How to Organize Your Life and Set Goals
Feb 13, 2026Summary
Do you feel like your life is a constant battle against a messy house, a loud schedule, and a list of goals you’ve already failed twice this month? We are often told the key to success is just "trying harder." But for Christian women, the secret isn't more willpower—it’s better systems. In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson joins Sandy Falter and Amy Johnson to answer the question: How to organize your life and set goals without spiraling into the "shame vortex."
We explore the "Divine Order of Organization," moving from chaotic busyness to purposeful stewardship. Sandy shares how she uses Atomic Habits and habit stacking (like making her bed to trigger prayer) to set up an environment where success is inevitable. Amy reveals how she transformed her family’s spiritual life by starting with a simple dinner routine, and Tamara introduces the life-changing "Not-To-Do List" hack that creates room for your actual mission. If you are ready to shun the shame of broken routines and embrace intentional rest as a productivity strategy, this episode is your roadmap.
Episode Takeaways
- Systems > Willpower: Success isn't about trying harder; it's about setting up your environment. Sandy shares how putting her gym bag on the front seat and stacking prayer with making her bed removes the need for willpower.
- Shun the Shame Vortex: When you fall out of a routine, the adversary uses shame to stop your progress. We must learn to distinguish between God's loving correction (which invites change) and Satan's shame (which causes paralysis).
- The "Not-To-Do" List: You cannot add new goals without pruning old ones. Tamara explains how to audit your life to Delegate, Automate, Eliminate, or Keep tasks—creating the space needed for God’s "great" assignments.
- Rest is Productive: Busyness does not equal worth. Even Jesus took naps and the Creator rested on the Sabbath. Intentional rest is an act of faith, trusting God to manage the world while you sleep.
Free Resource
Are you ready to prune your schedule and stop the shame spiral? Download our FREE Guide to Goal Setting. It features the exact "Not-To-Do List" template and the "Cast Out the Adversary" protocol mentioned in this episode. 👉 Download the Guide Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/WyaLn2gS/checkout
Reflection Questions
- Look at your bedroom or car. How could you change your environment to make your spiritual or physical goals easier (e.g., placing scriptures on the dinner table)?
- When you miss a goal, do you feel a gentle nudge to try again (God) or a heavy wave of "I'm a failure" (Shame Vortex)? How can you shun the shame today?
- What is one "good" thing you are currently doing that might need to go on your Not-To-Do List to make room for the "great"?
- Do you view rest as "lazy" or as "trusting God"? How can you practice intentional rest this week?
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:00.720 - 00:01:44.060
Do you feel like your life is a constant battle against a messy house, a loud schedule, and a list of goals that you've already failed out twice in just this month? We often are told that the key to success is just trying harder. But for Christian women, the secret isn't more willpower, it's better systems.
Today we're answering the question how to organize your life and set goals. By the end of today's episode, you will understand how to habit stack your spiritual life and solve the pain of the shame vortex.
By learning to discern between God's correction and the adversary's discouragement, we're moving from chaotic busyness to purposeful stewardship. Stay tuned. Ordinary women Extraordinary Faith When God calls, we say yes.
The Arise Women of God Podcast hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God Podcast. I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me today are Sandy Falter and Amy Johnson of our Women warriors of Light Advisory Board.
Today we're looking at the Divine Order of Organization. First, we're going to talk about atomic systems, how to set up your environment so you can't help but succeed.
Second, we'll discuss how to shun shame when you get bucked off your routine. Third, I'll share the not to do list hack that opens up room for your actual mission.
And finally, we'll look at why intentional rest is the most productive thing you can do. But first, we're going to kick it off by talking about systems and habit stacking. Sandy has a few thoughts she wants to share on this.
Sandy Falter
00:01:44.380 - 00:03:25.100
Okay, well, I have done the whole set a million goals and fail not being able to do them or having a good goal but just struggling. And so some, some hacks really, that I have learned from great people out there.
One of my favorite books for goal setting and really being successful is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I love that book because he teaches us systems. So if I want to have a habit of going to the gym, I put my workout clothes right next to my bed.
I get up, get ready, and I'm set up for success. I leave my house four mornings a week. I have a gym bag and my water bottle on the seat of my car. So when I get up, it's there.
So doing things to help you be successful is a big part of it because we're human and we get busy and we forget and if it's a new habit, it's hard. The other thing that I started doing this is a sad, sad admission here, but I used to struggle with my morning Prayers.
I'd get up early and be getting my kids out the door. And then this would happen, and this would happen. And then it'd be noon and be like, oh, forgot to pray. And I would feel so bad about it.
So now what do I do every day? I make my bed. I make my bed every day. It's just something I do. And so now if I get up and I'm busy, I don't make my bed.
And so when I have time, when there's quiet, I go into my room, I make my bed and I kneel at my bed. And so I habit stack. I have a little study journal next to my. In my bathroom next to the toilet. Right.
I'll read just a quick verse. So what is something you already do that you can stack? I. I believe systems can help us be successful because it's hard.
We have life and distractions. So that's what has worked for me.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:03:25.420 - 00:03:48.700
I love that Sandy focused on systems versus just trying harder. It's about making the right choice, the easiest choice. Right.
But what happens when your house is full of kids are perhaps full of craziness and chaos? Well, Amy has found a way to use the most basic daily routine, dinner, to create a spiritual breakthrough for her family.
Amy Johnson
00:03:49.340 - 00:05:15.660
When my life was really chaotic and I had five kids that were all in elementary school one year I was trying to find time to read scriptures and pray with them and do the things that my mom had done that helped me be. Be spiritually close to the Savior and successful in my life.
