Note to Self - You are not Super Woman!

Ahhhh it is Friday!  That is supposed to be a good thing, right??!! 

Last night, Friday eve, I was up late doing a load of laundry, so that my little one would have pants for school today, loading the dishwasher, putting away the sewing machine and various other supplies from a pinterest project that I got sucked into ... feeling really bad about myself because I hadn't got lots of the chores done on my list this week.  I needed a reality check!

I am not super woman ... I get accused of being this super organized person sometimes that gets so much done ... It makes me laugh because up until a couple weeks ago, I would be getting all of these comments while sitting in my home that was in shambles.  I was getting plenty of work done ... but not so much housework. 

Last night, after putting away all of my crafty stuff and putting the few dirty dishes in the sink, I realized that the house really wasn't in shambles.  If a friend walked through the door at that moment I wouldn't hang my head in shame at the craziness. 

Yes, the bedroom didn't get vacuumed, the shelves didn't get dusted, the windows and mirrors aren't spotless ... but that's ok ... it will get done ... Sleep is more important than any of those things.

It's Friday now, and I have another list of things that need to be done.  The important things have already been done before I write this post ... everything else is a bonus!

Have a great weekend! 

One Week In ... How are your Resolutions going? Have you started to Tweak them?

So, We are one week into 2013!  How are your resolutions going?  What have you tweaked?  What have you let go?  Are you still on track?

As some of you know I started back on my card system to keep me on track with time management and keeping my house in order.  I actually started a bit before the first of the year because I wanted to have my brain ready and my system in place.  I have started to tweak and change some things though.

I haven't changed much with my weekly, monthly, or quarterly cards yet.  Although after scrubbing tubs and showers last week I thought that weekly might be too often for that job ... I think this is more due to that I don't like doing that and I would much rather put it off and not do it as frequently.  For now, I am leaving it as a weekly task as I do think that it will be much less of a time consuming (and less work) if I do actually get it done every week.  I will be making some changes to my daily cards though.  For instance ... I need to change wiping counters and tables - I currently have them on my morning list and I thought they were on my afternoon and nightly list too ... but they are not.  I will probably take them off the morning and move them to nightly.  I also have sweep kitchen/dining on both afternoon and nightly and I will be moving that to only nightly.   

I have also been thinking about the things that I need to do that are not already in the system.  Thinks like vacuuming my car, washing the car, and outside chores ... like hubby and I were just talking about trimming our fruit trees and both decided that we needed to remind each other in late February to do this ... probably something I could make a card for and increase the likelihood that I will remember!  The car chores certainly need to be done ... and I am seriously considering treating myself to the local car wash once a month ... especially if I am getting all of this other stuff done.  It would be a nice treat not to have to do that!

I need to give more thought to my work chores and how I would like to add them in.  I certainly have things that need to be done on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis ... but I need to give more thought about how I want to get myself on track.  There are several things that I do for work that need to be done when the weather is cooperating ... and I need to get organized so that when the weather is nice, I am able to do them without being buried in other things that have to be done immediately.

Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to get the weather to cooperate with my schedule ... so until then, I need to be ready when the weather is cooperating!

So, tell me about your resolutions!!  Leave me a comment!

The Card System for time management - You expect me to do what, when, how??!!

If you read my first post and are thinking about starting the card system to help you get organized and better manage your time:

http://mooremagnets.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-card-system-to-stay-organized-and.html

You might be feeling a little overwhelmed ... asking me - You expect me to do what?  Exactly When?  How am I going to get this done?

I will admit that when you are first setting this system up, it is a bit of work.  Thinking of all of the things you need to do, and having a hard time getting it all done now.  Honestly, this is my favorite part of the card system, because I don't have to think about it all anymore.  I know that all I have to do is pull cards out, check things off, work a little each day, and it will all get done.  I also know that it isn't going to involve me rushing around and feeling overwhelmed that things have gotten out of control.

Today, I am going to take a closer look at my daily cards for you.  These are things that I do everyday to help me stay on top of things.  Your daily cards may look different as your problem areas may look different than mine.

The purpose of the daily cards is to maintain and to control your problem areas, and also to make the hard to keep clean areas easier when the day to clean them comes around. 

You may notice that I have a bit of overlap on my daily cards.  Like wiping counters, sweeping the kitchen and dining area, laundry and dishes.  The reason for this overlap isn't to make me do these things if they don't need to be done, but more to make me look at these areas and to be proactive in keeping them cleaned up.  About half the days of the week, I don't have laundry to do, but this way I am doing laundry one load at a time instead of 5 loads one day of the week.  In the past, I have set up my cards to only do laundry one day a week, but then I had to fold 5 loads of laundry in one day, and I hate folding laundry.  By breaking it up over several days, laundry doesn't pile up and I find it less daunting to fold them one load at a time.

