Planning to be organized

I am always planning to be organized.  It just doesn’t always work out in the chaos that is my life at the moment.  I find with a lot of small children around a lot of plans have to be discarded as I throw up my hands and just work hard to maintain an acceptable level of chaos.

However, I really enjoy planning and list making and I feel better when I have a grip on what the day should bring.  So to that end I am jumping on the bloggy bandwagon and commiting myself here to what I am planning to do.

I use a day planner.  I love my planner. I love it because it works for me, it’s pleasing to look at and because my friend makes them.  Michele is really creative and I love what she’s done with the planners.  This is my third one.

This year I went with the full size, spiral bound model.  It includes lesson plan pages and menu planning pages.  I also print off the fitness log Michele provides for free on her website and glue it on the back page.  I just glue the new one over the old one, it takes me about three weeks to fill one sheet. I’ll be posting about my new fitness regime later.

In the picture (I’m sorry it’s so blurry, my camera seems to be dying a slow death) you can see the small white tabs that come with the planner that divide it by month. I added the color tabs that make it easy for me to flip to the faith journal or menu section.  I cart this planner with me everywhere, it fits in my backpack, diaper bag and most purses – or I just leave it in the car.  In the front there is a contacts section, I just printed my Christmas card labels and stuck them in there and added phone numbers. I also staple any business cards I may need (hair salon, dentist, etc…) in that section.  This makes those endlessly boring hours times when I am waiting for a practice or dance class to end much more effecient. I can return calls, make appointments, chat with friends (thank heaven for unlimited minutes :)) catch up on correspondence – because all of that is in my planner. I clip stamps and a few cards and envelopes in there too.

The planner has a month at a glance and then is followed by pages divided by days.  There are four days on the left side (SMTW) and three on the right (TFS). Each day has a large lined space to write in as well as the Mass readings, feast days and the mystery of the rosary we should be praying.  I love this visual reminder of what I should be doing in my prayer life.  The picture shows what the calendar looks like at the beginning of the month. Everything all neat and tidy.  This will not last.  It will look much different on the 31st. Busier (which is code for "a big mess")

I don’t use the lesson plan section as it is written. I write out my children’s lesson plans in Seton’s Teacher Planner. I write it all out and give it to them to follow. Each child has their own book and I update it monthly and review their work weekly.  I do use this section in the planner to jot down notes for projects, field trip notes, grades, ideas gleaned when I’m not at home and just the flotsam and jetsam that’s floating around my head.

The menu planner section has been underutilized until recently.  I started jotting down shopping lists and errands to run as well as a meal plan just in the last few weeks. I also used it for planning our New Year’s Eve party.  We do a lot of parties here and this was the first time I planned out the food, wrote it down, wrote out a shopping list and a schedule for cooking.  It made things so much easier and for once I didn’t forget anything.

Since this is getting kind of long I’ll post about housekeeping later.

Have a beautiful, organized day!