day 221: organization—personal organizational strategies: prioritize your work day iii of iv

Yesterday I described my “daily” and “weekly” lists that I have utilized to get things done throughout my parenting years. Today I want to give some examples of these lists, for those asking exactly what a daily or weekly list looks like.


Remember, your “dailies” and “weeklies” will not be the same as anybody else’s! My lists of what I do each day, each week, and even each month are based on my priorities—the things that I have predetermined are those activities that I want to spend my life on. They are not made haphazardly based on the “tyranny of the urgent” (usually not—we all sink into that, of course). They are based on what I know I should be about each day.


For example, when I had a few small children, without a lot of daily help (since the kids were too young to do many chores, my “daily” list (for weekdays) consisted of the following “categories” (too much to list each task here!). Under each item there were usually sub steps or multiple items (i.e. Meet with Kayla for writing; Meet with Kara for reading; etc.).






School—


-Check on each child’s school checklist


-Fill in lesson plan book


-“Tutoring sessions” with each child in various areas (i.e. language arts; math; etc.)


-Two reading sessions per day with new reader


-History read aloud


-Activities with preschoolers






Kids General—


-Morning Bible/character training


-Story time


-One on one time with one child


-Littles’ one on one time


-Feed baby many times!


-Myriad of activities/needs of little kids! (not on the list, but time consuming nonetheless!)






Household—


-Chore chart check ups


-Maintain daily schedule with kids (i.e. keep kids on task with our daily schedule)


-Fix breakfast


-Clean breakfast with kids


-Baking


-Oversee Joshua and/or Kayla’s lunch preparations


-Oversee lunch clean up


-Two loads dishes


-Two loads laundry


-Two loads trash


-Morning chore session with kids


-Lunch chore session with kids


-Evening chore session with kids


-Too much pick up/mess cleaning to write on a list!


-Seasonal—things changed with each physical season as we always had a lot of acreage to mow and tend to, and I took care of the outside since Ray worked so many hours at the plant)










Personal—


-Devotions


-Reading


-Grooming/hair, etc.


-Exercise


-My lunch break (very important to me—thirty to sixty mins when I ate and read homeschooling/parenting books with nobody needing anything!!!)






Evening—


-Family dinner


-Family dinner clean up


-Family devotions


-Husband-wife meeting


-Time alone with one or more kids


-Reading with Ray


-Reading alone


-Time with Ray!






Weekly List


-Library trip


-Grocery shopping


-Banking


-Call parents


-Lesson plans for next week


-Add to/change/print/copy kids’ chore lists


-Add to/change/print/copy kids’ daily school lists


-Organize school room


-Weekly cleaning (lengthy list)


-Find/organize/return library materials


-Organize toy room with kids


-Tutoring lessons ready (lengthy)


-Prepare for company (lengthy)


-Seasonal weekly jobs, such as mowing, trimming, gardening, etc.






Tomorrow—final day of “dailies and weeklies” and then on to more organizing strategies for busy parents. Thanks for joining us!