If you are a Loyal Reader, you've heard about The Loki before. He is five years old and one smart cookie. (As the picture shows, he is not smart enough to get out of the rain.)
"Guess what? You can count to 100 and it doesn't even take all day." - The Loki
"How do you know that?" -Mommy (aka Giftie Etcetera)
"Because I'm smarter than the average bear." - The Loki
He is not as smart as he thinks he is, of course. (Again, I reference the rain. However, he is just as confident as he sounds. No humility in that one.) But he is right about this particular thing. Counting to 100 only takes about 2 minutes.
In fact, lots of the chores that we dread take only about two minutes. Here is a list of things that take less than two minutes to accomplish.
*Writing it down.
*Glancing at your planner to see today's agenda.
*Writing a list of three top tasks to do today.
*Loading or unloading the dishwasher.
*Putting the clean laundry away.
*Hanging up your purse and coat instead of dropping them on the counter.
*Clearing the table after supper.
*Wiping down the counters.
*Wiping down the shower after use.
*Packing a tote bag for tomorrow's errands.
*Wrapping a birthday present.
*Doing jumping jacks or a plank.
*Sweeping the floor.
*Sending an email.
*Filing several items in the filing cabinet.
*Getting something done instead of writing it down.
Two minutes is a long time in terms of getting things done, but a relatively short time to spend making life easier for yourself. Next time you are running around trying to be more efficient, more successful, more impressive, take two minutes and get something done.
(For the record, typing and editing this blog took under five minutes. :) Please share on twitter, Facebook, or Google+ if you are impressed.)
Check out that huge lower lip. Imagine how far he can stick that out! He cried and cried and asked to cuddle.
You need to understand that he LOVES Halloween. It's one of his favorite days. Jack Skellington is his favorite movie character ever. But school was all day, he didn't nap, and it was pouring rain and miserable during trick-or-treating. He couldn't handle it and burst into tears.
Mommy was sympathetic. (Heck, let's just tell the truth. Mommy was running on coffee and chocolate and almost melting down herself.)
I had to substitute teach yesterday, prepare for trick-or-treating out of town (including candy, costumes, non-uniform clothes to wear under costumes, camera, gifts for my brother-in-laws Halloween birthday...the list goes on and on), deal with a sick husband who couldn't help out the way he usually does, and prepare for the first day of Nanowrimo. In addition, I had tons of end of the month deadlines to reach. I was overwhelmed.
A peek at my calendar shows that October 31st was full and trick-or-treating was not even written down.
And the weekly page, including the 30th (which was not complete on the 31st) was jammed, too. (Blurs are intentional to protect the innocent.)
Thankfully, I keep my dashboard set up. For a dashboard (the first page of a planner), I just use a piece of graph paper cut to size. For me, a dashboard is necessary when life gets crazy and will exceed the allotted space on my weekly page.
Halloween is one of those days. Therefore, I used my dashboard a ton yesterday. I just put the date on it, kept it open on the teacher's desk, and jotted down anything that I needed to remember, all day long. I wrote down my calories (as I could not use my cell phone to enter them while teaching), reminders of things that I needed to do or remember, and notes of times when I had to return to teaching from breaks.
Today, I am processing the dashboard. I am entering my calories in Fit Bit, typing up ideas for my novel, and putting task on the weekend's task list.
The Rules say that you write things where they belong - on your weekly page, on your monthly calendar, or in your projects. The Reality is that my dashboard was a lifesaver yesterday, when I didn't even have a second to turn the pages in my planner.
Another reality? Only the five year old had an actual meltdown. I survived tear-free, like a reasonably mature grown-up.
If you have been writing things down as they come up, you already know, time wise, what is in store for next month. But there are some things you should do every month to keep your planner in order. Check out the You Tube video of the monthly review process.
1. On the last day of the month, complete any end-of-the-month tasks. Don't forget to make sure you've done everything on your monthly task list.
Every month, I have to pay the bills, mortgage and school cafeteria. (My husband handles the rest of the bills.)
