*Sniff* Our first award. This is such a beautiful experience. *Sniff. Sniff*
No, really, it is! Thanks, 5 Minutes for Mom. We think you’re pretty great, too.
Archive for February, 2008
I used to be such a calendar junkie. I would fill up my calendar for the entire day with things I wanted to do. It worked great! For a couple of days. Then I would crash and burn and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the week. Not the way to run your life.
David Allen recommends ONLY putting things on the calendar that actually have a time attached to them. Meetings, parties, classes, and the occasional hot date (!) all fit into this category. Grocery shopping, laundry, and brainstorming do not.
Our family has one wall calendar. We all write our appointments on it so that we know where the scheduling conflicts might be. I’m trying to get them to color-coordinate it, but that is probably a pipe dream.
When you are making your daily plan for the next day, be sure to check your calendar first and write down your commitments. You can then decide what you want to do with the rest of your day with what’s left over.
Questions? Comments? Email me at sarahjoy AT todayshomemaker DOT com or drop me a comment. I’d love to hear how you implement the Getting Things Done system into your life.
And thanks to all of the people who have emailed me so far! I really appreciate all of the great feedback. You guys are so full of ideas and inspiration.
[New to Getting Things Done
In case you haven’t made enough lists this past week, here are some you can add to your binder when you’re ready:
- A list of Next Actions for each project on your Projects List (for example, if my project was “Site Design for MMLC,” I would list each and every task that needed to be completed). This will help you to stay on track.
- A grocery list. Separate it into sections (produce/ meat/ pre-packaged/ bakery/ etc.) and you’ll make your shopping trips a whole lot easier.
- A “Want to Buy” list (otherwise known in my house as the “When Pigs Fly” list). Order it and prioritize each item according to how urgent/desirable it is.
- A list of addresses/phone numbers. You can either make an entire section into an address book or only make a page for the contact information you use the most.
These are just a few ideas. Feel free to chime in with your own.
Speaking of lists, Jennifer emailed me the link to List Plan It the other day (who, by the way, has recently joined the blog community — go say hi!). Have you ever heard of this? It’s a subscription-based service that gives you access to over 250 ready-made lists. It’s awesome1.
Some of the lists that have peaked my fancy are the responsibility lists for your kids, all of the lists that are included in creating your own life binder (she’s got instructions…so cool), the menu planner, the grocery list, the recipe cards…oh my gosh. Something I never knew I needed, but now I do not want to live without.
Thanks for letting me take a peek, Jennifer! I think you’ve definitely got a good thing going. 
GTD day ten: Using your calendar >>
- It truly is! I’m not being paid to write this or anything. [↩]
[New to Getting Things Done
Congratulations if you’ve made it this far! There’s not a whole lot more to it, actually. In the upcoming days, I’ll be giving you some ideas for tweaking your plan, but you’ve got the basics down. Good for you.
Some of you might be thinking Simple? This plan is far from simple! Well, you’re right. The first week requires a lot of thought. It requires you to empty your brain and figure out what you actually need/want to do in your life. Your life is not simple, so it takes some time to go through and examine it in full.
But there’s good news — the rest of it is simple. If you look at your Daily Plan, you’ll notice that at the end there are two things that you have to do every day (well, three if you’re picky): process your inbox/update your lists, and make your daily plan for the next day. We’ve already gone over the daily plan (I like to do things backwards, see). Now for the rest.1
Process your inbox
We haven’t talked much about your inbox yet. Remember when I told you that to get started, you’d need a box and some small pieces of scrap paper? This is your inbox system. Throughout the day, people are going to ask you to do things, you’re going to get ideas, and you’re going to receive papers that need processing. You need to be able to capture all of this stuff as soon as it comes to you.
Much of that can go in your small notebook (which, by the way, will also have your Daily Plan on it.) In a way, that notebook is also an “inbox.” You can write down anything you want in it, to be processed at the end of the day.
But if you’re at your desk or if you run across a piece of mail or a paper that needs to be dealt with, the best thing to do is throw it in your inbox. Those little scrap pieces of paper are great for scribbling something on and tossing in the box.
Update your lists
As you process your inbox, you will need to update your lists. This is pretty self-explanatory. Examine your Project List and see if anything can be crossed off or needs to be added. Look at your Next Action lists and cross off anything that you completed. Add anything that needs to be done.
As long as you keep writing down things as they occur to you, your system will stay intact pretty easily if you schedule some time each day to keep it current. I spend about ten minutes on this every day — it’s really not much.
