Time Management

One of the main goals for our household before John comes is to establish a good routine. We know that in May things will most likely have to be adjusted or just plain thrown out the window, but a good routine will be easier to slip back into if we have it established before he comes.

One of my friends found a blog talking about "maximizing your mornings." Amazing concept! I have found that if I wake up with a plan, I can easily work my way through most household chores in two hours. The rest of the day is left to... whatever! I've been doing this for about two weeks now and I am really thankful that the Lord showed me this. The only thing I dislike is that I didn't have this figured out while in school (one of my biggest struggles with stress came from how untidy our house was while I was taking classes).

Something I came up with to help me "see" what needs to be done in the day is a little excel spreadsheet I print every week... I'm sorry, I just LOVE excel. It's very helpful because Steven can even "see" it and fill in things if he wants to. One of my love languages is service and he often puts a heart in the square he completes... all week I'm reminded of how much my husband loves me. Here is an example of my list.....



Trying to prevent myself from being overwhelmed I didn't plan out the weekends. I start on Sunday nights by quickly packing lunches for the next day and running the dishwasher. This helps me eliminate any excuse for procrastinating on Monday morning.

The morning portion takes about two hours... but I've found that I'm getting faster and faster at it. I also don't stress about marking off everything. For instance, we don't always have a full load of dishes and/or laundry. I know that will change and so I left it in the daily portion.

Somethings don't need to be done daily... like meal planning or pulling weeds... so I made a weekly task section. In addition, I have a detailed cleaning section. I have nine areas in our house (entrance, office, dining, laundry, kitchen, living, bathroom, hallway/second bedroom and our bedroom) and I work on one area per week (every 9 weeks a section gets detailed). I got the idea from "Fly Lady." Sometimes on the weekends Steven will tackle some of the task for me... I love seeing those little hearts.

The green section is where I do my actual meal planning. I decided to put it on the list because I had the extra room and it is a good place to look after I see the "dinner prep" part of my daily task. I have the days of the week listed, but we rarely stick to that... it's more of a tool to make sure I have enough meals to last a week. Often two or three of those days will say "left overs."

I do still adjust little things at the end of each week, but overall it is working out really well. The most amazing thing is that our house always feels clean and I'm not over working myself. This leaves so much freedom to meet with friends or take care of things I've put off forever... like our silly wedding scrapbook.

I hope this encourages you! Happy Homemaking.