How To ... Anything

Brains!!! Indeed. All they want to do is sleep in and eat junk food. And yet they KNOW they need to exercise and eat their leafy greens.

Brains are so lazy.

And Crazy.

Like how you swear you learned in psychology class that the sense of smell is an extremely effective memory trigger. But then, after emphatically making your point, you remember you just saw that on M.A.S.H. once.

So, in that vein, I attribute the following to a book I read or a workshop I attended. I may or may not have actually heard this, but this is how my brain synthesized it.

When you ask a "HOW" question, the answer is usually right there in the question.

How do I get my house clean? By getting my house clean.

How do I manage my time better? By managing my time better.

How do I be a better wife and mother? By being a better wife and mother.

Now, you might think that's useless and circular, but when I ask those questions, what I really mean is: how do I (insert job that takes a lot of work) without having to work hard? And that's a silly question. Just gotta do the work.

We know how to do stuff. I was raised by wolves, and I still know how to do stuff. I just don't LIKE the tedious and monotonous.

All this to say, time management apps. Create routines. Set reminders to help form habits. Give it 30 days to sink in. If it peters off, redouble your efforts. Endure to the end.

Oh, one more thing, if your question is more technical, like "How do I (something hard and technical ... uh ... build a rocket that can take a computer robot thingy to Mars)? Maybe try Googling first and do a little research, because maybe that kind of stuff isn't so instinctual, yknow? And you can Google how to clean your house more efficiently (or I can do it for you), but just don't waste all your cleaning time on cleaning research.

(Most of my childhood memories revolve around how embarrassed I was by the extremely messy house; don't use this excuse.)