***
In the days when I was a paid employee I was highly organised at work. It was a skill that I was proud of, I knew I was good at it and it helped me get prompted. However those skills always seemed to remain at work, at home I was the opposite it was almost as if I had used up all my organising capacity at work and there was none left for home. I would forget people's birthdays, pay bills late, shop on a different day each week, run out of food constantly and so on, it didn't matter what tools I used to try to remember they didn't really work for long if at all. When I stopped working I thought that I might become more organised at home and slowly over the years I have become so, until recently when I realised that I am almost, if not, at the level of organisation I had at work.
I have tried many tools including a wall calendar, my phone, pieces of paper and a diary on my computer for lots of different reasons none of these worked so for this year have gone back to a paper diary and am loving it. I have written all the birthdays, reminders to renew insurance and dates for annual payments in it. Each double page has a week to view on one page and a lined notebook on the other, I use this to record things going on that we might want to do such as plays, events, festivals, guided nature walks and the like when I find out about them, what I need to be doing in my garden as I am following the biodynamic method this year and possible trips away for camping, visiting family or holidays.
At the beginning of each week I start planning the next one, when I have an outline plan of what we are going to do, I then start to plan my meals based around the contents of a veg box I have delivered and what we are going to be doing in that week. All my food shopping is based on a meal plan for seven days of lunches and evening meals, I don't decide which meal for which day but I do have some really quick to make meals in case we are late home any evenings.
Writing all this down makes me realise how highly organised I sound which I am but it has also meant that I am actually much more efficient. I am managing to fit in gardening on at least three or four occasions in most weeks. I have more time for sewing, knitting and reading all of which I really enjoy. But most important of all I have more time to do things with the children, be it reading to them, making things together or just talking.
By looking ahead and thinking about future weeks I hope that, weather permitting, we are able to have more camping trips this year as I have planned them in my diary and talked to friends or family who want to join us this is something I have talked about doing for the last couple of years but could only fit the odd hastily put together trips as I left it until the last minute.
Having all my plans together in one small book which I can fit in my bag has been the making of my organising and freeing up time a side effect I did not expect!
***
Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating stress relieving actions into their daily day lives. We hope you will join us next month!
- Keeping Stress at Bay From Day to Day - Laura at Authentic Parenting sums up some of the things she does to avoid being overwhelmed.
- How I Stay Sane! - ANonyMous @ Radical Ramblings discusses the coping mechanisms she has to stay sane when her life is chaotic and often stressful.
- Organising - sustainablemum talks about how spending time planning ahead has given her more time for life!
- Simple Menu Planning for New Moms - No longer a lady of leisure, new mom Mercedes at Project Procrastinot has had to rethink her cooking style in order to maximize her time in the kitchen.
- Happy Homes/Peaceful Homes - According to Lisa at Squishable Baby, It's the things that bring us closer together as a family - that keep our home Peaceful.
- Keeping It Simple - At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy focuses on keeping things simple so that she can spend her time enjoying her family.
0 Yorumlar