Less & More: The WFH Mom Edit

Fall: The 2nd Best Time of Year for Resolutions

As I have mentioned before, I LOVE a good resolution. As such, I’ll take pretty much any opportunity to make one, even if it’s when the year is 3/4 over. For some reason, this year, a fall reset has been strong armed into my life seemingly by coincidence and I’m not at all mad about it. Something about the cooler weather, starting new sports seasons and school year just makes me want to rethink all my routines and systems and reset the heck out of them. Probably not a bad idea to do this before ALL new seasons, because as any parent can tell you with a bitter look on their face, every time of year brings entirely new challenges and routines. I ALWAYS recognize this and do a reset before summer, so…why not fall? Yes, yes, yes. Luckily for me, a plethora of podcasts have been served to me on a silver platter in the past month or so that speak to all manner of fall habit and routine resets. I thought – why not share these gems with the world? There are so many good options, as I’ll show you below.

BTW, What Exactly IS a Fall Reset?

I’m so glad you asked. I’m sure it means different things to different people, but for me, it means re-examining our weekly habits, routines and home-wide systems to see where we are succeeding, where we’re draining energy and where we’re just plain forgetting stuff and/or failing. There are so many everyday practices and mindset shifts that with just a little tweak here/there, can make a big difference in the flow of a busy week. In our household, we have acting class and soccer practice and baseball practice and sports games galore. Add into all of that, two working parents, one of whom is a class parent for a busy 5th grade year AND one of whom has volunteered to lead ALL OF BOY SCOUTS for our region. There’s meetings and calls and forms and responsibilities. It’s a finely tuned machine that needs to be regularly reviewed and re-oiled. What worked this summer for swim team? Might not be the best way to do things now. So a reset is taking stock and shifting where we need to.

The Resets I’m Working On and Their Podcast Pairings

Decluttering Reset – Habit Stacking Mom

One of my favorite fall resets so far isn’t about adding more to my routine — it’s about clearing space because clutter and “stuff” really raises my cortisol levels and makes me feel like I have a TON on my plate. Thus, I loved Habit Stacking Mom’s episode “How Decluttering Routines Will Minimize Your Stress” (Ep. 113), where she makes a few key points, that resonated withe me, like:

1. Organizing is not the same as decluttering. You can line up mini shampoos in a basket or corral 300 ponytail holders into a jar, but if you never let go of the excess, you’re just organizing clutter which will easily fall into disarray again in the not too distant future. The mental noise of “too much stuff” is still there (boy isn’t THAT the truth!?).
2. You have to incorporate decluttering as an ongoing stack in your habits – you can’t just do a one and done! Why? Clutter is always coming IN (especially for moms in the fall — think school papers, sports uniforms, pumpkin crafts, holiday shopping). It’s not enough to do one deep clean and wait until it piles up again. Decluttering needs to be a repeatable routine, just like laundry or meal prep.

For anyone else looking to reset in this realm, the host shares her S2G2 strategy (Sell, Sort, Give, Gone) as a simple framework to keep up with it — and I’ve found that the idea of making decluttering habitual rather than occasional is a game changer. It feels less like a “big purge” and more like a peaceful rhythm that protects your mental space. Here’s a good way to start: Pick one spot per week that you give the once over to see if anything can go.

Time Management Reset (in just 15 Minutes!) – It’s About Time

Like pretty much every other season, fall always feels like a season where schedules fill up fast — school drop-offs, sports practices, work deadlines, holiday prep sneaking in. It’s super easy to tell ourselves that we’ll figure out time management when things “slow down.” Like that will ever happen! (As Anna Dearmon Kornick points out in her It’s About Time episode “Too Busy to Fix Your Time Management? Try These 15-Minute Strategies Instead” (Ep. 291)).

