Conquering lateness + an awesome giveaway

[This is a sponsored post from BlogHer through Citi, which includes an incredible giveaway opportunity. As always, all opinions are my own]

I’d always been one of those “late for everything” kind of people. I know it’s rude, it’s embarrassing, but unless it was a job interview, you could pretty much guarantee that I’d show up at least 15 minutes after the event time. It’s in my blood. I thought that having a baby would make this exponentially worse, but on the contrary, I’m usually on time now.

Why? It’s forced me to become more organized. There’s no time for last-minute fashion crises or failing to map out our event location. With everything I need to pack and take with us, it can be more difficult to do it with an active toddler at my side. Instead, I prep ahead and do as much as I can in advance.

Here are some of the things I’ve found to help:

-Make snacks and drinks the night before. I’ll pack up snacks for both of us -mama gets hungry too!- and drinks in the fridge so that I can grab them in the morning and go.

-Pack the “hit and run” bag. I used to carry a giant diaper bag around, but realized that it was loaded with heavy things we no longer needed and… crumbs. Lots of crumbs. So now, I put our snacks, a few diapers and sunscreen in a small lululemon bag that we tote around with us. It’s not fancy, but it works

-Have outfits planned in advance. Even though I don’t set them out (let’s not get crazy now, haha), I have an idea of what we’re each going to wear and where they are.

-Waking up before she wakes up. This was a hard one for me, as I’m not a morning person, but it’s the perfect way to get in a short workout and some work before we start the day. She’ll usually be up between 7 and 7:30, so my alarm will go off at 5:30 to do what I need to do. As much as I dislike waking up early, I love that I’m able to get in some quiet time, maybe a sweat session, and also get dressed and ready before she’s awake. If I have a head start on work stuff, I’m able to be more present while we’re hanging out and save the work until she’s sleeping.

I’ve found that as our family continues to grow, it will be important for us to stay organized. With all of the upcoming fall events, I’m doing my best to remember everything, be where we need to be (on time!) and pick up appropriate gifts for upcoming weddings and holidays. 

Some of our current organization strategies:

-Our magnetic calendar. On our fridge, we have a dry erase board where we write work schedules, the Pilot’s flying schedule and any events. This way I know if he’ll be working late (and Liv and I will be getting hot bar for dinner…) and important events on the horizon.

-Alerts on my phone. Birthdays are set on annual renewal, and if an event is coming up, I’ll have an alert go off a day or two beforehand.

-Setting up automatic bill pay. Back in the day, it was hard for me to keep track of all of our bills. They all had different due dates, some companies wouldn’t bill us regularly, and with everything going on, I’d space it. Now, I have a spreadsheet with our monthly finances, our savings goals, and our bill due dates.

Many of them I have set up on automatic bill pay, so all I have to do is check the statement to make sure we’re being charged accurately.

With the holidays coming up, the last thing we want to do is waste time or money dealing with late fees, and the Citi Simplicity card makes it much easier to accomplish this.

Some of the details:

–Citi Simplicity is the only card to offer no late fees, an annual fee or a penalty fee. Ever.

– Citi Price Rewind searches retailers’ sites for lower prices when you buy and register an eligible item with your Citi credit card. Save your credit card receipt each time you shop. If Citi finds your item at least $25 lower than what you paid within 30 calendar days, you can get the difference in price back, up to $250. The average refund is $80.

-Your Citi Simplicity card offers discounts on travel, shopping, restaurants and gift cards, too with Citi Easy Deals. 

Another reason they’re awesome? They’re giving one lucky Fitnessista reader a 16GB Mini Tablet LOADED with financial apps to help you stay organized this fall. Enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win.

 

Here’s how to enter:

Sweepstakes

The Conquering Lateness Sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”) is open to legal US Residents, age 18 or older. Void where prohibited. Sweepstakes ends at 5pm (PST) on October 24, 2013. More details are available here. No purchase necessary.

Only two entries per participating blog per household; if the same or substantially similar comment (as determined by the Sponsor in its sole discretion) is posted twice, it may only count as one Entry. Eligible persons may enter this Promotion by taking any of the following actions, each of which counts as one entry:

1.     Leave a comment in response to the Promotion prompt on this post (how you conquer lateness and stay organized)

2.     Tweet (public message) about this Promotion, including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that Tweet in a comment on this post.

3.     Blog about this Promotion (including a disclosure that you have received a sweepstakes entry in exchange for blogging about this Promotion), and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.

4.     To enter without commenting, follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt.

 

Be sure to visit the Citi brand page on BlogHer.com where you can learn more about conquering lateness!

 

Happy fall!

xoxo

Gina