And so I was praying and felt the Lord say, why don't you focus on eating dinner together first? And so we, I knew we were going to eat, so I was just more intentional about sitting and eating.
And then after I did that for three weeks, then the Lord said, well, you know, you're going to eat now, so why don't you put their scriptures on their each of their chairs? And then as the scriptures came up onto the table so they could sit down on, I was like, oh yeah, leave those there.
We're going to read right after dinner. I do believe in systems. They are so vitally important to us.
But I also believe that when we fail our systems on any given day, we have to have the strength to shun shame, because shame will take you down a vortex that is never ending.
And so for me, I have had to find the difference between the Lord's loving chastisement and my personal shame and hold on to the Lord's empowering chastisement. And shun shame
Tamara K. Anderson
00:05:15.660 - 00:09:48.890
Shunning that shame Vortex is the secret weapon of a warrior. If the adversary can make you feel like a failure, he can stop your progress completely.
But sometimes we simply fail. Because our life is so overcrowded, we try to add new goals without pruning the old goals.
That, my friends, is why every woman needs a not to do list. Another thing that I think sets me up for success is making sure that I have enough room for a new goal in my life.
And that is where we have a great hack on the Women warriors of Light website. Also in that a guide to goal setting download. It's called the not to do list.
And so many times as women, we have so many things that we're doing that it's just chaotic. And we feel like, I need to set goals because I want to be a successful person, but where am I gonna fit it in?
And what I love about this is it has you list out the things you're doing, and then you decide prayerfully, what things should I keep? What things can I delegate? What things can I automate? What things should I get rid of? Or what things can I change?
And that has been such a powerful tool in my life, because often through that prayerful process, I'll realize, tamara, guess what? You don't need to be doing this anymore. And sometimes it's something I really am sad about.
Like, at one point, I was doing a little radio show with two of my friends, and when I prayed about it, God's like, you don't have time for that. And I cried. I was like, I really enjoy this. And he's like, it's not where your time and energy needs to be. But guess what?
By eliminating that, I suddenly opened up all this time for me to focus on things. So setting yourself up for success. If life gets too busy, I always go and fill out that not to do list first.
Because I'm like, something is off and something needs to go for me to be successful. When you stop doing the good things that are good but not yours to do, you finally have room for the great things that God has for you.
But part of that room in our schedule needs to be reserved for stillness. We often think that busyness equals our worth as women. But even Jesus took time to nap and eat. Eat.
I feel like we need to talk super quickly about the importance of rest. This is one of those principles that I have really started to embrace more wholeheartedly. And I think we as women feel like rest is taboo.
Like, if we're not actively working and doing, then we don't have worth, that we don't have value.
And I think that that concept of never giving ourselves a break is also another one of the adversary's tactics, because he knows if we burn ourselves out. How do you feel when you feel exhausted? You feel overwhelmed? I can't do it. I. I'm not enough. There's too much. You just feel down, down, down, down.
And so when you're already feeling down, of course Satan's gonna kick you while you're down. Do you know what I mean?
And so if he can convince us never to take a break and never to rest, then he is one, because he knows we're going to spiral at some point. And so whatever your goals, remember to organize time for rest. And that's going to look differently every week.
For me, one of my days of rest is the Sabbath, and there are beautiful promises associated with the Sabbath. And so as we keep the Sabbath and don't work on perhaps any of those other goals, it's nice to have a day off.
For me, it's like my breath of fresh air. I do not do any of my podcasting work, and yes, I know it's. It's gospel related, but I just can't.
Sunday is my day off, and I don't want to do it on Sunday. I'm sorry. It's time for God. It's time for my family. And guess what? I always start the week much more energized because I had a day off.
Resting is an act of faith. It's saying, God, I trust you to manage the world while I sleep or while I rest.
As we wrap it up today, I want to leave you with the most important part of organizing, knowing that your worth is not at the bottom of your to do list. Amy and Sandy have some beautiful thoughts to share about this.
Amy Johnson
00:09:49.290 - 00:10:24.020
I think what we need to remember is that we are enough and that we make these faith goals so that we can feel the love of the Lord, not so that we can earn his worth, but so that we can feel how loved we truly are by Him.
And I think that for me, that's the thing, that if I keep that at the forefront of my brain as my why I don't derail myself by becoming too busy and too frenetic and in building my own personal Tower of Babel to get to heaven.
Sandy Falter
00:10:24.260 - 00:11:02.830
I love that because we learn all throughout Scripture that God has created us, that we are his, that we were fearfully and wonderfully made. How wonderful is that to know who we are, that we're His. We have divinity. That's enough. There's nothing we can do to separate us from his love.
Nothing. Doing all these goals doesn't make us better or make him love us more. His love is unconditional, right? We can please him with our actions, sure.
But we need to be careful that we're not earning. We are never earning his love. We are loved. We are His. That doesn't change.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:11:03.470 - 00:11:52.610
Organization is not about being perfect, it's about being prepared. Whether you're habit stacking your prayers or pruning your not to do list, you are becoming a better steward of the life God gave you.
If you're ready to build your own emergency kit for those days when the Shame vortex hits, go download our free A Guide to Goal Setting for Christian Women. It features the exact not to do list I shared in this episode and the Cast out the Adversary protocol that will change your life for good.
We'll drop the link for it in the show notes below as we wrap it up today, ladies, I hope you can find a moment of quiet where God can guide you on how to best start to organize your life and set goals until next time. May you arise. Do it God's way. God Strong.