Just look at it. Give your brain two minutes to soak in what's on the agenda. (For every child you have, add two extra minutes. I'm convinced that kid are zombies and eat our brains on the way out of our tummies.) Make sure you have gifts purchased and wrapped for upcoming birthdays. At the very least, add purchase gifts to your task list. Realize that Thanksgiving is coming. Note that you are having house guests and really ought to clean the guest bathroom.
3. Remove the planner pages from two months ago and file them in an old planner or with binder clips or rubber bands.
On October 31st, for example, remove September's pages. I leave last month's pages in, in case I need to refer back to them.
4. Add a month of planner pages to your calendar section.
I usually try to keep three to five months at a time (more like five during the school year, when the kids are so busy with activities), so for me, this means on November 1st, I add March.
5. Add anything from your future page to the month that you just added.
If you added March, copy items from March on the future page to your March calendar. Scratch them out on the future page.
I'm showing you October's budget pages, as I haven't made November's yet. I hole punch an envelope for holding receipts until I can file them at home. (I only file receipts for returnable items.)
In my family, we have already cut cable and many other expenses. The only thing we actually track now in the planner is the shopping that goes on the credit card. We needed to cut credit card spending by four percent in order to spend less than we make, so I use last year's credit card bill minus four percent to determine this month's budget.
I keep the accounting in my planner, right before the next month's tab.
8. Go over your notes/file section to make sure everything in there is something you actually want to carry around with you all the time.
For example, a health log might have made sense during pregnancy, but might not be useful now. The list of babysitters might be out of date now that your children are teenagers.
This once a month check is the only time I go over my files and it is important.
9. Scratch out the reminder on the last day in the weekly pages of this month to do the monthly review, and write it, with a circle around it because it repeats, on the last day of next month.
Tip: Make a document of what you need to do in your monthly review and put it in your files, if you don't have one.
Some months, I skip this step. (I call that "planning for the lazies.")
This month, my goals are to eat within my calories (tracked on-line) and to write my novel (tracked in projects).
That's it. If you've been writing things down as they occur to you, the whole process takes about 10 minutes.
Happy planning!
Etcetera.
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***This post may contain affiliate links. They help you find the items that I use in my planner and financially support this blog. See my "Disclaimer" link for additional details.*** Whenever possible, I advocate using a system that you already have in place to plan.
For example, if menu planning is working for you when you jot the menu on a dry erase board on the fridge, go for it.
If it's not, consider using a dedicated space on your weekly pages. I don't see any reason why the holiday season should be treated differently.
(Don't watch the following You Tube video in front of little ones. Safe for work, but involves Santa planning. :) ) Video of Giftie Etcetera's Holiday Planning After all, planning for Christmas is just another project. And here at Giftie Etcetera, we use Project pages for planning projects.
Another reason to use your planner for holiday planning, instead of a separate holiday binder, is that your planner always leaves the house with you anyway, so you can do Christmas shopping anytime and anywhere, instead of just if you have your bulky holiday binder with you.
Also, holiday planner truly only takes a few sheets of planner paper, so it won't bulk up your planner too much.
During the rest of the year, you can file away those pages, as there is no need to carry holiday planning pages with you. Tip: Only buy purses or bags that fit your planner.
What works for me, using the system that I already have in place, is to make a Holiday Planning project (which includes Thanksgiving), to use my monthly calendar for dated events, and to note due dates on my weekly task lists (such as having all gifts wrapped by the night before the night before Christmas). TIP: Use last year's holiday plan to create this year's project pages. Some ideas for what you might include in a Holiday Planner: *menus *Elf on the Shelf ideas *holiday traditions (Some of our favorites include an ornament chosen by the kids each year that will leave the house for them for their first college Christmas tree, wrapping Christmas pajamas for Christmas Eve morning so they look cute in Christmas morning in the pictures, and burning bonfires on the Mississippi River levee on Christmas Eve to show Papa Noel where to fly.) *decorations *gifts purchased list *gift ideas list *kids' wish lists *spouse gift list (covered in a post-it with a "Do Not Peek" message) *your own wish list *cut-out swatches of wrapping paper for a gift code list of who is getting what and where they are receiving the gift so that you don't have to write names on gifts TIP: Wrap presents based on where they are headed. Wrap in green for staying home, red for Grandma's house, and blue for gifts that need to be delivered, for example.
