CLEVELAND — 3News’ Hollie Strano talked to Tamsin Astor, PhD and "chief habit scientist," whose mission is to help busy people get organized. Her goal is to allow them to make more time for themselves.
“I want to start with organization in general during this pandemic,” Hollie says. “I'm a mom of two, and little things that used to be simple -- like paying a bill -- everything seems overwhelming. What can we do to make life not feel so overwhelming?”
Dr. Astor says one thing she does with all her clients is perform a daily habit audit.
“I get people to track their time for a week. And what you do is you code it according to what it is. Is this TV time, is this work time, is this business development time, is this social time, is this exercise time? And looking at where there are things on your calendar that are immovable.”
The next step is to have a conversation with your entire family about how you're spending your time and who's doing what. Look at what is an efficient use of time and where time is being wasted.
“So you look and you say, who's doing what?” Dr. Astor says. “Which of my children can actually take on the task of mopping the floor, getting the mail, cleaning their clothes, chopping up the vegetables.”
Another thing you can task yourself with can be a little harder to do. Dr. Astor says if there’s something you hate doing, stop doing it.
“When I got divorced, I got rid of my iron. I was like, I don't need an iron in my life. Ironing does not bring me joy. I can just have clothes that don't need ironing.”
If there’s a task that can be delegated to someone else, allow them to take it on.
Also, identify habits that bring you joy.
“I love mowing the lawn,” says Dr. Astor. “It like it gives me a huge amount of Zen and energy.”
For more advice from Dr. Astor, you can read her book, Force of Habit: Unleash Your Power by Developing Great Habits.
Check out her website here.