Wiping the counters is also an overlapping task.  Keeping the counters cleaned off is one of the areas that my husband and I tend to bicker over.  He likes the counters clean and tidy, and I tend to pile things up there.  So, I try to focus on those as a favor to him.  It just makes the household more harmonious, and I know he appreciates my efforts. 

I have also made daily cards for my children.  Their cards contain their daily chores and we go over them each night.  At the end of each week we review and I hand out allowances.  There are other cards for them that they can do to earn extra money, but the condition is that all of their daily chores have to be met before they earn money for the extras ... if not there are deductions to their extra chores.  They know that they can't just skip picking up their dirty clothes and dishes to earn money from washing cars ... They also know that they can't just was the cars every day.

Since I made my cards, I have also found that I have some other tasks that need to be done less frequently, more frequently, and things I have forgotten about too.  So I will be adding those in.

Next time I will talk about some ideas that you might want to put as weekly tasks.

The Card System to Stay Organized and Manage your time

In keeping with my goal of accomplishing more in the new year,  I am finding a real lack of any sort of organizational system to keep me on track.  I need to stay organized and I need a time management system!  For the last several months I have done really well at staying on task with work and not letting the house fall into shambles.  However, I feel like I don't really have any sort of system that keeps me on track.  I'm just doing what has to be done everyday on an as needed basis, instead of being proactive and preventing messes along the way.  Over a year ago, I developed this card system to keep me on task and not let the house stuff get out of hand.  I've decided that it is time to bring it back.

I'm not a professional organizer, or time management guru, but I do feel like I am a fairly productive person who manages to accomplish a lot while still getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night.   There are certainly other systems that you can use, some are similar to this one and I was inspired by quite a few.  However, most of them require bulky binders or are a bit too complicated for my liking.  There are also others that seem to require lots of repetitive things to help you develop habits and I never felt like they were concentrating on my problem of maintenance versus just cleaning up messes.  Then there are systems that involve setting timers and cleaning like a mad woman ... and truthfully I don't want to work like that every day ... it is fine when I have company that is showing up in 30 minutes though!

This card system is designed to be used daily - and for everyday tasks.  This system is not designed to help you tackle large organizational projects at one time or within a short amount of time.  What it will do is allow you to complete what you need to do in your allotted time and then stop.  You can feel free to go about the rest of your day knowing that the other items are already scheduled and there is no need to eat your elephant all in one day. This system is certainly adaptable to other schedules, and adaptable so that you can accomplish those bigger tasks, although I won't be talking about that until after we are finished.

I don't do well putting off house cleaning for one day per week.  For me, I work better, feel more relaxed, and I am less likely to procrastinate if I know that I only have to do a little bit each day.  Using this system, I know that things will get done, and without me cleaning like a mad woman for an entire day.  If you do prefer to work that way, then I encourage you to read, adapt, and share what you will do differently than is presented.

This system takes into account that not all tasks need to be done daily, and provides a way to keep up with things that need to be done twice a week, weekly, monthly, quarterly, every six months, and even annually.  All you have to do is take cards out, check them off, and return them to their proper location.

So, now, onto the card system. 

What you need:
Colored note cards (I use the 3x5 colored index cards - you don't have to use colored ones, but I like the visual cues)
Dividers - I purchased a pack of abc dividers and put a sticker on top of the abc's (you need 19)
Something to keep them in - I use a recipe type box that is made to hold 3x5 index cards
A notepad or piece of paper
Pen or pencil

The first thing you are going to do is to make a list of everything that you need to do.  My system is to mainly help me keep up with household tasks and cleaning so that is a lot of what you will be seeing on my cards.  Take your notepad or piece of paper and make your list.  I found it easier to break my list up by room and then physically go into each room and look around while I made my list.  Once I was done with each room, I made a list of other general things that need to be done that weren't in a room.  My list looks like the picture to the right.

Once you are finish listing all of your tasks then assign a time that they need to be done.  Write your times as an on-going basis ... meaning that just because their are cobwebs in your corner, it doesn't mean that you need to dust that corner every day.  You are also not assigning priorities to things.  It will all get done, so don't worry about what needs to be done first right now, just write down how often you would be doing them in a harmonious perfect world.

Also, don't worry if you forget something.  This system is flexible and you will be able to add things later.  You can also cross things out and move them around if you decide that something is being done too often or not often enough.

Next you will want to pick one of your colors of note cards for Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, etc.  You may also have 2 times per week (I use the same color as weekly for those), Every 6 months (I use the same color as Quarterly), and once per year (I use the same color as Quarterly)

For the "Daily" tasks I actually have 3 cards that are broken up into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening (or Nightly).  I found that it was better for me to work in small chunks of time a few times per day versus trying to do everything at one time or spacing it out throughout the entire day.

