Gettin' Organised

Another thing that Ivory at LH in the 'Burbs mentions, as with practically every other life organising guru, is to make a basic weekly plan. For me, especially since i resist all things routine and most things requiring conformity, i cannot get behind the basic weekly plan for things...the daily routine list is causing enough of an allergic reaction in me that i can't bare to make a weekly list that i have to adhere to. Well, except for the stuff that we signed up and committed to. This is the stuff that my REALLY, REALLY basic list of weekly blah blah blah is made of. :) And especially since our obligations change monthly or even quarterly, i don't rely on it for anything other than making the practically impenetrable weekly schedule in my school calendar.


The **really** Basic Weekly Plan for Whit’s Household 1/1/11 - 2/3/11


Monday: school, library, zone


Tuesday: school, swim class, Irish dance


Wednesday: school, home blessing


Thursday: school, swim class, zone


Friday: Weight Watchers, school, zone


Saturday: planning day, errands & shopping, Mass, dinner out


Sunday: family day, arts & crafts, projects


Now, my other method of organisation that i mentioned above is a funky school calendar from Mixed Productions. It's not a regular calendar that runs from Jan to Dec (although they do produce a Jan to Jan calendar.) It's core runs from August to August. Each month being represented by monthly calendar and weekly calendars that have the days broken down by the hour. I love this kind of calendar. I also love that it has a page in front of each month for sqecial occasions (so the precious space in the date boxes can be saved for non-routine activities or appointments.) It also has a page each month for notes and for financial record. 13 paperclips later (one for each month and one for the week you are currently in), all family appts and school plans are at your fingertips when your friend asks for a playdate or that new homeschoolers field trip ad pops up!! The other beauty of this device is that it includes monthly calendars that overlap each year giving you an 18 month calendar with overlap for continuity...there is a calendar page for the July preceding the first August and for the remainder of the year after the last August. So if you are scheduling appointments out a year in advance, you can have the space to keep them in on the correct date, not just a piece of paper cliped to a calendar that will hopefully get transcribed to the new calendar when it arrives. Granted they are a little spendy, and for families with more than one student it would be to small--i can see when we eventually add students to the Whit Academy of Fyne sKoolin', i will need to find or make a calendar with the same concepts on a larger scale. However, this is the part where you go out and find what works for you and your tribe! That's the beauty of the internets, one persons routine gives another person inspiration and the brainstorm ideas to grow for themselves!

I'll get into how i use my calendar in the next post.