Have you ever needed permission to just take messy action to do a thing that you’re unsure of… Like you don’t really know how you’re supposed to do it but you want to move forward with it anyway?
Have you ever wanted to set up a communication board in your house so everyone in your family knows what’s going on in your brain, but then you get confused on what’s actually going on in your brain?
Well if you answered yes to either of those questions, you’re going to love this blog post so very much. I had one of our star students from Systemize Your Life here with me for the podcast recently. Her name is Tiffany Chacon and she came up with the most brilliant idea. Using our workbook and a couple other creative ideas, she put together the most killer communication board. It’s absolutely out of this world! I am so excited for us to discuss this topic as we’ll be going over:
- What should be in a communication board
- What parts of the communication board have helped Tiffany tremendously
- How she came up with the idea and put it all together
- How she’s still using it everyday in her life
The more systems you can have in place, the better, but this shows the power of implementing just one simple system. I’m excited to share this with you so without further ado, let’s dive in!
Listen Below For The Entire Episode On The Systemize Your Life Podcast
What Should You Put On Your Communication Board?
Chelsi Jo: Okay, this is going to blow your mind because we get asked all the time, “What should I put on my communication board?”. So today we are talking all about communication boards. Our guest today probably does not consider herself an expert. But let me tell you – we have so many fun things to talk about! I’m going to let Tiffany introduce herself, then we’re going to dive into this incredible communication board she’s created with my inspiration and influence.
So Tiffany, every time we have a guest on the show I ask: What do you juggle on a regular basis? We’d like to get to know you and what you do. What kinds of responsibilities do you have, and what does life look like for you?
Juggling All The Responsibilities
Tiffany: Yeah, I maybe juggle too many balls! I’m actually trying to pair some of them down. I have twins that are 10 years old and we started homeschooling this year, so that has been an adventure. I also do educational consulting, I work for a non-profit, I have a cleaning company, and my husband has a construction business. So we definitely stay busy! We have 12 cows and property down in Mexico that we take care of, and we’re selling a home here while we’re trying to remodel our current home. We live on property with my grandmother so I get to semi care-take for her. She’s pretty capable but I do help her out with quite a bit.
Chelsi Jo: Wow, that is a lot. Which is probably why you decided to become a student and learn my home management system! So it has been a really cool journey for us to see you hop into our community and go all in with what we teach. That’s essentially why we wanted to sit down and chat with you. You’ve had so much on your plate and you’ve been able to use systems to help you.
Systemize Your Life Communication Board
For anyone who needs more context, Tiffany is a student inside of our Systemize Your Life program. She posted a photo of her communication board in our Facebook community, which has just blown us all away! To give you a little back story on this… When you start learning everything about Systemize Your Life, you get access to the workbook and the modules, so you can implement things into your home.
People always ask what my communication board looks like, and mine has never been fancy. I’m just a mom with a refrigerator and a whiteboard, but I have these very specific methods. I’ve been trying so hard to find someone on Etsy who could create something like my method in an actual communication board. Because when you go somewhere like Hobby Lobby or Walmart, it doesn’t fit my method and obviously, I love my method.
Genius Creativity
So then here Tiffany comes with all of her genius creativity! She literally took my workbook, blew it up, cut out the pieces and organized it. When I first saw it, I think I almost started crying. I was like, “Why have I never thought of that?” This is absolutely brilliant. So essentially it’s just a really big board. I’ll have you talk about it, Tiffany, but it’s like a really big picture frame.
She took the routine stacks and everything I’ve laid out in a very specific way, along with the templates for it. Then she uses wet erase markers on the front of it. It has been all the craze over here behind the scenes. Emily, who works with us, has already done it for her family! So I’m excited to take this and create something all of our students can have in their homes. We’ve been teaching them to do communication boards for a long time, but this is amazing.
Tiffany’s Communication Board Inspiration
Chelsi Jo: So walk us through what you did, where this idea came from, and what it has been like? It’s amazing. I have all the parts right here in front of me but I’m sure you’re familiar enough with it now that you could probably just rattle it off.
Tiffany: Yeah, thank you! I’m glad everyone loved it! I do want to say that it’s my rough draft because like you – I never have everything perfect. I just wanted to get it up there so I could start implementing it and using it.
For the first month with Systemize Your Life, I was trying to make it look beautiful. Because I’m in design, I love to make things look beautiful. I was spending so much time, but it wasn’t successful. So I was like, okay, I’m just going to take the workbook so everybody can see it, and we can go through it. I think that was the biggest piece.
How The Communication Board Helps Keep Everyone On The Same Page
Tiffany: One of your modules talks a lot about involving the family. My family never knew what I was doing on a daily basis because I was all over the place. So I was like, okay, well here it is! Look. Here’s exactly what I’m doing. This is what you’re doing and when dinner time is. This is the answer to all of those questions so you don’t have to ask me over and over again!
