Organization - Day 2 - Establishing Weekly Plans

You made it past day one of your new year!  The year you are going to get your stuff  together!! Whoop Whoop! You're on a roll now!

Yesterday in this post, we talked about making a list of tasks you hope to do daily. Today, we are going to get a little more specific.  You see, you know your schedule better than anyone else which is why just any home management or personal organizer won't work.  You need to customize one JUST FOR YOU!  

Don't let that idea scare you.  I can assure you that it is simple and easy!  Stay with me.... I promise it all makes sense... just stick with it one day at a time!  And yeah, I totally just had this image of a round haired Cristy Lane and that annoying infomercial pop in my head... and people wonder why I don't watch television!  Ya know, I bet Olan Mills took this picture too.  They always liked the "hand by the chin" pose with the head tilt.  Although, at second glance, she could give Glamour Shots a go with that hair and make up.  But, she doesn't have on enough bling for it to be a true Glamour Shot, however.

But I digress.  Let's get back on topic!

So, because of yesterday, you have already made your list of things that you hope to get accomplished every single day.  This is your DAILY list.  Sometimes referred to as your "daily docket"  "daily agenda"  

To briefly review, you could have something like -- 30 minutes of exercise, 8 glasses of water, vitamins, 1 load of laundry, lay out your clothes for tomorrow, wipe down the sink, daily devotional, reload the dishwasher, read 30 minutes, etc.  Those are all great daily goals to have on your list.

One thing I will say is to make certain that you are making time on your list for YOU specifically.... if your goals this year are to read more, be sure that you're setting yourself up to accomplish that goal.  WIthout action, there are only ideas.  It's time to make what you want happen.. happen!  It can be done!  Write it on the list... do it now!

For me, the idea of breaking down my week into specific days HELPS because it develops routine.  Routines become habit.  When you do things out of routine, it's easy to just put your brain on autopilot and do what needs to get done because you've already established the parameters for getting it done.  This helps SO MUCH for someone like me with an autoimmune disease because on the days when I really can't get anything done, I am not only aware what I'm missing, but also, and more importantly, I know what I need to delegate. 

Creating a routine can be hard, especially if you're kind of a free spirit fly by the seat of your pants kinda person.  However, for ME, I have to have routine because I have three boys in three very different stages of life (a high school freshman, a 4th grader and a preschooler).  Without having a plan in place, I get nothing I want to do done and my life becomes a series of shuttling children between sporting events and social obligations.  That in and of itself requires the flexibility on my part to make it happen... especially if anyone wants to eat dinner before 11pm.  However, I can do this thing called "super mom" because of having developed routines.  Having an idea of what I have going on helps me to establish those daily goals.  It also helps me TEACH my CHILDREN the importance of routine.  I hate, loathe, abhor, detest nagging.  So, if they know every Tuesday they need to do their laundry or every Sunday they can expect to wash their own sheets and remake their beds, it's more likely to get done.  Perhaps with just a gentle reminder, but certainly not a nag.  We all know when you nag... they all look like this. Can I get an amen?

Your motivation to be organized will help cultivate your routine into a habit which makes you happy and creates calm in your universe.  Isn't that an awesome thing to look forward to?  I'm going to teach you to take the stress out of your life... one little day at a time. Seriously, this is huge.  Hop on board.

Again, I digress (do you see why I need routine?  I digress... A LOT!)

So, while some people may have time on Mondays to do the bulk of all household chores and duties, I do not and can not devote much time because frankly, Mondays suck.  

While some people may want to meal plan on Wednesday nights after they get their supermarket flyers in the mail that day, others may choose a weekend to do that.  The beauty of setting up your system is that it is completely personalized to you.  This is paramount to putting these things on YOUR schedule for YOU!  MAKE THIS WORK FOR YOU!

By actually having a routine and a plan, you have afforded yourself the flexibility of being able to be more spontaneous!  Why?  Because now you know when the things that need to get done WILL be done!

So, what system SHOULD you use?  

To be honest, you're the only one that can answer that for you.  There are SO many out there in the blogosphere that it will make your head spin. 

Seriously, if you check out Pinterest your head may explode with all the personal homekeeping binder systems and personal organizer systems that are available.  There are thousands of them.  Some are free.  Some cost... a LOT.  Many you can buy from Etsy.com sites but then you have to download them and worse... you have to print them. Do you know how much it costs to print a color copy?  I do.  It's about a $1... per PAGE! I don't many people that have color laser printers at home that duplex either.  So, while they're really PRETTY, they're really just not practical.  Inkjet... if you get a drop of water on it... there it goes!  I'll make a confession here.  I love pretty personalized planners that are FULL of color and design and coordinated stickers and I can use 15 different colored pens to fill them in.... but at the end of the day, if they aren't meeting all my needs, they're actually deterring my progress rather than being an avenue leading toward it.  So, until I find something out there that does everything that mine will... I'm just going to keep printing mine out, binding it myself and knowing it's perfect -- just -- for -- me!  And you can too!