Paste little swatches of the wrapping paper on the gift code list so that, when it's time to leave for Grandma's house, all you have to do is grab all the red boxes. TIP: Use only Santa wrapping paper (or snowmen or reindeer) for Santa gifts.
In my house, one kid gets the red paper and one the green, all with Santa on them, so that I don't have to write names on the gifts (and risk the second grader recognizing my handwriting). Enjoy the video. A special shout out to my facebook friends who helped me improve the lighting in my videos. You know who you are. :) Etcetera.
Yes, my seven year old, Ander, asked for a planner. :) :) :) (There are not enough smiley faces on the planet.) Ander decided on a red, erasable Frixion pen, which is a special treat for him since they can't use ink pens yet at school.
I used a cheap Plan Ahead (same size as Franklin Covey compact) planner that I had bought for the refills.
I also used graph paper, construction paper (for tabs), and the monthly printouts from Philofaxy to load the planner up with usable pages.
He had a blast filling out the planner.
Check out the books that he has read. Clearly, he is a better reader than he is a speller.
He is keeping track of his Pokeman collection in the planner, too.
We agreed on a weekly meeting every Sunday (which I noted on my planner) to look at dates for the upcoming week. Etcetera.
Writing this post forced me to Google both the plural of the letter X and whether scratch outs was a compound word, a hyphenated word, or a two word phrase. The e-world is apparently seriously divided on both topics. There was angst, animosity, and rage over the suggested answer. (I didn't rage.The e-world did.)
In the end, I went with what was logical to me. So capital X is plural, as is standard for letters - not Xes. (I can't do the apostrophe. I'm not leaving any letters out to replace with an apostrophe. My Loyal Readers are free to disagree.You should note that anyone who disagrees is WRONG, though. :) I will rage if you force me, darn it!) (Does the smiley make my self-righteous comment any better?)
Planner'ds (see what I did there, with the apostrophe clearly representing the e in the past tense word plannered) will probably find similar levels of disagreement with today's blog topic - scratching out tasks, appointments, and days that have been completed. Most people, in my experience, prefer a check box to signify that a task is complete. Or they simply try to remember what they have completed, which in my opinion is a serious waste of a paper planner. To use my planner to its full potential, I prefer scratching out.
Tip: If you do enjoy the check box, consider changing two things. First, draw a circle instead of a box. That takes much less time. Also, consider Xing through the circle instead of checking the circle. It's much easier to glance at, visually, and see what still needs to be done.
The reason that I prefer scratching out tasks (with only one line, so I can still look back and see what I have completed) is because, although it is visually cluttered, the things that are left to do are so starkly clean and orderly that I can't miss them. (See how your eyes jump to the uncrossed out 27th?) Some people prefer Xs, and that is fine, if less efficient. (See, I'm not ragey at all! Just politely suggesting...)
I use a single cross to scratch out weekly page days as they pass. I also use one line to scratch out completed tasks and appointments.
You could just check things off, but not only will the check box (*cough* circle *cough*) take up valuable planner space, but the things that jump out at you won't be limited to things that you actually still have to do.
Bonus tip: if you use a highlighter, instead of highlighting what needs to be done, try highlighting whatever you are crossing out. Then the things that need to be done really pop.
Teacher/Business Tip: I also use yellow fluorescent highlighters to mark originals of documents that I plan to copy (like a handout for students that you want to save and use again next year or copies of a checklist for the end of the month closeout that you recopy every month). Most (not all, so check yours) copy machines don't pick up yellow fluorescent highlighter, so you never accidentally use your original, as it is marked in bright yellow.
