Organizational Systems

PDA

My planner has so many forms and checklists it would no longer close. But I felt lost without them. My Handspring Visor PDA to the rescue! A planner I could fit in my purse and access information with a touch of a stylus instead of rummaging through my many papers.

So how can a PDA help you organize your life? Let's go through a sample day. In the morning I go to my morning routine checklist in the to do list section of my Visor. One of my new additions to my morning routine is to hot sync my Visor so all my to do's, memos, checklists, addresses are put to my hard drive and any new information I typed into the computer gets downloaded onto my PDA.

At work I use LifeBalance to discover what I need to do that day. This is one of the only programs I decided to buy. It begins with an outline of areas of my life ie. work, home, relationships, emotional and physical health, vision, fun, and spiritual. I put my to do's in the categories. I can further categorize them to show up in the work list, errands, home am, home afternoon, home pm, desk or anywhere I want. Then when I click the place the to do list comes up. Left Balance organizes the to do's to balance your outline categories, so you are not working twice as much as being with your family or neglecting your health. It lets you live your life based on what you want your life to be like, rather than the little to do's that eat up your time.

I use my calculator throughout the work day for measurements. And peek at my memo list for work break ideas.

At lunchtime, I pull out my Visor to see how the day is going. Then I read some news I downloaded in the morning during my hot sync from Avant Go. I can also read the , work on some Memory verses, read a book, or any of my many word documents from Documents to Go which I chose to purchase.

After work I can look at Life Balance for my errands or Home Afternoons. I get gas for my car and fill out AutoBase, my vehicle maintenance program. If it is shopping day I can get all my lists from Handy Shopper 2. I can sort by store, aisle, category and I can put the price down. In my memo list I have videos to rent, fun evening ideas, date ideas, websites to visit, my 10 daily habits I am cultivating, and any other thing I want to remember. If I need to wait for or with the kids we can amuse ourselves with games

And to remember family and friends I can look to Happy Days to track birthdays and anniversaries. For Christmas plannning there is Get Ready

If I need a timer for anything or an alarm or just need to know the time someplace else I can look to Big Clock. After dinner I check my evening routine checklist and then the before bed checklist. I love my Visor!

January's focus is Home and Property.

The main thing you need is a maintenance plan. Everyone's plan will be individualized. You need to look at every room in your house and decide what cleaning needs to be done. Then you decide when you want it done: daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally or annually.

Some people use the computer to make up their schedule- any organizer program will do. Some people use the 3x5 method explained in Get Your Act Together by Pam and Peggy Young.You list each chore on a 3X5 index card. On the card you list the estimated time it will take and when it should be done. Then you file it under the date you want it done, in your file box. Others just write it in their planner when they want things done. Here is my Cleaning Plan

Once you have your cleaning plan, if you use it faithfully you should see a difference in how your home looks.

Home and Property also includes your car maintenance schedule. I like to keep track of when I had the oil change and other maintenance so I can keep my Buick in good shape.

This month you can also focus on organizing your possessions. Put like things together. Put things you use often where you can get to them fast. Spend 15 minutes a day decluttering and organizing your home.

Once it is organized you can concentrate on decorating. Gather some magazines of all kinds like Victorian, Country and Modern. Tear out the pages you like so you can get an idea of what your style is. Does your room need a paint job? Is there enough seating in your living room? Is your bedroom peaceful and romantic? Do your kids' rooms have enough storage for their toys? Are all your outdated cosmetics and medicines thrown out?

Make sure you own your possesions and that they don't own you. Remember your family and other people are more important than your things. Use this cold winter month to take care of what you are fortunate to have.

I have been reading a wonderful book titled, "What's a Smart Woman like you Doing in a Place Like This?" by Dr. Mary Ann Froehlich. In it she list the things you need in an organizational system:

~A professional attitude about home care
~Process for defining long-term goals, broken down into short-term goals, then daily and weekly tasks. My planner includes space for defining goals and breaking them into monthly, weekly and daily tasks.
~A calendar. Now if I could train my husband to look at it.
~Master list of supplies ie. desk supplies, grocery master list, bathroom supplies.
~Master list of cleaning chores: seasonal, monthly, weekly and daily chores. Many people use the S.H.E. system for this. I explain it more fully under maintenance below.
~An idea book (a small notebook to carry around to jot down anything)
~Filing System
~Schedule of Weekly Tasks. i.e. Monday is desk day, Tuesday is shopping day etc.
~Work Centers for office, gift wrapping, baking, exercise and any place you regularly do an activity
~Retreat planning time. She suggests an hour a week, 2 hrs. a month and a day a year.
~Process for nuturing relationships. She uses a people book which lists birthdays and special days, all her friends and families likes and dislikes, people she would like to have over, people she wants to get to know better, her christmas card and gift list, and anything else having to do with the people in her life.

She says that each organizational system should uniquely fit each person, yet should have all of these elements. Which do you need to work on?

MORNING ROUTINES
Decide what time everyone needs to be up in the morning then divvy up bathroom times. Give everyone an alarm clock so every person is responsible for waking themselves up, otherwise you will become a human alarm clock. Do as much as possible the night before. Pack bookbags and briefcases then leave them by the front door. Go through the bookbags with your kids to make sure any notes or permission slips are signed the night before. Set the breakfast table and make as much of the packes lunches as possible. Most importantly, lay out your clothes and the kids clothes for the next day, including shoes and jewelry. The next morning wake up half hour earlier than the rest of the family. You can pray, exercise or do whatever makes you feel good. (More about that under self-renewal.) It may not make you more organized, but it will make you more pleasant to be around.

I was chatting with someone at Parents Place who has five kids and runs a day care. How? Her secret is just to do things right away. Toys put away before lunch, dishes done right after, etc. She was an inspiration to me.

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