the annie blog

I demand an awful lot of myself. And, I’m ok with that. Things are ever-evolving for me. What works for me, may not work for you. And, just as I find something that works for me, things change, and I need to adapt my lists.

Right now. In this season. Today, I find that there are three things that are keeping me organized. In no particular fashion:

• I use this list from Darlene at Time-Warp Wife. Every week. I like putting down things and crossing them off. It totally works for me.  It allows me to see what I don’t do.  I am very forgiving about this – I don’t beat myself up if I don’t get to something. I know that other things take precedence sometimes.
• I adore my life planner from erin condren. It’s like a min-journal and calendar all in one. I am drawn to the colors. I like seeing things pop-out on the page with the stickers they include. It has been a life-saver!
• I have my own house-keeping schedule I use. It’s nothing fancy – I just know that on Thursdays I dust, Tuesdays I clean the bathrooms, etc.  I don’t really think about it. I have done this for years and have adapted my cleaning schedule based on my life. I also have tweaked it during the summer months. I mean, I ‘m home all the time then, so it needs to be changed for those few months.

This stuff works. For me. I am continually reading blogs and advice columns about staying organized. And, that’s all great and everything, but the important thing is to find what works for YOU. See, THIS works for me. It probably won’t work for anyone else.  So, look around and see what will help you. It will take some trial and error. And, it will also mean, that you will need to adapt as you change from season to season.  What worked for me in high school does NOT work for me now. But, that doesn’t mean my organization or life-planning skills were horrible in high school. It just means that things have changed, and we must turn, turn, turn.  Ok, so now I’m singing.

Most importantly for me, I do not live and die by the schedule I make for myself. I allow myself much forgiveness. I know there are surprises that pop-up. I allow myself to work ahead on things, or even let them stack up on another day.  I am not TIED to my schedule. I think we can fall into nasty habits by allowing our lives to be dictated by schedules with no room for wiggles.

I think within the next few posts I’m going to blog about a few of the things on my lists.  Hopefully sharing some advice and motivation with you.

Filed under: cleaning things, motivating things, organizing things |