On your Daily tasks you will want to write all of the tasks that need to be done daily on the daily cards.  You may want to write down which room the task is for also.  I have columns with dates on them so that I can check things off ... I LOVE to check things off and feel like I have accomplished things, so this gives me a way to really feel like I am accomplishing a lot.  Perhaps it is bad that I have written down "Breakfast", "Lunch" and "Dinner" ... but really, sometimes I forget to eat ... not a good habit!

For the weekly tasks you will want to go by room - at least that has been the easiest thing for me.  Once upon a time, I did things by task - such as vacuuming all in one day.  However, I found that there were too many times that the vacuuming didn't get done because I had the pick up the whole house before I started and I used all of my vacuuming time picking up instead of vacuuming.  Now I just focus on one room at a time.

An Example of one of my weekly cards is on the left.

** For tasks that are done more than once per week but not daily, you will want to make one card for each day you will be working on that task.  For instance, if you need to vacuum the living room twice per week then you will want to make 2 cards that say vacuum living room.

Before we move onto the monthly, quarterly, and remaining tasks we need to go ahead and put the cards you have made into your card file.

Take your dividers and re-label them - one for each day of the week, and one for each month.

Once you have done that you need to give some thought as to how often you want to be cleaning.  Do you want to get it all done in 4 days, 5 days, 6 days, or do you want to be working on it 7 days per week?  I do daily tasks 7 days a week, and I get all of the weekly tasks done Monday through Friday.  Saturdays (or Sunday's if I feel like it) are for working on monthly and quarterly tasks (I don't currently have any that are 6 month or annual tasks, but if I did they would also be done on Saturdays or Sundays).

You will then want to divide all of your weekly tasks and put them behind the day of the week that you want to get them done.  I have tried to batch mine by the rooms that are close to each other and also batch the tasks so that I am spending about 30 minutes per day (or less) working.

Next you will want to make your monthly, quarterly, and annual cards (as well as other times that you have noted on your list).  I put one monthly task per card, and one quarterly task per card.  I write the months on the quarterly cards that they need to be done - Such as January, April, July, October is on top of the things that get done in those months.  If some of your monthly and quarterly tasks have recently been done then go ahead and write the date that you did them on your card.  Leave room for writing other dates, as you will write the dates that you do them in the future so that you know that those things are done.  If you haven't done something in a while then you will need to decide if it needs to be taken care of immediately or if it can wait and go in the rotation until next month. 

Once your quarterly and monthly cards are done, then you will place all of the monthly cards behind this month (or the upcoming month if this one is almost over), and your quarterly cards behind the first upcoming month that they need to be done.

Using your cards -


Your daily tasks should stay in the front of your card holder.  You will take these out each day and check off the tasks that you have completed.  You will also take out the cards that are filed under the current day and write the date on them (leaving room to write future dates) once you have completed them.  Once you have completed them they will be filed back behind the day of the week so that they are ready to do again the following week.  For monthly and quarterly tasks you will move them forward to the day of the week that you are working on monthly and quarterly tasks - remember, my day is Saturday or Sunday.  I generally like to get all of my monthly and quarterly tasks done in one Saturday of the month so that I can leave the others free for family and fun.

Accounting for vacations or other bumps in the road.  If I am leaving with my family then generally I will just skip doing the tasks that are scheduled for those days and come back to the on the next week.  I highly doubt that the house will fall in if I miss vacuuming ... especially if we are not here tracking in dirt.  However, if I find myself constantly too busy to get things done and putting them off ... then I need to re-check myself and re-evaluate what I am spending my time on.  I know that using this system really only takes about 30 minutes each day (sometimes more, sometimes less) - and really that is accounting for things that are going to make my house a better environment for me, my kids, and my husband.  I also know that most days it only takes about 30 minutes and that lots of these things will be done by boys that want to make extra money doing chores. 

I've read about other systems that claim that you can keep your house clean in 10 minutes a day ... but realistically I haven't found them to work.  I tend to skip over things when I have a timer set with the mindset that .. oh, I will wipe behind those canisters tomorrow ... and that is fine for one day ... but when you are doing it every day then it just doesn't work. 

Whew!  That was a long post!!  Please leave me a comment, if only to tell me that you made it all the way through!  Also, please let me know if I have made typos or not explained something ... I have been writing-deleting-editing-writing etc... so I am certain that I left something out!  I would also love to hear if you have adapted the system or have a different system that you use - I'm always open to making something better!

I will talk next time about adding tasks to your system, and also accounting for those big projects that need to be done.  I will also explain some of the things on my cards.