Well Planned Life

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a meeting.   We had a guest speaker come in to talk to the group.   The first thing I noticed about this woman was the huge planner she was carrying.   She carried it in the crook of her arm, not stowed away in a bag.   Naturally, I got excited, hoping to see this planner in action. Once we all sat down, I could tell that it was a Franklin Covey binder , something along the lines of their Classic size .   It was black and shiny and wonderful.   It looked very new, which was confirmed once she opened the binder to that day’s inserts—the Monticello two pages per day , to be exact, with the matching tabbed months interspersed throughout.   (From what I could tell, she had the entire year in that binder.)   There was nothing written on that day’s pages.   My thought was, “Well it’s new, so I can understand that.   But she doesn’t even have this meeting written in.”   I wasn’t judging, mind you. ...

I have been using a compact binder since 2011 .   True, not necessarily the same binder for all of that time, but the compact style, yes.   I did dabble back in the personal when I got Lady Godiva last summer .   And while I was able to use the personal again for that time, I did find that I was putting extra inserts in to fill out those big rings.   And that was the entire point of trimming down to the compact, so that I wouldn’t have to carry things I didn’t need just to fill out the binder. The secret to my compact success is relying on other stay-at-home binders, as they house the information I need at hand for various things, but they aren’t binders that I ever take with me anywhere.   I have my Household Binder , my Happiness Binder (which is in the process of being updated), my Health Notebook , my Spirituality Book , my Knitting Binder , and my Gardening Binder (oh, how I miss flowers!).   All of these separate binders/books allow me to rea...

After last week’s gripe about crazy weekend schedules , I seem to be enjoying an ideal weekend.   I got my errands done early yesterday, I came home to plenty of time for cleaning , relaxing, and getting some necessary (paying bills) and extra (a project I’m working on) things done.   As stated in my post last week, this isn’t typical, so I have been enjoying every minute of my weekend. Since writing last week’s post, I have been very mindful about where my time goes—what I’m doing, both at home and outside of the house—and things I’m committing myself to.   Of course, the weekends aren’t the only time I see chaos.   The weekdays (lately) are just as busy, especially since taking on some volunteer activities.   I’ve had to reconfigure some of my “normal” weekly activities because of this, but that’s okay. Let’s look at a typical (ideal) week for me: Monday Alarm goes off at 5 am; out of bed by 5:15; enjoy my morning coffee 6 am – exercise 7 am...

…about time management. My perfect ideal weekend looks something like this: Saturday morning: get up early to prep for and complete errands Saturday afternoon: cleaning and various other chores around the house, perhaps a nap if there’s time or the need Saturday evening: dinner and a quiet evening at home watching a movie while knitting or dinner out or some other fun social activity with friends or family Sunday morning: a bit of journaling before heading out to church Sunday afternoon: blogging and catching up on other computer work, perhaps a nap if there’s time and/or a need, a bit of reading before prepping dinner Sunday evening: getting ready for the week ahead – weekly planning , ironing clothes – and relaxing The problem is, this weekend rarely—if ever—happens.   Life gets in the way.   Inevitably, something comes up that rearranges my entire weekend.   And I allow for that—after all, what good is life if we strictly live by our own rules al...

While I don’t make a point to discuss work here, I will occasionally discuss work indirectly, insofar as it may pertain to organizing and the like. A couple of weeks ago I attended a countywide meeting for work.   The purpose of this meeting was to discuss various programs each library had done.   One woman talked about a series of programs her library had done, and in particular discussed how all publicity for these programs were designed alike to show that it was a series and not independent programs.   During her discussion, she mentioned how OCD she and her team members are, that they all needed to have a cohesive look where the flyers were concerned, etc.   (But as any good designer/marketer will tell you, this is how it should be.)   I was excited because I can totally relate. As we all know, I am OCD in many ways.   And while some of my coworkers might be considered OCD, they cannot be classified as such in the same way that I am.   The...

One of the reasons I feel overwhelmed and out of time on the weekends is because I don’t get much done at home during the week.   After working all day, driving an hour (total) commute, cooking dinner, cleaning up, etc., there’s not much time for anything else, which means that all of those things that don’t get done during the week have to be crammed in to the weekend.   And of course there are plenty of things that get added to my weekend list: errands, cleaning, church, blog writing, relaxing, prepping for the upcoming week, and anything I might want to do with friends or family.   It’s a lot to manage in a two-day time frame, especially because, inevitably, I never get to it all. Some things have to happen, while other things are just items that I would like to do.   More often than not, I end up rescheduling something or other.   Typically, one of those somethings is cleaning.   I end up doing a half-assed quick-clean job or neglecting it altoge...

Happy 2015 and welcome back to regular blog posts!   I can’t believe how fast 2014 came and went.   Now, the holidays are over and put away, and we’re starting another new year.   I also can’t believe I’m starting my 6 th year of blogging .   It’s been a great ride, and I hope it continues for many more years to come. So what’s happening in the world of Well Planned Life?   A lot, but even still, not much has changed. My system is pretty much the same as it was throughout 2014 and still running smoothly.   If you remember, I did a complete overhaul of my system , added new and updated current notebooks and binders to help keep my life (in all aspects) on track, and sorted out how all 5 books would work together to keep me organized.   It is a lot to keep up with; I will say that.   But working with all of these books has helped me keep track of my tasks and appointments, as well as my emotional and mental wellbeing.   (My physical...