I am a complete oxymoron! I know it! I admit it! I own it! I am one of the laziest perfectionists you’ll ever meet. I’m the messiest organized person, too! I’m also highly creative and highly analytical. My right brain and left brain are in constant competition.
I actually look at organization as a puzzle. It’s a fun challenge for me to solve. Just how simply can I make things to get it totally efficient? I tweak and tweak and tweak again until I can get it to work just right.
Yes, I love organizing things! I love figuring out new systems and new ways to simplify…which is why I’m so excited about having none other than Mystie Winkler on the podcast today! Mystie speaks my love language — organization!
Now, if you are unfamiliar with Mystie, we’ll then you are in for a treat! Mystie runs a blog called Simplified Organization. I mean, how much more of a perfect fit for the Simply Joyful Podcast can you get? Mystie is a self-proclaimed “slob by nature and has been actively combatting that tendency for 8 years now.”
Mystie has not always been a naturally clean and tidy person. She’s had to learn to change her attitude about how she cares for her home — and her family. Formerly she felt like “housecleaning was a waste of time.” However, things changed when she learned her “why” behind keeping her house in order. It became more about changing her perspective than finding new ways to clean. Her problem wasn’t not knowing what to do. Her problem was not caring. Well, she’s learned to care and she shares more about that today.
You are going to love this episode if you are looking for a real conversation from two women who have had to overcome their non-tidy ways to become organized.
On a “Simply” & “Joyful” side note…
Mystie’s family sings and memorizes poetry together in the morning, and this puts them all in a good frame of mind to begin other work.
In This Episode…
In this episode, Mystie and I talk through practical tips and advice about how to be more productive. Mystie explains what “brain dumping” is and the best way to do it. She seriously rocked my “love for organization” world with her tips and advice. I stopped asking the questions I had on my paper and just started asking questions I knew I needed answered to help me with some of my problem areas.
I just know you are going to be so inspired in this episode with Mystie!
Highlights from This Show…
- Mystie admits she was a natural list-making organizer and thought she had everything together until she had kids. She tried doing things as efficiently as possible, but she’s learned that dealing with the big picture and the vision were more important than the details.
- Mystie said that she used to ask herself “Why do the dishes need to be done?” or “Why should I mop the floor in the first place?”
- Finding her “why” was the answer!
- “If it doesn’t matter at all, I’m not going to waste my time doing it.” — Mystie Winkler
- I mentioned that when it comes to homeschooling AND housekeeping, you do need to lower your standards and expectations a little bit. {Here’s a post about more on this: Help! I Homeschool & My House is a Mess!}
- Mystie states that her eyes were opened to the “why” from reading two novels: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
“[In the novel] Bleak House, [the main] character is wrapped up in how she keeps her house. The fact that she has the ‘household keys’ and that the house runs smoothly because of her was a huge part of the beauty that she brings.” — Mystie Winkler - Mystie said that reading about this character from the Dickens classic helped open her eyes to the fact that details do matter and that the way one keep her house reflects on the character of the housekeeper.
- “[Paying attention to details is a] way that we love people. It’s not meaningless, because it’s a gift that we’re giving to others.” — Mystie Winkler
- “The way we keep our house does speak to our character.” — Mystie Winkler
- I brought up the book Discipline: The Glad Surrender by Elisabeth Elliot and explained how the author brought up the fact that if you want to see if someone is disciplined, look at their house. I was convicted!
- Mystie said that part of coming to know the meaning and value of cleaning up is doing it for others. Not just people you invite over, but the people that live in your house.
- “You need to bless your family as well as you would bless others with your house and the standard you keep your house in…and what also prepares you for hospitality is when you make it a priority to actually take time to get a little bit organized here and there.” — Kristi Clover
- We need to extend the hospitality we show to guests to our own family! It’s so easy to forget that they are the ones who we should be focused on blessing. We need to get organized so that we can best live out our priorities.
- Mystie talked about her blogs:
1) Simplified Organization: where she keeps home and life management thoughts
2) Simply Convivial: her homeschooling blog.
- Mystie shared her thoughts on productivity and about how we only have “so much time” in our day. We need to be investing it in areas that are not self-focused. We need to ask ourselves,
— “What are the roles or responsibilities that God has given to me?”
— “Who am I supposed to be serving?”
— “Am I using my time to build and grow my family?” - Mystie discussed that serving the important people in her life comes before productivity and that feeling of accomplishment in herself.
- I asked Mystie to talk about one of her key habits for productivity: Decluttering your brain! She said it’s good to write down all the thoughts and worries that are occupying your mind on a piece of paper. On paper, it’s much more obvious that we have too many commitments or emotional ties to unimportant duties.
- Mystie talked about brain dumping on paper vs. brain dumping on the computer.She explained how mental space and different brain connections comes into play. Once the brain dump is out, you: 1) Go through and delete as much as possible, 2) Set up a reliable calendar, a place to keep to-do lists, and a place to keep reference notes, & 3) Look at the lists regularly! Because it’ll only work if you review them. {You can get Mystie’s free brain dump guide right on her site HERE!}
- I mention my struggle with insomnia and the fact that I feel like I just couldn’t turn my brain off at night.
- Mystie teaches in her Habits of Productivity course about how to use Evernote and paper for such organization. Evernote has a good search function for finding notes efficiently and can recognize scanned-in notes.
- “Your brain is for thinking and not for remembering.” — Mystie Winkler (from the book Getting Things Done by David Allen)
Please Note…
- Be sure to grab your FREE copy of my book, Sanity Savers for Moms, by joining our Simply Joyful community. It’s a great way to keep in touch…and get subscriber only freebies like my book. Click HERE to get the book and join!
- Thank you, Rend Collective for allowing me to use your incredible song “The Joy of the Lord is My Strength”!
Connect with Heidi…
Mystie is a homeschooled homeschooler, married to her high school sweetheart, educating her five children ages thirteen to four. She loves to take big ideas and grand visions and make them practicable in real life. She blogs at Simplified Organization, Simply Convivial, and Schole Sisters. You can check out all her awesome organizations courses and books HERE!!
(This podcast is by Kristi Clover. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)