and

20:55

they are absolutely for and you can

20:57

go to Chelseajo.co.com backslash time-blocking workbook to

20:59

be able to get that. And then

21:02

also Chelseajo.co, backslash fundamental needs workbook and

21:04

that will take you through an assessment.

21:06

It will give you your grade eight,

21:09

your fundamental needs, help you assess what's

21:11

working and not working, what are those

21:13

core fundamental things that you need to

21:16

be doing in your life. So if

21:18

you're ready to dive deeper into all

21:21

things systems from Chelseajo.co, please head over

21:23

to my website. I have all of

21:25

my free resources on there, a lot

21:28

of things that we touched on in

21:30

here. I have free downloads for plus,

21:32

where I teach my strategic work. management

21:35

system that takes you from overwhelmed to

21:37

organized in four weeks and my business

21:39

growth system for those of you who

21:42

are juggling a home and a business.

21:44

Please remember that if you were feeling

21:46

overwhelmed in any capacity it does not

21:49

have to stay that way. These are

21:51

very simple systems to put in place.

21:53

package them up and create your mega

21:56

massive transformative home management system that will

21:58

run smoothly and give you so much

22:00

time for the things that you really

22:03

want to focus on like hugs and

22:05

eye contact and nourishment and growth and

22:07

being able to take care of yourself

22:10

too. Before we wrap up today's episode

22:12

I want to extend a sincere invitation

22:14

to you an incredible wife mom and

22:17

woman who has serious dreams of making

22:19

change to really take what you learn

22:21

today and implement even just a small

22:24

part of it in your life. When

22:26

you make changes, it inspires everyone around

22:28

you. If today's episode resonated with you,

22:31

I'm certain it will resonate with others

22:33

too. So head over to iTunes. Hit

22:35

that subscribe button and leave us a

22:38

five-star review. Your review will help more

22:40

women discover our podcast and join our

22:42

supportive community. But your impact doesn't stop

22:45

there. You hold the power to motivate

22:47

and equip the women closest to you

22:49

in your life with a simple, hey

22:52

girl, let's do this together. text this

22:54

episode to your best friend or maybe

22:56

even your mama. Whoever it is in

22:59

your life that's knee-deep in the same

23:01

kind of chaos you're in, they need

23:03

to know about this system too. And

23:06

if you're feeling fancy, you can even

23:08

take a screenshot of this episode, tag

23:10

me and post it to your stories

23:13

because together we can create a trail

23:15

of wisdom for all the incredible women

23:18

around us reshaping how we not only

23:20

care for ourselves but each other. I

23:22

can't wait to connect with you on

23:25

Instagram until we meet back here again

23:27

real soon for the next episode. on

23:29

the Systemize Your Life podcast.