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Thursday, August 25, 2016

Organizing my life on a budget

Whether you work in the home, outside the home, are on the road, are retired, have 4 kids at home or are empty-nesters, you have a life to live and probably enough going on in that life to need some organization. I know I do.


I work at home, mostly. I pick up paid-work whenever I can. I volunteer about 4 days per month. I have personal appointments, regularly. I have home maintenance appointments, sporadically. I have 5 adults that I cook, shop and clean for. I maintain all of the financial obligations for the household. And I blog 5 days per week. It's all very doable -- if I keep myself organized.

I've experimented with a variety of purchased and print at home planners and calendars. What seems to be working for me is a combination of a month-at-a-glance calendar plus daily planner. I usually get a calendar for free. But in years that I don't, I print out my own month-at-a-glance pages from free online resources. I use the calendar to note appointments more than a day or two in the future.

I also use this calendar for week-at-a-glance information. I make general remarks about an upcoming week, in the margin. For example, I need to schedule some work on my car in early September. I just write that in the margin for that first week in Sept, and will fill in an actual appointment when I have it.

For the daily planning pages, lately, I've liked these pages from this site: http://scatteredsquirrel.com/printable/personal-planner/

I like the half-size format, as I can get 2 days on each side of the paper. I print in black and white, and I print about half a month at a time. There's about enough room for me to get all of my info entered for each day.

I take about 1 hour each morning planning the day. One hour sounds like a lot of time, but I get more into each day, by spending this time planning. I walk about the house and see what needs doing. I check the garden to see what work should be done there, as well as what produce needs harvesting. I check the laundry to see how many loads I need to do. I check progress on my various projects and crafts. I get out the dinner prep items to thaw. I check the pantry to see if we need breads or snacks prepared or baked. I even look for my lunch for that day. By the end of my planning session, I know exactly what I need to do for the day, right down to what I will quickly make for my own lunch.

I keep my planning sheets on a clipboard. I can work on them while propped in bed, while walking about the house, sitting in a comfortable chair, or at the table.

After I enter the day's info, I use a highlighter to emphasize actual appointments. All appointments where I need to be someplace else, I enter 30 minutes (or earlier if I have to drive further) prior to the actual appointment time. This keeps me from double-booking my time. (I don't enter housekeeping duties in the same time I need to be driving someplace, for instance.)

I only plan down to the detail, one day at a time. If I fall behind on one day's work, I can push the items to the next day. Or if I don't feel well, one day, I can plan a very light day for myself.

It's not a priority that my calendars or planning sheets be pretty. Their primary purpose is function. Pretty would be nice, but not essential. I could purchase a planner. Dollar Tree sells student planners which could work for many people. I need more space for each day than the Dollar Tree planners, however. The larger planners that would work for my needs run around $13 to $16 at Office Depot. By printing out my own planning pages, a year's worth costs me about $4 to $5 (ink and paper).

I still use my calendar function on my computer. It's easy to transfer appointment info from emails to that calendar, or to type in to-do lists, while I'm on my laptop working on something else. In the mornings, when I day-plan, I also grab my computer and check for any details for that day and upcoming week.

So, I stay organized, and I save money on the tools needed to do that job. Works for me!
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