It’s time to organize my thoughts.

I wanted to start here because I know like with my fitness journey where I needed get my mental game on before I could get my physical game going, I need to get my shit together.  No more forgotten library books.  No more forgotten treat days at school.  No more “oh crap, I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow?” conversations with myself.  No more lost permission slips.  No more putting my important info on a post it note!

You get the point!

So as I am getting myself organized this week I am proudly fitting my errands on the same day that I happen to be meeting a friend for breakfast- time management at it’s best!!!  I pull up for the final errand-it’s finally time to sign up Alex for skating lessons.  This is something I have been telling people I have already done, because I knew I would get to it…eventually and I am super excited that today is that day.  BAM- I am hit with this response when I proudly announce that I am here to sign my son up for skating lessons…”Oh I am sorry, that class has been full since late November when registration opened.”  You know, when I told everyone I had done it!!!  I had printed the form out…twice.  Twice it got lost in my pile of papers that I needed take care of and now I am too late to get him in.

Yep!  I desperately need to organize my thoughts!

One of my problems is I can’t seem to find a good way to get myself organized.  Do I go digital? Do I go old school?  I have tried a few methods and I finally decided that I am a paper and pencil kinda girl.  There is just something about crossing things off a list.  There is just something about taking the time to write it down.  I believe when I write it down I remember it better.

After researching a few planners over our vacation, I had narrowed it down to 2 and much to my surprise I arrived home from our trip to an Erin Condren planner that a wonderful friend had given me as a gift.  Sometimes the universe just knows what we need.

I think this will help with one of my other problems which is I have stuff written EVERYWHERE.  I make forms for my forms.  I post notes everywhere.  I have a planner for school stuff, a planner for life and I have some, but not all of it in my phone.  This is clearly not working as evidence of the fact that Alex will not be taking skating lessons staring next week!

Now it’s time to sort through my mess!  Using my rule of asking myself “Do I use this? Do I love this?” I sorted though my forms, planners, papers, writing utensils, folders and plethora of notebooks and tossed, donated and recycled a ton of stuff and my thoughts now only consist of:

• my beautiful new planner
• 1 set of colored pens and 1 set of matching colored highlighters
• 1 cube of post-it notes
• 1 three ring binder with my work stuff (which I cleaned out to only what I use on a daily basis)
• 1 notebook to take notes for calls and trainings

These things along with my laptop all fit nicely into a little basket on my kitchen counter until week 4 when I tackle my office!

I love to color code things- my family has colors- I am pink, Steve is green, Jacob is red and Alex is blue.  I decided to do the same for my planner.

• posts and blogs- purple
• groups I am managing- pink
• work and volunteer To-Do’s- green
• personal To-Do’s- blue

 

I will use the monthly page on my calendar to keep a list of my goals for that month.  Each week I will tackle a portion of those goals and each day I will tackle no more than 2-3 of them.

On my calendar I will include ALL my appointments- school, work, volunteer, sports, Steve’s travel, fun…everything.

Lastly, I will put  the most important stuff in my phone with an alert to remind me.  I will also continue to use the shared calendar Steve set up for anything that involves the boys so we are both on the same page.

Every day I will sort though the mail and kids school stuff and add anything to my calendar that comes in and toss and recycle anything that I don’t use or love right away.  One goal this year will be NO MORE PILES OF PAPERS.  Just thinking about my piles gives me anxiety- they need to go!

I realize that this will be a work in progress, but I am already feeling like some of the weight and anxiety is being lifted.  I feel ready to take on next week’s task!

And just like that week 1 is done!

What do you think?  Do you need to organize your thoughts?  Want to join the conversation?  Join my group on Facebook where we are talking about creating Happy Homes by simplifying and organizing our lives.  Request to join here:

52 WEEKS TO A HAPPY HOME

See you next week when we tackle my laundry room!