For the past month we’ve had lots of great ideas from our Focused Moms on how to reduce the electronic distractions in our lives and increase our focus on our children and families.  Here are some of my favorites in the words of some awesome Focused Moms!  Check them out, one of the featured comments might be yours.  I hope these ideas will get you as motivated as I am to finish strong this last week of the Focused Moms Challenge.  Enjoy!

1.  I put my phone away from my bed on a bookcase so that I did not go to bed and wake up looking at it. Who cares if Kroger and Amazon sent me emails while I slept?

2.  I can watch Dancing with the Stars or make lunches after my kids are in bed. I stay up until midnight almost every night – after their bedtime has now become the time for these non-child related activities. The world is now open for business almost all 24 hours a day. I am trying to train my brain to get out of the 5pm work hour old school train of thought. I can do almost anything I need to do all day and all night long EXCEPT for spend time with my children!

3.  I’ve been trying to either log off my laptop or close it when I’m done. Just seeing it closed reminds me that I’m not supposed to spending so much time on it!

4.  Before my daughter can use anything with an engine, I have her make the mile and a half trip around the lake on her bike with me. She sees it as me playing with her, but I see it as bonding and a bit of physical activity. Yesterday, we rode our bikes and stopped and talked. She would “trick” me in to thinking she was resting when she really was trying to get a head start on racing me around the lake. When we were done with our bikes, we then took the 4-wheelers out, headed to the lake and fished until it was time for dinner.

5.  Here is what I’ve started doing…I have changed the power configuration on my computer so that it shuts off at night. Because it takes it so long to start back up, 75% of the time I just forget about turning it back on. Truth is, I haven’t missed it. Sitting in my office for a “quick” check of news and what celebrities are doing usually turns into 30 minutes. Not anymore!!!

6.  This week I left my cell phone in the car or in the kitchen on the charger. I have been very aware about answering my phone in the car and placing calls. I hate to say it, but I did text while sitting at red light and occasionally at stop signs. Well, no more! I am seriously trying not to text so much.

7.  My focused moms STICKER is on my planner (yes I am old school and still use a paper calendar – full 8 & 1/2 x 11 size too!). But every time I opened it this week I saw that FIRST thing and it refocused me on how important and limited my time is with my boys!

8.  When I went to my oldest son’s baseball game – instead of sitting on the bleachers with the other moms and constantly chasing my 4-year old around, I took a blanket and had a picnic with him and sat with him and taught him a few baseball rules & shared an apple. It was lovely!

9.  I had a good week. Started off by shutting down my computer each time I used it…then putting the computer away as opposed to just leaving it easily accessible. That has really made a difference. I am not saying that I didn’t fall back once or twice or seven or eight times, but it’s a start, right?

10.  I didn’t bury my Kindle … couldn’t do it, I NEED it!! But, I did give myself a list of “restrictions” that worked very well for me.  For example, I will not be reading my Kindle when my children get off the bus from school; I cannot sit down to read if my dishes are dirty or my house is a wreck; I will not read if dinner has not been planned/cooked (& I cooked dinner 5 nights this week~I don’t know how Zaxbys will stay in business); I will not read while helping my children with homework or studying; While reading, I will never again “just a minute” my children so that I can finish the sentence/page/paragraph (the handy thing about a Kindle is you can leave it and it keeps your place for you!!!); If my children/husband come into the room, I put the Kindle away; I will try not to ever miss an opportunity to spend time with my children just to find out what happens next in a James Patterson book!

If you’ve got an idea that helps keep you focused, feel free to comment. We love hearing what works for other Focused Moms!