So many of my readers ask about menu planning. In its simplest form, a menu plan consists of deciding in advance what to cook for supper. For a bit more sophistication, a weekly dinner menu can be made and keep in the weekly section of a planner. Depending on the family's needs, breakfast and lunch plans might be helpful.
In my house, I use a hybrid of these methods. I have three or four breakfast staples (cereal, toast, waffles, and oatmeal/fruit) that I always keep on hand. I eat lots of leftovers for lunch, but have some quick backup lunches available all the time. (My favorites are Easy Mac...shush!...and frozen, cooked shrimp for a quick shrimp cocktail.) But I plan dinners, based on sale ingredients, the family's schedule, and how much energy I have.
I've written about this topic, menu and food prep, a lot: here, here, here, here, and here.
But something that needs more focus is scheduling time to deal with food prep.
Generally, cooking at home takes less time than getting in the car, driving to a restaurant, and picking up food. Still, it does take some time.
One of the biggest food planning mistakes is to forget to plan TIME: time for prep, time for cooking, and time for cleaning up.
TIP: Have others clean up for the cook.
For example, today's menu is toast for breakfast, pasta and grilled chicken for lunch, and leftover grilled chicken or hamburger steaks (depending on whether I have hamburger meat in the freezer) with oven fries for dinner.
But, apart from the actual cooking (from recipes that I know or have written down and with ingredients that I keep on hand all the time), I need to freeze some leftover veggies, make a salsa for tomorrow, and defrost the meals. Those steps go in my planner.
Note that defrosting is time sensitive, so that step goes on the schedule, while freezing extra veggies goes on the should do task list.
However you do food planning, consider incorporating the time to prep and cook in your schedule. In the long run, when you are not running to get takeout all the time, it will help you save time and money.
I'm late with today's blog. It's because I spent the whole weekend Christmas shopping! This elf is tired, but the shopping is almost done.
The worse part of shopping this year is combining in the store shopping by my husband and me with Amazon shopping by my husband. Keeping track of who is buying what, what is bought, how it's getting here, what is wrapped, do the boys have an equal number of gifts, etc. is OVERWHELMING. My planner helps, but the list in there got crazy and crowded and was not working.
So I recopied it onto a two page spread, but first I had to make columns to check off items bought and items wrapped.
I didn't have graph paper handy, so I improvised.
I folded the paper (lining up edges equally) to make columns.
Once I did that, I recopied the list, neatly. I used the following codes, borrowed from the codes that I normally use for task lists:
*check mark = bought *circle = to buy (an idea borrowed from my task list circles) *@AMB = my husband will order/buy (again, @ is pending on my task list) *@AMAZ = ordered and waiting on Amazon to deliver
Also, again echoing my task lists, I highlighted those things that have been bought or ordered, so the rest would jump out at me.
By using the planner techniques that I already use daily, the list started to make sense to me. Mischief managed!
I don't put ideas for John Henry, our Elf on the Shelf, in my planner.
I don't schedule moving the elf.
I don't worry or stress about the elf.
I just have the elf do something that goes along with our daily plan.
Decorating the tree? Have him hang from the limbs.
Christmas shopping? (The shopping list was written with my nondominant hand, using scratch planner paper.)
Wrapping gifts? Wrap candy canes from John Henry.
Writing letters to Santa? John Henry brings back a response.
I seriously don't think about it. If night comes, and we forget to move him, oh well! Sometimes, he moves during the day. No biggie.
Nothing to do with him? He can hide in the stockings or build a Lego structure. It's fun. It is NOT a chore. If it was a chore, I would not do it.
Maybe you aren't an elf person. (Anti-elf?) But there is something that you do at Christmas that can be done only on a whim and is not required. A gift for a co-worker? A craft that you do every year?
This year, take that off you planner and only do it if the urge strikes, for fun!
Planners are quick. You open them, you write, and you close them. Done. In the time that it took for me to type that and for you to read it, you could have written three tasks in your planner.
The truth is that serious planners spend a lot of time, writing each task in the correct part of the planner, with the correct context code and in a pretty handwriting. We obsess over how the insides of our planners look and function, sometimes so much that the quick aspect of using the planner gets abandoned.
But there is a time for a quick list, and, if you have a planner, there is a place for it.
A quick list of tasks should be created when tasks will be done immediately or soon, right in a row, but there are enough tasks that it is worth writing them down. For me, the magic number of tasks that must be written down is three. I can't help it. Two tasks in - and I forget what I was doing! (I'm older than I look. This is proof of my age.)
I might write a quick list of things to do before I go to bed. (Pants, in the example below, mean that my kids must wear long pants with their school uniform tomorrow. I may be getting older, but I do remember to wear pants.) (Um, usually.)
Or maybe I am about to go on some errands, and just jot the order of the errands.
Perhaps I need to proofread the article, email the article, and file the article. A quick list makes sure that, while proofreading, I don't forget to send the article to my boss.
If the day is almost over anyway, the jotted tasks just go in the leftover space on my daily page. Otherwise, they go on my dashboard paper. The mess of the rest of the page, combined with the big circles notating tasks, makes the list jump off of the page visually when written on an otherwise complete day.