Also, if they ask me and I don’t have the plan to look at, I can’t give them an answer about any of it because I really don’t know. I follow my plan and that’s what helps me the most. I don’t know if that’s my ADD brain that doesn’t hold these details, but it just doesn’t. So this board helped both my family and me to kind of be on the same page, and it grew into some beautiful opportunities.
Meal Planning On The Communication Board
My favorite part is the meal plan. I am the dinner cooker, which is okay, but sometimes I’m tired and I don’t want to cook dinner. I’ll push it off and push it off, and resort to doing a microwave dinner. Because I just don’t want to do it. I was tired of cooking dinner, so on the board I actually added just one thing that I didn’t find in your workbook. I added a meal plan so I know what we’re doing for dinner and have it all up there.
So then I took it a step further. My kids now have one night each week where they’re actually responsible for dinner. They’re 10 years old and they work together really well. They’ve always cooked and they love cooking. So now one of them will be the head chef and one of them is the prep chef, and they support each other two nights a week. And that’s two nights that I don’t have to worry about cooking! They really look forward to it. They get to pick out a meal they’re excited about and they know the plans. So that has been one of the top pieces of the whole communication board. But then also just knowing what we are doing, and who’s doing what when.
Chelsi Jo: Yeah it’s so amazing. There are so many super cool things in there that I hope everyone is very excited about. So essentially, the menu board meal planning system that is on the podcast is basically what you have here. It’s just really cool and I do intend to put all of mine together like you have in one spot. When I first created this home management system, there just wasn’t enough space for me to have it all on one wall. So somebody gave me a board and I made into this meal planning thing. Now I’m like, oh it would be cool for it to all be in this one space!
I think the biggest benefit of having a communication board is to be able to get your family involved. The problem for most people is that step one is missing. The reason why the family can’t get involved is because you don’t really know what it is you’re trying to communicate to them. So once you know what you’re trying to communicate to them, THEN you can have the communication board. Which for me, is the number one selling point.
If I was to really try to sell someone my program… which I’m not a salesperson by nature… but it’s like, if you have this problem – I have a solution. Here’s why you shouldn’t be afraid to invest in it. But if I was going to sell it to you, I would be like, look do you have a plan? No? Well let’s create your plan then let me show you how to communicate that plan to your family.
Incorporating Daily Routines On A Communication Board
Chelsi Jo: I know one of the things you do have on here are your daily routines from the workbook. You have Dad, Mom, and your two kids. Then you have it broken down like you would have done it through the workbook. So you went through, you learned how to do it, you put the thought process behind it, and now you get to repeat it in this open space every week. Super stinking cool.
I’m foundationally going to make this a thing that I think students should do. Because not only did you learn your daily routines once you went through the curriculum. And now you know it, but you get to rewrite it and repeat it even outside of the workbook every single week. And sometimes they stay the same, but when the seasons change you can go and change it. Let’s talk about the daily routines section. What has that been like for your kids?
Tiffany: I love the daily routine because since they’re twins, everything has to be fair and equal in their minds. We have on there whose turn it is to feed and water the dogs or take care of the chickens. So those things are broken up for them which is really helpful to keep things fair, and it never changes. It’s there all the time.
And then another piece of that routine I put in there, is if there’s a new routine we’re working on or a routine that we’re refining. I’ll even break it out because I left a bunch of white space since this is my rough draft. I left a bunch of white space so I can go ahead and put the new routine in there. So for our homeschool routine that we just started, I’ve got that on the side. So I can put homeschool in there, and pull that specific part out so they know what they need to complete.
Family Communication Board: How To Include Your Husband
Tiffany: For my morning routine, sometimes I forget as well, so having this board up in the center of our home helps me to know exactly what I need to do so I can stay on track and be successful. To see what I’m doing and to see what the kids are doing is so helpful. The only person I don’t have super into the routine is Dad, and that’s because he has his own routine that’s been the same for 15 years so we all know it. He has things that he’s involved in though, so we have him on there.
Chelsi Jo: That’s also cool that he’s able to swing by and incidentally pick up on information. Some dads are involved in very different ways. My husband is very involved when he’s not at the fire department. When he’s at the fire department, he’s 100% removed and he’s not even here. So things like this are very helpful for him when he wants to be part of what we’re doing. But it’s not necessarily ever his responsibility just because he’s at the fire station sometimes and he’s not always at home. But when he is home he wants to be involved. This can be so helpful for families like ours where our husbands can pop in and be involved when they can. But then other times they have major responsibilities that take them away from the house.
Tiffany: Exactly. Since we started homeschooling this year and I work remotely from home, I can typically be here. But sometimes I have meetings and I can’t be at home while they’re doing their homeschooling. But in those times, my husband or my grandmother is there with them. And they know what the homeschool routine is because it’s right there. So anyone can step in and help them do that. Like you said, it’s there and ready and can be picked up anytime by anyone to get the tasks done.
For more on daily routines, make sure to read: Get A Glimpse Into My Daily Routines!