So, for now, my plan for you is to help you keep it simple.  Get down to basics and then you can pretty it up!  Let your planning/organization style emerge and then, and only then, will you have the tools to be able to tweak another system and truly make it yours.  In order to avoid all the high prices, here is a printable to help you list what you need to get completed on each day of the week.  Click here.  There is room at the bottom just in case you think of something that MAY need to happen but you're not sure when... at least it's in the right spot, just maybe not assigned a day....but being there on that list is 9/10 of the hard work accomplished!

While I have my list of DAILY tasks, I also have a list of tasks specific to any given DAY. For instance, I have some of the following "to do's" on specific days in my week 

Sunday

• Sheets (I always wash or have my boys wash their sheets on Sunday)
• Plan Menus (Yes, I grab the sales flyers, my cook books, sit at my computer and use the online software Plan-To-Eat (there's a link to the right). to drag my recipes to a calendar, the software populates the shopping list and bam, you're out the door.  It's the biggest time saver in meal planning.  Simply amazing.)

Monday

• Mop the kitchen and bath, clean mirrors, and dust.

Tuesday

• Free day
• I will focus in one specific area for whatever challenge group I signed up for
• Spend 15 minutes in my current zone (home is broken down into zones for ease in distributing them throughout the year)  more on that later
• Scrapbook (again, the importance of scheduling your personal interests and hobbies into your day)
• Clean out the refrigerator (notice it's the day before grocery day... just makes sense)

Wednesday

• Grocery Day (kids are typically in school on a Wednesday, take the little one and head straight for the store.  I hit Starbucks on the way and I do believe I could summon my inner Julie Andrews and belt out The HIIIIIIiiiiiillll are alllllllllllllllllliiiiive with the sound of muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuusiccccccc just for having been to the store sans children.  It's a spiritual thing.)
• Zone Clean 
• Write thank you notes, letters or any correspondence that needs to go out

Thursday

• Errand Day
• Post Office
• Library
• Buy gifts/cards
• Vacuum
• Spend 15 minutes in the current zone

Friday -  Family Fun Day

• GCSML Meetings (1^st)
• Clean out purse
• Clean out car
• Photography Friday
• Sync calendars

Saturday -  Date Night 


This is my typical week.  Does everything always happen on the exact day I'd planned?  Nope.  But, it's easier to work ahead or move things out if there is a plan in place that I know about.  

Some of these terms such as "zones" are used by the Flylady system.  While I do love and appreciate the extensive detail, I did found this method a little too time consuming, cumbersome and WAAAAY too many e-mails, testimonials and sales pitches for the cleaning products.  I don't want post-it notes all over the place and I don't really need or want a daily routine that tells me to get dressed and make my bed.  I do, however, suggest you take a peek because there may be some information to garner from her site.  It's free.  Some people may need and desire that much detail... but for me, notsomuch.  This was one of those where she put hers out there and said to personalize it to your needs but the continual influx of information was still based on what she had set up so it was all just a big cluster @#$@# and made me all splody headed!  I do, however, still use the idea of her ZONES for my cleaning habits.

Another one that others may be interested in is called Unfuck Your Habitat.  Yeah, the name is a tad harsh but so are the hoarding piles and dustbunnies in some people's lives. Expletives scare me not, so, if you can get past the title, check out the page.

Other items that you may want to include on your specific weekly lists:

• Change/wash all bathroom hand towels
• Sort through 10 bookmarks or digital files on your computer to cull, delete or organize.  Clutter is EVERYWHERE!  Digital or otherwise.
• Restock your car with supplies.
• Cull magazines
• Clean bathroom mirrors
• Mop a specific room
• Dust (you can go a bit further and specify certain rooms on certain days)
• Family game night.
• Grocery store
• Clean toilets, sinks and tubs
• Meal plan
• Vacuum
• Errands
• Work on your home inventory with photos, documentation and back-up video for insurance purposes.
• Personal filing
• Calendar / schedule check

So, your task now is to go through what you KNOW your schedule to be and write down those specific items that you know need to be done on specific days.  

Ready.  Set.  Go!  I would love to know what you've added to your lists!