Ok, somehow I totally heard that with MC Hammer in the background singing and everything. That’s usually when I turn it up in my mind and rock on, or tune myself out and get to work. I think right now I need to stay on task because my day is so busy I’m writing this in one of 4 school lines before I return some phone calls and go back to work. Trust me, I know many of you are even busier so I will try and keep this simple and to the point.
Since today I would like to talk about how my organizer/ planner is the center of my life, I’m going to start with my 2 main lists. Basically my whole planner is categorized and everyone’s has to be different in order to meet their needs. Maybe you don’t have kids. Possibly you go to school. Maybe you are single. Doesn’t matter, like, at all. What does matter, is that you know what is the most important to you. My most important lists in my organizer are my “To Do” and my “Menu Plan”. The reason they are the most important are because they have my daily reminders and I know based on my menu if I need to pull out foods or if I am making several meals out of one item that needs to be prepared alongside others. If you are single and go to school full time, you most important lists might be your schedule and your school work planner.
My “To Do” and my “Menu Plan” are also probably my simplest list. They don’t need to be completed. The more complicated things get, the less likely I am to do them or use them. Starting with my “To Do”. I use this list as a simple way to make quick notes and not a full schedule. Sometimes it looks like it, but it’s not. I glance at it before bed and again in the morning as a simple reminder of what’s going on. My schedule, not included in this post, I have to follow to a T or way too many things can get out of hand pretty quickly. I don’t know about you, but my idea of saving money does not involve running to a grocery store at 10:30 at night to buy school crap, lunch stuff that we are out of and dinner all without coupons or any thought to them. My life used to be that way. It was stressful, complicated and expensive! Even with a plan for everything I have to make a quick stop sometimes still, it’s completely unavoidable. But, I can try to plan ahead and make the most of my time spent in advance. Because I plan my meals ahead of time, I know what I need at a grocery store which eliminates the aimless wandering (Ok, sometimes I used to do that for fun), and it takes away the shock at the register of what items really cost when you just start throwing the things that sound good in the cart. Of course, I’m also a big kid. If I didn’t have strict dietary restrictions, I would probably only eat ice cream. Forever. And EVER! That’s a food group right? In fact, I think it’s like 4 food groups – sweet, cold, creamy and sometimes crunchy/ salty. Yep! I wish!
Back to my point. My “To Do” and my “Menu Plan” are very simple. My “Schedule” includes when, how and what time to prepare these items so they get broken down even further in case pops or the mini-me’s have to help with anything or I get stuck at work. I made my “To Do” and “Menu Plan” in MS Word. They are nothing more than a few text boxes, fun fonts and the use of the alignment and wrapping tools. You don’t even have to spend that much time. You also don’t need to print them unless it’s counterproductive for you to not have them with you. Since I work from my computer, I only print my schedule to keep on me. To Do at Home Menu Plan These two items begin and end every day. They are 2 of the categories in my expanding and evolving personal binder. Just like the ones some people use to coupon. That also doesn’t work for me but I’ll explain in a different post since my coupons are in fact part of my binder, it’s just not a coupon binder. I hope seeing these helps you get started organizing or reorganizing your planner. Feel free to comment and let my know what you think.
The House of Xen 