How Tiffany Built Her Killer Communication Board
Chelsi Jo: As things change over time, you can make adjustments as you need to, but the system essentially stays the same. One of the coolest parts is your Monday through Sunday that looks just like it would in a paper planner. So you can even jot down the time blocks for the day, and for the kids to see your fundamental needs. Your to-do list is even on here! It’s essentially my home management system all in one spot right there. It’s really exciting that your zones are here, too. I also love that you put a collage of pictures and words at the bottom that are inspirational to your family.
There’s so much potential with this for people that like to be creative or even people that don’t! Can you talk about the actual process? Like what did you do? you just sent it out to be printed very large and then put it in a picture frame?
Designed In Canva, Printed At Walmart
Tiffany: Yeah, so like I mentioned before, I love design. So I opened up Canva, took screenshots of all of the workbook pages, and plugged them in where it made sense. I changed the sizes and I think I even put a few things in there to utilize differently than the actual workbook. But it made sense to have it all right there in one spot where I can see the whole thing. So I manipulated it around in Canva and then I printed it at Walmart! It was maybe 20 bucks to print the whole paper and I purchased a 20X30 cheap frame for it. I did tape it so it doesn’t slide around, then I put the pictures in there.
I use wet erase markers when I make my plans each Saturday, and I try to have it all completely laid out by Sunday at the latest. Then we just erase each day! I don’t erase everything, which is helpful as well. A lot of those things stay the same so I don’t have to erase everything. But for the meal plan, my whole routine for making the meal plan is on there. I know I have to write what the meals are going to be, figure out what the ingredients are going to be, and then I have to order the food. So there we go! That’s all on there so I know exactly how to make sure we’re not eating microwave dinners again this week. It’s definitely been a huge help.
Personalization Is Key
Being able to personalize it was key. I wanted it to be something fun! I LOVE our family. We’re super connected and focused on family. We have my mother-in-law, my mother and my grandmother all super involved in our family, so having everything up there is super helpful. One thing I really like is that I have every family member color coordinated. I actually circled each name with a certain color of our wet erase markers. Then down on the plan, my stuff is one color so they can see what time I have meetings or when I’m doing specific types of work. The kids can see when they have gymnastics or soccer. They can also see when dad’s working, when we have date night or a family night, and it’s all color coded so they know what specifically applies to them and what applies to me!
Chelsi Jo: I love it so much more than just your standard calendar and plugging in appointments, because that’s typically what you see and where things start. And it’s evolved for you, so it’s just wonderful and beautiful. It’s the whole entire Systemize Your Life ecosystem and it’s a brilliant idea. I’m so grateful that you trusted me and what I’m teaching in my community, and you just took it and ran with it. You poured your heart into this thing. What a blessing you have been to our entire community, let alone your family. And now you’re going to bless thousands of people that are listening to the podcast or reading the blog, who get to hear about this.
“I needed something that was going to be solid… to carry me through and actually set me up for success.” – Tiffany Chacon
Tiffany: You know Chelsi, it really started by blessing ME. When I jumped into your group, you were doing the last rendition of Systemize Your Life and Systemize Your Biz for one. I had just gone through a winter season of extreme depression that was really difficult for me and I was like, “I need to climb out of this.” I go through this every single winter and it gets worse and worse. So come springtime I was starting to get some motivation. I needed something that was going to be solid… to carry me through and actually set me up for success. So I’m not repeating this cycle over and over again where I get completely overwhelmed and I don’t know what to do.
So like you said, I had to take that step. I had to take the action to actually do it. That meant I had to stop trying to make something look pretty, go ahead and just print the worksheets, get them up there, and try it. And recognize it’s a rough draft. If I love it and figure out how to make it look pretty and purchase that acrylic board – wonderful! But right now, this is going to do.
You Officially Have Permission To Just Do The Thing
Chelsi Jo: It gave me so much permission to purchase my acrylic board and just smack things on the back of it! And I can move it around if I need to now. I’ve been delaying purchasing it, honestly. We’ve been in our new house for more than a year and we still don’t have a communication board. We’ve just been using whiteboards on our fridge! But the formal ecosystem of my home management system has not been formulated yet. And I was like, THIS IS IT.
So many people are going to hear you talk about the little switch you had and it’s going to help them so much. Permission granted to go do the thing messy even though they’re unsure, and just go all in. So absolutely amazing.
Thank you, Tiffany, for being such a bright light in our community and such a blessing to your family.
Ready To Customize Your Own Communication Board?
If you love Tiffany’s idea and want to customize and build your own version, she has been so generous to share her Canva template with us HERE! Just make a copy and you’ll be able to make edits in order to fit YOUR family and all the many things you juggle in your life.
I also want you to consider snagging my home management system, and becoming part of our Systemize Your Life family. We’d love have you join us!
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Check out these other blogs: Paper Planner Vs Digital Tools: Which Is Best for Your Time Management? and How to Reduce Stress as a Busy Mom by Using a Paper Planner