Alright…gotta go feed the kiddos some lunch. You’d think they had a tapeworm or something. Since I’m done explaining the basics, I’m going to open up this Getting Things Done
GTD day nine: Adding more lists to your binder >>
- I would suggest, however, to schedule a day once a month to look deeper at your plan and see what needs tweaking. [↩]
So last week I launched my first website as owner of S.Joy Studios! Check out Not Just Frosting and go ahead…drool on your keyboard. This woman makes the most fantastic cakes I have ever eaten.
Enjoy it while it lasts, folks. Enjoy it while it lasts…
Update: I think all the crazy stuff is done. For now. Gotta keep it interesting. Hehe…hope you love the fresh new headers!
Okay, so I’m not too good at getting these up on a Friday, am I? :) Here are my top ten finds of the week:
- Good Stock - I’ve always wanted to be a scrapbooker, but I just don’t have the time or inclination to do it. I think these books would be a great alternative — that way, I could get rid of the guilt of not scrapbooking, and I could have such a gorgeous commemoration of my family at the same time.
- Mix-it-up Cocktail Coasters - Could I ever make these? I don’t know, but they sure are adorable, especially as a gift. They remind me of some I saw in Martha Stewart a long time ago but couldn’t find again.
- The Homeschool Lounge - A brand new social networking community just for homeschoolers. This looks like it is going to be an awesome resource.
- Tiny McSmall - Okay, I’ve never said this before (I mean, it seems everyone is saying it these days) but…swoon! I mean SWOONY-swoon! Now that I’ve convinced you of my complete idiocy, you just have to go check out this fabulous shop featuring the cutest stuff for kids that I’ve ever seen. I will never be able to afford any of it, alas, but the inspiration quotient is extremely high.
- Tiny Valentine letters - A great idea for making tiny Valentine letters out of shrinky dinks.
- Chocolate fudge cake with peanut butter - This recipe looks downright scandalous. I love that it uses a box mix as a base. Not having actually tried it yet, I will admit that I don’t think it uses enough peanut butter. But that’s coming from a person who thinks peanut butter can do no wrong. I’m blissfully biased.
- DIY Valentine’s Day dice - Cute templates for making Valentine’s Day dice that you can fill with candy or other fun treats.
- Sew Bettie oven mitt - This is not your typical oven mitt tutorial. I’m surprised that I’m even SAVING a tutorial on how to make an oven mitt. But this one’s a keeper.
- JJB Creations - Jessica makes such cute beautiful “bookmark books” in her etsy store…what a cool concept.
- Paper Source - Paper paper paper paper…oh my gosh, I’m going to have a coronary! This adorable shop has the BEST paper goods and is a great source of inspiration for those of us who are too broke to buy.
Hope everyone’s enjoying their weekend! We’re going to wait until tomorrow to move forward in our Getting Things Done series. For those of you who are following along, this is going to be the week you will look back on and say THAT’S when I finally got my stuff together. Stay tuned!
[New to this series on Getting Things Done
Alright people. Today’s the day. Today we’re going to put all of this together, and your hard work is going to have paid off.
The beauty of the daily plan that I use is that it’s flexible, yet structured. I do not have a “to do” list for the day. I have my on-going “Next Actions” lists, but those are not daily “to do” lists. Okay, okay, I’ll just show you what my daily plan looks like, and then I’ll explain.
- 8am - 10am: Home
- 10am - 12pm: Computer
- 12pm - 2pm: Personal (in other words, do whatever the heck I want, including but not limited to, eating lunch, reading, dancing around the house singing “Baba Lou”…whatever.)
- 2pm - 4pm: Computer
- 4pm - 6pm: Family
- 6pm - 8pm: Eat/relax
- 8pm - 10pm: Hang with John
- 10pm - 11pm: Office
- 11pm: Bed
During my “home” time, I do whatever is on my “Daily Activities” list under “Home” and/or whatever is on my “Next Actions: Home” list. It’s so simple. I make my daily plan every night during my “office” time (which, by the way, is one of the items on my “Daily Activities” list under “Office.”) It takes hardly any time at all, and I change it up according to how much I need/want to get done in each area.
Yesterday, I really wanted to chill. (It was Friday, forgive me!) So I made sure I had a lot of personal/family/relaxation time penciled in. Mondays are my most productive days, so I want have much of that in there.