Planners are an excellent tool. Don't forget to use them for their primary purpose - to get things done that need doing.
Future pages are important in a paper planner because, unlike an e-planner, calendar pages don't go on forever in a paper planner. Today's video (click here) overviews how I use my future pages.
TIP: If there is no future page in your planner, don't wait to make a complete system of future pages. Get a sheet of paper and make a future page immediately. You can tweak it later!
My Future section is tucked right behind my Calendar section.
Basically, I have three parts to my future pages set-up.
First, I have recurring yearly events/tasks.
Recurring yearly events include birthdays and anniversaries. The tasks include some doctors' appointments or car inspections.
For anything that happens every year, I have six pieces of special paper (the page with the blue strip in the picture above, but you could use washi tape for the same effect) that I divide into twelve months (one on each side of paper) and double punch (so the current month can always be the first thing after the Future tab).
TIP: Next to each birthday, include the year of birth and whether you need to send a card, make a phone call, buy a gift, or throw a party.
Example - Loki's Bday (2008) [gift, party]
Second, I have a yearly calendar for the upcoming year.
All that happens here is that any date where I am booked for something gets highlighted. For example, if I agree to substitute teach the week of February 16 - 20 so a teacher can go to a conference, I highlight that week. This technique lets me check my future calendar for conflicts very quickly.
I have these pages folded (so they only take up half a page of space and work as a natural divider between the recurring future pages and the one-time future pages).
Third, I have one-time future pages.
I simply use hole-punched, lined inserts and divide each into three parts on each side. After the next year, I have one page labeled 2016 and Beyond.
Example -
2015 Jan: Feb: Mar:
2015 Apr: May: Jun:
One-time events and tasks that will happen after my monthly calendar pages end go on those pages. Dividing each page into three sections allows me to visually only copy one month at a time to my new monthly pages as I add those to my planner.
TIP: At the end of each month, have a recurring (i.e., circled) task to check future pages for upcoming dates to be copied into your monthly pages.
My daily routine just changed dramatically. I am a creature of habit, so this change has been jarring to my psyche.
Before, my husband left for work. Right after he left, I did morning routine with the kids, carpool (an hour and fifteen minute long event), workout (yoga class or YMCA), work for four hours and/or errands, lunch at home, housework, a short rest period/my downtime, and then the kids arrived home with my husband for us to split up overseeing chores and homework. After homework, my husband had his downtime while I made supper (most nights). If I didn't cook he might pull together something quick for the kids, and then he and the oldest go to karate some days.
Now, my husband does morning carpool instead of me and gets home after homework/chores.
I HATE IT.
(Yes, intentional screamy caps.)
I can't wake up before they leave, else my mere presence upsets the force. (The force is named Loki. He is six years old. He makes Darth Vader look pretty pleasant when the force is disturbed.) So I wake up but hide under the pillow until they leave, wasting a good 45 minutes of the day. (Okay, I keep sleeping for that full 45 minutes. Still wasted!) But my husband can't handle making lunches for the kids and remembering snack and water bottles (seriously, he does his share, truly, but this managing multiple things at once early in the morning is not in his skill set), so I have to do that the night before instead of in the morning, like I used to.
In order to do lunch at home (the only really affordable choice, since I don't have an office where I can heat something up), I have to skip yoga class and work from home in the morning. I like to work remotely. There is no tv (or bed or even laundry) at the library!
Then, right after I eat, I have to go workout. Yuck. I just ate. Also, the best yoga teacher is in the city at 8 a.m. (but I can't justify an extra trip into the city at 8 a.m., time-wise or gas-wise). So I do the step machine alongside the retirees and the guys who workout all day. (I swear on monkeys that they are there at 8 a.m. AND at 1 p.m.). If I grocery shop, I have to bring coolers with me or the stuff melts. Errands are rushed because I have to be at carpool on time, instead of leaving carpool to do errands in a proper leisurely fashion. Oh, and morning carpool never has a line, but afternoon carpool takes FOREVER and I have to sit and wait in line. For bonus points, Louisiana changed the law and I can no longer use my cell phone while STOPPED in the carpool line. Ugh.
After school, I have to handle homework and chores alone. I'm used to my husband's help. It's a nightmare when both boys have tests...and when they test me. Plus, I can't start supper until it's all done, pushing supper later.
Notice the lack of downtime in this new, shinier scenario. (Shinier like a bad bald spot or a slimy worm. The sarcasm kind of shiny.)
I can stay up for an extra 45 minutes, I guess. But my husband doesn't, so that means we would go to bed separately. Sometimes, that is the only time we get alone together all day!
I'm doing what I can. I'm planning more portable lunches (with salads and thermoses). I'm researching later yoga and other classes, for after an early lunch. During carpool, I've been trying to do my planning for the next day. (I'm seated, in park, brake locked, in a parking lot.)
But it sucks. My husband doesn't like the new routine. My children don't like the new routine. And I HATE the new routine.
Whine Fest over! Thanks for listening. Back tomorrow with a real blog entry. I swear on monkeys!
