Weekly to-do chart

Thank you all for your kind comments on my last post. I had several hundred more views than is normal, so I feel encouraged to write more about this topic. In fact, I'm even considering doing an e-book. So, thank you for the support. I so appreciate it.

Also, thanks to many of your comments and some (gentle) pressure on the home front, we are going to keep our mural in the foyer. Seems I've been outvoted, but that's okay. That tells me I really am okay with it, because usually if I really want something (like growing out the bleached blond hair and going natural), I'll do it despite the opposition!

Today, I'm going to share with you a weekly to-do chart I've come up with.

I live by lists. Daily and weekly and seasonal to-do lists, shopping lists, Christmas planning lists, you name it. I couldn't have planned my daughter's wedding without a whole notebook of lists. If it's organized on paper, and all I have to do is do what it tells me and check it off, that's half the battle right there.

I write everything down. Except, I realized, the daily, everyday tasks. And lately, I've realized how annoying it is that my list of daily to-do's is always playing and re-playing in my mind as I go through the day. Not things like write a letter to my mom or buy a present for someone or RSVP to an invitation. Those things I write down.

I'm talking about that running list of everyday to-do's -- make the bed, do the dishes, make dinner, clean the kitty litter, take vitamins. I have these tasks all arranged in a certain order in my mind, and I find myself running through the list many times during the day. There are items on that list, like vacuuming, that I don't do every day, but it's still on the list so I can think about whether I need to vacuum that day. I had over 15 things I was repeating over and over, with a list of secondary items, things like write a blog post or work on my knitting, claiming my attention and just taking up too much mental space.

And even if I had already made my bed or cleaned the kitty litter, I was running the whole list, including those items, through my mind again whenever I thought about what I needed to finish for the day.

Well, that's just ridiculous.

I found a chart on my Mac Pages that is actually an attendance chart and modified it for my use. There are tons of free daily and weekly planning charts available online, and whole systems of household management worksheets you can find. Usually I end up modifying them so much that it's easier to make my own. And for this purpose, I don't want to carry around a whole binder; I just want one sheet of paper for the week that will cover just the daily to-do's. 

Sorry that it's a little hard to see. (It got cut off, but I do have a column for Sunday; I just don't put any unnecessary chores on that day.) The chart is roughly divided into four categories. Spiritual, I guess for lack of a better word, daily chores, health, and fun stuff I hope to fit in.

I'm a little embarrassed to share the second item with you. "Do something kind" seems disingenuous, like if I do it just because I need to cross it off a list I'm not really being sincere. But honestly, sometimes I just need to be reminded. I want to be that kind of person. And it ain't always just gonna happen!

Sometimes the day will easily present opportunities. Like someone out of state is having surgery. I can't be there so I send off a care package. Someone's sick and I take them some soup. But other days I might have to pray to find some extra kindness to do for someone. 

"Pray" is another strange one to have on a list. I don't just pray once and then check it off. I tend to pray throughout the day. So this is one that never really gets checked. Not sure why I have it on the list. It wasn't on my previous mental list of things to do, but when I see it there in black and white as I'm checking things off, I get a little reminder to pray for someone.

"Call/text/write family/friend." Only introverts will understand this on a list!! I can go through a whole day happily occupied all by myself. Too much of that, though, and I can end up isolated and self-absorbed. This reminds me to stay connected, and I'm always happier when I do so.

The rest of the chart is fairly self-explanatory. I have vacuuming down on Mondays and Fridays.  But I don't worry too much if I don't check that off on the exact day, just as long as I try to vacuum twice during the week. (I don't vacuum the whole house twice a week; I do the upstairs one day and the downstairs another day). Same thing with bathrooms. I don't clean everything twice a week. But I try to work on it twice a week so everything gets cleaned at least once during the week.

The end of the list is the fun stuff, and I try to work it out so I can do at least some of these things every day. (You'll notice I have "write a blog post" on twice during the week. This is a goal; I've only been writing one a week for some time now.)

On the back of this chart, on the reverse side of the paper, I write out the days of the week and handwrite any special things I have to do on each day that aren't part of the regularly scheduled items. These include things like appointments, errands, meetings, phone calls to be made, etc.

So, there you have it . . . Does anybody else do anything like this? Anybody found a good system for keeping themselves organized on a daily basis?

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We finally got to the apple orchard. It is the thing to do here in Michigan in the fall. Everybody goes to pick apples and pumpkins and have cider and donuts. It wouldn't be fall without at least one cinnamon donut from the cider mill.

Or, in our case, more than one. That's my husband's hand there. He had three donuts! I ate mine before I took a picture, so had to get another one out of the bag for this picture.  I have to admit, dear reader, that I ended up eating this one too.