Having your daily plan arranged this way does several things for you. First, it helps you to be confident that you are doing what you are SUPPOSED to be doing. No more guilt that you are relaxing when other things need to be done. You penciled it in. You’ve given it priority. That relaxation time is yours to do however you please.
Second, it makes sure that you are on track each day, doing the things you need to be doing. You’re focused because you have specific action steps. You’re not wandering around doing things that are just not important in the grand scheme of things.
Last (and I’ve said this before), it allows for flexibility within a structured environment. This means that you are less likely to burn out when you have a lot of energy. You are free to live in the moment instead of trying to get everything done on a big “To Do” list. You can enjoy doing what you’re doing. This is huge.
Well, I’ve got to get out of here (gotta spend time with my girls!) but I’ll be back tomorrow with some more specifics on how to process the “stuff” that comes at you every day. In other words, how to keep up with this whole system in a seamless, stress-free fashion. This is a system that requires a lot of thought on the front end, but once it’s in place, it’s going to free you up to accomplish more with less stress than you ever thought possible.
Yep, I’m a believer. See you tomorrow!
[New to Getting Things Done
Okay, I think David Allen should have named this system “Getting Things Done: Mastering the Art of List-Making.” It’s a good thing that I’m definitely pro-list.
So far, we have only been putting our system in place. We have not actually started to DO it. So if you’re confused about how this is all going to tie together, do not fret! The end is in sight.
Today we’re going to deal with those pesky items that we have to do over and over again. We are going to be making three lists:
- Daily Activities
- Weekly Activities
- Monthly Activities
Daily Activities:
The crux of homemaking is found in those daily tasks that we must do, lest they snowball and fall in around our heads. These are the things that so easily slip past us until we wake up and realize that the dishes are to the ceiling and the laundry is not faring much better. And we wonder how?
Having a daily routine is crucial to being able to remember all of these little things. Not only are they important in the home, but in every other part of our lives as well.
My Daily Activities List is divided up into three parts: Home, Computer, and Office. The reason for this will be explained later when we talk about daily planning. But for now, just know that it makes life a whole lot easier if you want a flexible structure to your day. Here’s my list1:
- Home
- Shower/get dressed
- Make bed
- Do dishes
- Wipe down counter tops
- Pick up living room
- Pick up playroom
- Pray/read my Bible
- Practice piano
- Computer
- Write blog entry
- Check email/forums
- Read/comment on favorite blogs
- Office2
- Process inbox/update lists
- Make tomorrow’s daily plan
I try not to put too much on this list — I want to make sure I only list the things that are ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to every day. Of course, what is essential to you is at your discretion.
Weekly Activities:
The reason for having this list is pretty much the same as the Daily Activities List. There are some things that need to be done on a regular basis, but not necessarily every day. Here’s an example of mine:
- MONDAY
- Laundry
- TUESDAY3
- Take out trash/recycling
- Wipe down toilets/shower
- Change bedroom linens
- Vacuum living room
- Sweep kitchen, playroom, and main bathroom
- Mop kitchen, playroom, and main bathroom
- Clean out refrigerator
- WEDNESDAY
- Errands
- THURSDAY
- Straighten desk, purse, and car
- FRIDAY
- Movie night
- SATURDAY/SUNDAY
- Time with family/friends
Monthly Activities:
I am not going to list my entire list here, the way I have it written down. That would take up too much space (and already this post has record-breaking potential as far as length goes!) Basically, I number the page 1-30 and list the things I must do beside the number that corresponds to the date.
For example, I pay bills and update our finances on the 5th and the 20th. I bill my clients on the 14th and 29th. I turn in my time card for my event planning job on the 15th and the 3oth.
In your binder, you should now have the following (in this order):
- Daily Activities List
- Weekly Activities List
- Monthly Activities List
- Next Actions Lists (you may just have one if you chose to put them all on the same list, but I have six)
- Away
- Computer
- Home
- Office
- Phone
- Waiting
- Project List
- Future Possibilities List
I recommend putting at least your Daily Activities List in a clear sheet protector so that you can mark through each task with a dry-erase marker as it’s completed. Tomorrow we’re going to tie all of this together and talk about planning for each day. Yes, we’re going to actually DO something!
GTD day seven: Your daily plan >>
- Note that I do not do all of these things when I first wake up in the morning. Yes, I take a shower and make the bed first thing, but the rest is flexible according to the day [↩]
- We’ll discuss these things another day…for now, you can just put them on your list. [↩]
- This is my cleaning day, if you can’t tell. [↩]
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