According to her (and MAN, I hope she’s right!), you don’t need a whole weekend or a total overhaul to master time management. She has some great strategies that are much smaller chunks of time:

• Do a Mind Sweep: write down everything swirling in your head — tasks, reminders, loose ends — to clear mental clutter. This is a big one because “floating to dos” are often the ones that wake me up right as I’m about to drift off to sleep. Anyone else?
• Choose One Top Priority: instead of trying to conquer a whole list, just ground yourself in one must-do for today. This is a REALLY hard one for me, so I’ll probably have to settle for a top three … or five.
• Cancel or Delegate Something: lightening your load, even in one small way, creates breathing room. I LOVE this one. I intend to enact it by giving my kids more chores!
• Celebrate Small Wins: acknowledging little victories isn’t fluff — it’s brain science, helping you build momentum.

This episode makes me feel hopeful that even without the time and space to renovate my time management, I can make progress with smaller milestones and efforts.

Money Reset – Budget Nerds

Fall is the perfect time to review your money habits before the holiday season kicks in. Episode 124 of Budget Nerds, “7 Habits That Changed Our Money Forever”, gives lots of practical advice to set you up for a fall money reset, beyond just not spending money.

Here are some of their tips:

• Give every dollar a job: this way, none of your spending categories can get out of whack. You know where they are all going!
• Work only with the money you have: stop stressing over future paychecks and start managing what’s actually in your account.
• Save for non-monthly expenses: start setting aside monthly contributions for annual expenses (Christmas gifts, yearly Peloton subscription, etc.). Repeat after me: Divide by 12.
• Get a month ahead: This is where a no spend month WOULD come in handy so you can set yourself up with breathing room in your budget.

No matter how tight my budgeting habits are, a reset is always welcome for different seasons of life. What worked last year might not be the case now!

Set Up Your Core Systems Reset – Systemize Your Life

In case you don’t have any formalized “systems” in place in the first place (guilty!), this is a good reset/refresh, all though the host warns (and this would be my downfall too), don’t try to do them all at once! Pick one that will make the biggest impact in your life and start there. Here are her 10 major systems to get going:

1. Decluttering System : Much like the other podcast (Habit Stacking Mom) that discusses this – you have to have a regular system for decluttering. OK, ok, universe. I get it. I will work on a more regular decluttering system instead of waiting until I just can’t take it anymore.

2. Meal Planning : This is one that I was sort of half doing. Every week, I set a meal plan, use it to make a grocery list and then someone picks up the groceries from Whole Foods and we execute. But, since we’ve entered a new phase of life with many RUSHED weeknight dinners, I’ve been bad about doing it on the same night, making sure our activity nights have an easy meal or leftovers and so forth. This is at the TOP of my list to enact. First, I’m starting by putting together a HUGE batch of recipes we’re loving in this season. Then, every week, I’ll be able to pull the appropriate amount of those meals into our calendar and easily have ChatGPT create the grocery list. I just need to pull my system fully over the finish line.

3. To-Do System (All in One Place) : I need to figure this one out for myself. Dan and I have shared notes for home improvement to do’s, I have paper notebook pages for work to do’s and then I always have a habit of starting random to do lists in my own notes app. I need to figure out a better way to centralize everything and get organized. Putting it on the list! The idea is that this reduces mental clutter and prevents missed deadlines, so I’m all for it.

4. Calendar System

Goal: Create a centralized calendar for all family and personal commitments. We are PRETTY good at this, at least for Dan and I. We have a shared Google Calendar where we put work meetings, kids’ activities and other commitments to ensure we don’t double book. It’s really a life saver, so highly recommend if you aren’t already doing this.

5. Time-Blocking System

I DO do this, but sometimes my calendar looks like a funfetti cake. I need to get better about batching like activities and being more consistent so I’m not constantly switching gears and wasting time allowing my brain to catch up to the current situation only to confuse it further by going BACK to the original type of task. This is another one I’m going to put some more thought into and look at how I could be doing better to create more predictable routines and minimize stress in my life.

