Last week I introduced the perpetual calendar and wall calendar as two simple tools that helped a disorganized gal like me achieve some goals. I promised I’d share more this week about conquering chaos to achieve other goals.
The perpetual calendar can help you deal with dreaded goals, because you can break huge goals into smaller parts and graciously give yourself time to do each part. Instead of attempting a goal like “organize my entire closet today,” you could select a month when you know you have more time and do part of that task. Instead of the whole closet, consider a goal like this, “organize only clothes on hangers that fit across six inches of the bar.” Then you only “have” to organize six inches worth of clothes on the clothing bar in your closet until you schedule the next session for six inches of more clothes. This may be a tiny goal, but in just five of these mini sessions you will have organized two and a half feet of your closet without wearing yourself out or disgusting yourself if you hate doing this kind of task.
If you break down any goal like this, you will be less intimidated. For example, when California had extreme rains from fall of 2022 to spring of 2023, the weeds went wild. I could not keep up with them. So I gave myself permission to only work on Saturday mid-mornings or Sunday afternoons. Often I would only schedule 30-60 minutes to dig up the dreaded weeds, and if I was too busy I did not work that weekend. Now when I saw so many weeds, the dread was gone, because I gave myself permission to not get rid of all of them at once. This was no longer a scary project I had to do in one day or die. I could pace myself. And this is now summer of 2023 and those weeds are finally gone (new ones pop up, but nothing like those winter rain monsters).
I came up with a “basket/bin” method of organizing my work out clothes too. I now only work out at home, so I may be more care-free than some gals, but I just use the same three outfits for 6 workouts, (I wash all three sets once they are dirty of course—so the outfits get worn twice each week.) I put together one tee shirt with one pair of shorts and one exercise bra, so I don’t have to think about choosing an outfit. I use the same sets on the same days too. I admit this may sound boring, but this way I can save my serious thinking and problem solving for the really important issues (like parenting teens and dealing with spiritual warfare.) I have a basket on top of my tall dresser, and I keep each outfit together there.
I also have two bins in the bathroom. One has the shirt, pants, undies and bra I will wear that day after my shower. I set these out the night before. In the second bin I put my work out clothes, also for the next day. Then each morning when I get up I change right from my jammies to my work out clothes in the bathroom.
I first came up with that idea when I had to be at work by 7:15am as a school teacher, though in that case the clean clothes I would put on in the morning. The work out clothes went into my gym bag to go with me to work and then the gym afterwards. I’ve modified this method now that I am home.
I never have to go looking for a matched exercise outfit, and when I get out of the shower, I never have to look for a clean outfit.
If you only take one multivitamin daily then this does not apply to you. But if you take more than one supplement daily, you can see this photo of my pill holder. At the beginning of the week, I put one of each daily supplement I take into one pill cubby. Then during my busy day, I reach in and take the supplements for that day and don’t forget any of them.
https://www.walmart.com/search?q=pill+organizer
I even typed my grocery list, because we buy many of the same foods, so why bother to write down the same list every week? I can hand write the extra things we need that week. This has been super helpful in saving time and in enabling me to not forget to buy what I need, because I can print the list and have it up all week and circle the items on my list we run out of (or write something unusual if it’s not on the list). Then I don’t forget what to write or have to imagine the entire list and write it down on my shopping day. My daughters can write on the list during the week too.
As I did last week, I’ll close now, so I don’t bore you with too many ideas. I have made many mistakes in life and wasted so much time, but I learned from my mistakes. This week’s and last week’s ideas came from the solutions I discovered from my mistakes. I cannot take the credit for being clever or a high structure person. I am very weak in this area, but I learned from my mistakes, and I pray I can save you time and aggravation too.
Feel free to share your ideas with me too, and let me know if you find this kind of post helpful, because I have come up with many other “time saving” ideas. What works for me might be worthless for you, so implement anything that works and throw away any of these ideas that don’t work for you. Feel free to use my new sharing buttons for Face Book and Twitter or just share this directly with any friend you know who could benefit from any of these ideas.
Next week I plan (Lord willing) to write about atheists’s criticism of how God handled the Old Testament King Saul. Atheists think God was too harsh with him, but please wait until next week to hear more about this!
May God bless you this week as you find your own ideas for organization, and Lord-willing even have some fun.