akron

This post has been sponsored by Distillata. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Can you believe we’re about to open a brand new chapter in this book of life? A new decade is upon us and it’s hard not to think about goals for the coming year — or ten! As a busy family of 5, my priorities and goals are a little bit different. My goals aren’t as concrete as they were in the past, but they are attainable and sustainable for a busy family.

Health Tips

Drink all of the water.

We are huge H2O drinkers in this house. And I’m not just casually saying that. I mean that for the longest time my children did not know they could drink other things… like milk.

My biggest tip for getting your family to drink the appropriate amount of water is this — install a water cooler in your home from Distillata. Distillata delivers our 5-gallon water jugs at the intervals we choose. When I say we drink a lot of water, I mean a lot. We go through approximately FIVE 5-gallon water jugs every 4 weeks!

Having a Distillata water cooler in our home has been a game-changer. The big kids can get their own water whenever they want, and that just means they’re drinking even more than they normally would!

Head here to check into having Distillata delivered to your home.

Take a daily multivitamin.

Newsflash: our kids don’t eat what we want them to. Do any kids? I mean, ours used to. But somewhere between two and 3-years of age, they started to get little minds of their own.

Where we lack in food nutrients we make up in the form of a daily multivitamin.

Keep moving.

I have gone through phases and stages in my life where I am always on the move and then never on the move. It’s hard to find a balance. For me, I have found instant accountability by wearing a fitness tracker. It’s like a game for me. I try to stay at the recommended move goal (which is usually 10k steps per day) and I despise breaking my ‘streak.’ It’s a great motivator.

Not every day is going to be a knock-it-out of the park type of movement day. And that’s okay. But the trick is to make a conscious effort to move more.

Life Tips

Stay organized.

As a busy mom of three, having a well-communicated schedule is key. I keep two schedules, the first of which is my Google Calendar. It’s easily accessed when I’m at home or on the go so I can keep track of all of our commitments, work, fun and otherwise. The second is a large wall calendar in our kitchen.

It may seem silly to keep two calendars, but I assure you this is key to keeping the whole family on-track. My husband can glance at our wall calendar and see exactly what we have scheduled on any given day.

Make life easier.

One of the best decisions I made for my family was to streamline whatever I could. I subscribed for services like Shipt, which helped tremendously when I was out of diapers and couldn’t take three kids out during a snowstorm. Or I would schedule grocery pickup with Curbside Express. Heck, I sometimes even subscribe to meal delivery services!

But the real game-changer came when we started having our water delivered by Distillata. Prior to that, I would take all three kids to the store to fill up our two 5-gallon jugs of reverse osmosis water, carry them back to the car and in the house, only to have to constantly pour more water into our fridge container for easy dispensing.

Distillata has changed the way we drink our water. I’m no longer going to the store, trying to manage filling up two jugs of water while fitting them in the cart with my kids. Our deliveries are scheduled every few weeks directly to our home. They take our old jugs away and leave us with four or five bottles of the same water I was struggling to get at the grocery store.

Work Tips

Focus.

Whether you’re a work-from-home mom like me, or a part-time employee, or a full-time worker, we can all benefit from having more focus. Personally, I struggle with wanting to attack all of my goals at once. That just isn’t feasible. Not for me, not for anyone.

I’ve found that by creating a to-do list based on three categories works perfectly. The first category is Must-Do’s. These are items that need to be tackled immediately. The next column on my list is Try-To-Do’s, and it’s exactly how it sounds. They should not be done before the must-do’s, but if I can get around to these items, then perfect!

The last column on my list is Bonus Items. These Bonus Items are things that are less of a priority at this moment (that doesn’t mean they are not a priority!).

Limit distractions.

I know so many people who get sidetracked from their workload due to outside forces and circumstances (*cough, cough* I am one of those people). Limiting those outside forces of distraction can and will be very helpful for your work environment.

Actions such as deleting social media apps off of your phone and drowning out office chatter with headphones can be a tremendous help. I find myself even being distracted by regular music so I’ve found a piano and classical playlist to help me limit the distractions.

The Big Picture

Regardless of how your year has gone thus far, there is one important thing to remember: You have the ability to change. You don’t have to wait for the start of a new year, a new month, or even a new day. You can implement changes all at once or slowly, but the important part is deciding to start.

This is going to be the best year yet.