6. Meditation Practice : Covered elsewhere in the blog post, plus I think this one is pretty self-evident. Just make it consistent and non-negotiable!

7. Laundry System : We FINALLY have this one on lockdown. We are not a “do a load every day” family, but each of my kids has a block on the weekend where they do laundry and I have a block where I do mine and Dan fits in wherever else there’s room. We all do our clothes once a week and we do things like kitchen and bathroom linens once or twice a week and whoever’s day it is when they come out of the dryer handles folding them and putting them away. This system is amazing and life saving.

8. Workflows for Business : I would love to be the kind of person who has really great systems in place for recurring tasks, like emails, content creation, etc. One problem with this for me is that the nature of PR is it’s unpredictability. You’re just not always sure when something will pop up that you have to handle AND you have to “live in your inbox” at least a LITTLE bit so that you can be responsive to client requests. I’m still fine tuning my business workflows, so I’ll put this one on the TBD list as well. I’m sure I could make tweaks to this that would improve efficiency and efficacy.

9. Dishes / Kitchen Cleanup: We are in a pretty good place with this. We’ve had to make some tweaks on the fly for nights where we have practices or meetings, but everyone has a night assigned to them for dishes, cleaning counters and putting food away after dinner. Sometimes we have to trade or jump in for each other to pinch hit, but for the most part, it’s a well oiled machine. Only complaint I have is that I am ALWAYS the one putting the dishes away from the dishwasher, but that is mostly due to my working from home and motivation to fit it in so others can WASH the dishes when they return home from school, etc. This is a big one for me because we cook a LOT and use the heck out of our kitchen. It’s small enough that it needs to be clean to get things done, so it’s just an outright necessity.

10. Self-Care Routine: Again, covered elsewhere in the blog post, so I’ll just leave this here as a reminder.

Business & Ambition Reset – The bossbabe podcast

Episode 479, “High-Functioning Burnout Exposed: The Overwhelm Loop”, dives deep into why the traditional habits of ambitious women—hustle, long hours, and the “I can do it all” mindset—often lead to burnout, anxiety, and hidden resentment. Does anyone else feel really seen right now?

Natalie, Alexi Panos, and Emily Gallagher break down the overwhelm loop, showing how the cycle of urgency, overcommitment, and nervous system disregulation makes plenty of women feel like they are “fine”, even when they’re depleted. Fixing this is definitely a fall reset I can get behind.

It turns out (according to the hosts), that slowing down and regulating your nervous system actually expands capacity, rather than shrinking it. You may think, “I don’t have time to meditate or do that breathing exercise.” But actually? This will help you be more productive and creative, in the long run. Forcing all cylinders to failure is not a good way to succeed or … enjoy your life. For me, the big reset here is putting stuff for ME on the calendar first to make sure it happens. Then planning everything else around it. I’ve also put breathing sessions and meditation as a “Must Do” on my calendar each day as part of rest and recovery.

Reset Without Pressure

The biggest frustration I have faced so far this fall that makes me WANT to engage in some of these resets is that I constantly find myself so low on bandwidth – mental, physical, emotional … that I can’t do everything I want to do. For me, the habit that’s been suffering the most at the hands of this deficit is my workout routine. I waited all summer to start a more rigorous split because I thought I’d have more time with the kids in school. But unfortunately, that hasn’t been so. One day, I forged ahead with leg day even though my battery was low. It was kind of a disaster and left me feeling very “survivor mode” esque the rest of the day. Not a great feeling on a Wednesday. I know most of our fall “stuff” is kind of new to us – new schedules, new commitments, etc. So, I’m hoping to take some of these resets and apply them to see where we can find efficiencies and workarounds that might save my energy a bit more. I know it won’t be perfect all at once – it’s progress and baby steps. But even so – some of these may have the potential to make a big difference. Thank you, podcasters and Spotify algorithms for bringing these episodes into my life to help push this forward!

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