Let’s start by saying we’re not the neatest nor tidiest family on the planet. I’m not a stickler for made beds, and clean rooms. In fact, the big rule for Hanna’s room is a path to get to the door and the window so she has an escape route in case of fire.
With that being said… we used to battle, like battle. all.day.long when it came time to clean her room. It would literally take all day, there would be yelling, crying and at the end of the day the room would be clean and we’d be exhausted. It sucked.
I am a sucker for systems, so we tried quite a few to help her keep her room clean. We tried having consequences if it wasn’t picked up before she went to bed. Turned into battles EVERY night instead of once in a while. We got cute pink cloth boxes to put all her stuff in. Turned into boxes stuffed with a bunch of junk and we could never find anything. We even tried just letting it get as messy as she wanted until she decided to clean it. Then we got complaining, daily, that she had no room to play. *sigh*
Then one day we were at a friend’s house and the girls decided to play Barbies. They came tromping up the stairs with a clear plastic box labeled, you guessed it, Barbies. I kind of gasped in horror. Who on Earth would be so OCD that they’d get little plastic boxes and label them for all their kids toys? EEK.
The girls played Barbies for a while, and when they were done they put the Barbies back in the box, and then took the box back downstairs and put it on the shelf.
DOH.
We came home, and I tucked Hanna into bed that night, stepping over all the Horse and Barbie land mines in the floor, pushing things aside to create a 3 foot path to the door and I started thinking…
The next day I asked Hanna, kind of in an off handed manner, (so as not to rouse her suspicions), “Hey what do you think about that system they use, with the boxes? It’s kind of nice to know right where everything goes, and right where it is when you want to play with it huh?”
Instant no.
But I figured that would happen. For the next couple days I kept mentioning it, until one day she came back to me thinking it might be a good idea. We started planning how many boxes we’d need to fit all her toys, and we went shopping. We spent the rest of the day creating order in her room. We identified who/what would go in each box. Labeled it as such, and stuck it on the shelf.
She kept her room spotless… everything back in the box, right after she was done, for a couple weeks. Then longer games of Horse show started happening, and certain boxes got left open, the contents lined up and on display all ready for the show the next day. While it looked like things were getting out of hand… they weren’t. They were getting confused.
One day I mentioned to her that her room was getting a little messy again… and she had a lot of boxes and toys out all at once.
She started crying.
When we got to the bottom of the problem, turns out… she couldn’t remember which horses were “medium” and which horses were “small” (the labels SHE had chosen to use to sort horses into specific boxes) so she couldn’t figure out which horses went in which box. (A little perfectionism raising its head in my 7 year old 🙁 )
We talked about how the system was designed to work for her… there was no “perfect” way, and as long as the horses were similar in size, and fit in the box it didn’t really matter exactly which box they went in.
With relief in her face she went in and came back out in less than 10 minutes with her room all cleaned up. Toys in boxes. Boxes on shelves.
What used to be an all day battle, with a bit of a system, and a little bit of clarity turned into a 10 minute quick tidy.
As I was sitting there shaking my head at how differently things had gone I couldn’t help but think about my business. I used to run my business a lot like Hanna ran her room. Shit everywhere. Playing with a little bit of this today, and that tomorrow, with everything in the middle of the floor all the time. No plan. No system. Feeling a little confused and a lot overwhelmed when it came to doing something about it, but not really knowing what to do.
That is until I figured out the Pick 2 Choose 3 concept. I was pretty clear about how to blog. I’m a long time blogger, and I love doing it. The problem was around the marketing of the blog. The marketing… which even though I’m a writer, and would like to say the writing is the most important part… if your blog is part of your business, the marketing really is the most important part. The marketing, where I was scattered, and taking a little bit of action across multiple strategies, creating minimal results and/or traffic… It was a train wreck. But then I figured out the perfect little box system for my marketing.
What’s happened since then?
I’ve spent exponentially less time working.
I know when I’m done and I can peacefully close the laptop and go about living my life and having fun.
My traffic tripled in less than 30 days.
I started getting more leads every day than I used to get in a week.
yeah… it’s pretty powerful stuff.
If you’re struggling to market your business, whether it’s a blog or anything else, check out the Choose 2 Pick 3 system. It might be just what you’re looking for. If you’re still struggling to find the perfect online business/way to create a substantial income online, take a minute and learn a little more about how I do it. You’ll find yourself part of team of Rebel Entrepreneurs who are creating profitable businesses by being themselves… and so can you. 🙂
If you decide to use the Pick 2 Choose 3 system please come back and let me know how it’s working for you! I can’t wait to hear. 🙂
