Day One--An Organized Schedule

Scheduling is one of those really important things to me. I owned my first Franklin Day Planner when I was a Freshman in High School and continued using one until I graduated from college. One of my favorite things about being on a mission was Sunday afternoons when I would painstakingly fill in all the little lines on my blue planner using a VERY sharp pencil. Now that I'm a mom and a housewife, I find that my schedule isn't as rigid as it once was--it's more of a long, long, VERY looooong list of daily, weekly, and monthly "To Do's." I can clean my bathroom this morning, this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, or even not at all. There's no one to report to but myself. The problem is, I've found, often if I've missed the proposed window of doing something, it becomes easier and easier to procrastinate doing it. Thus, scheduling is still crucial to getting things done.

Other than specific appointments that have to be done during a certain time, such as hair appointments, classes, meeting someone for lunch, I've found that my other responsibilities lie in the following categories:

• Home Office (Paying bills, organizing papers, phone calls, emails, budgeting, etc.)
• Cleaning (daily, weekly, & monthly tasks to keeping the house tidy and livable)
• Laundry (perhaps my downfall--can't seem to get a handle on its endlessness)
• Shopping (I've found it's best if I can do it all in one big stretch during the week.)
• Exercise (This is a must for me and so I schedule it in religiously!)
• Showering (It's really sad that I have to schedule this in somewhere, but if I don't, it really doesn't get done...)

Perhaps this is too much of a confession of my total lack of self-discipline, but if I don't have it written down, it often doesn't get done. Therefore, I have come up with the following workable schedule for myself for the next month. I imagine I will need to tweak a few things, but I have based a lot on trial and error from the past year and I think I have come up with what will work for me.

7:00--Wake Up, Breakfast, Morning Routine

8:30--Davis off to school, Morning Clean-up

9:30--Eden off to Preschool (Tues/Thurs)

10:00/11:00--Exercise at Y & shower

(10:00--Library day)

12:00--LUNCH

1:00--Naptime/Quiet Time for Eden (shower for me if needed)

1-3:30--My Projects--a chance to check off some "To Do's" and work on being Organized! :)

3:30--Clean-up, begin dinner preparations

4:00--Davis home, after school snack

5:30--Pre-dinner clean-up

6:00--DINNER

7:00--Bath and Books

8:00--BED

Weekly To-Do's:

Monday--Office Day (pay bills and catch-up on paperwork; straighten office)

Wednesday--Library Day

Thursday--Shopping Day

Friday--Cleaning Day (do my chores and laundry)

Saturday--Cleaning Day (help kids with their chores and laundry)

Now perhaps this is laughable for some. Perhaps it's completely obvious to others. But for some reason, I can't seem to get it together. I try for a while, give-up, and go back to gliding along, content in my ignorance, but not really happy. It's bliss I'm after here, not mediocrity. Is it my season? Give me a month...we shall see...