My gut says the last thing I want is more tech in my life, because technology has a track record of taking you out of your life - whether that's by monetising your attention, convincing you more productivity should be the goal, helping you optimise something that really doesn't matter, or just being a massive pain in the ass to use.
But when I think about building my own tech with one goal - to get me back into my life - I get excited again. Maybe that's the difference. For the first time, I’m not adapting to some generic productivity system. I’m building one around the way my family actually lives, intending to be more ‘in my life’, not more productive.
A quick recap
This year, my New Year's mantra was "every day can be a party" (nothing says anti-productivity like a non-measurable, vibes-only mantra ✌️).
I chose the word "can" because I believed it was simply a mindset thing. I just had to choose whether every day was going to be a party… with my mind.
I soon realised party vibes are hard to bring when you're carrying three jobs in your head.
^^this is Claude's visual for “make me look sad at a party”. I think the tampon is meant to be a party trumpet.
Anyway, on a more positive note - this kicked off my obsession…
To build a system with one goal… empty Sarah’s mind.
I've spent six months relentlessly adding everything I don't want sitting in my head to the system.
This week, it’s been truly put to the test.
It’s school holidays here, and this normally starts (and accurately sets the tone) with “hang on, are school holidays… next week?!”
Then history repeats itself.
We realise we haven't organised any kids' activities/holiday camps and frantically see what everyone else is doing to hopefully tag along
We’re too late to book a spot for the extra Daycare days we require to cover the days Pre-school closes
We work out who is doing pick up and drop off on the day (“you told me it was 3pm!!”)
And then we turn up to swimming wondering why no one else is there - because turns out, some activities close for the holidays, and some don’t - and we got them the wrong way round.
Now, however...🥁
My system knows when it’s term time; it knows what's on and what's not because it actually checks, AND it does all the thinking for me because I told it what usually happens (see above).
This holiday:
Casual daycare days were sorted before we missed out
I booked the kids into activities weeks ahead of time (I was even the mum that messaged the others to suggest we “get organised so the kids do something together” 💅).
Our calendars and "who's doing what" were cleanly reorganised - and accurately added to the calendar with times, locations and who’s responsible
AND we didn't turn up to swimming classes on Saturday and wonder why no one else was there.
Winning.
In case you can’t tell, I’m feeling somewhat of a genius. And I'm sorry (not sorry) for how smug I am about it.
The magic that makes this happen
The mechanic behind this is what I have called a scenario. A scenario is a small set of instructions that overlays my usual system for the things that crop up and throw everything out the window. I have one for "sick kid", one for "school hols", and one for "solo parenting". They each know what to do.
The ‘school hols’ one runs on three things - and none of them are complicated:
1. It knows the dates. You can add your school term dates as a reference file so your system knows when school holidays are coming. I just got the PDF from the school website and asked Claude to process it.
2. It knows what usually goes wrong. Just write down everything that normally happens every school holiday that changes how you operate and what you normally have to think about - and by when, if necessary. Whatever your family's version is. Save that as another reference file.
3. Plug both into the routines/skills you already run. Whether that's a daily digest, a week-ahead view, or however you've built your system, make sure those two files are checked whenever it reviews what's coming up.
That's it.
You're just giving it the context you normally carry around in your own head.
Give it a try! Future you will thank you for it, and you can be as smug as me.
BRB - off to party 🎉
S xx
Feel free to congratulate me on achieving my non-measurable, vibes-only New Year's mantra 6 months early. I promise to be less smug next week.