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We work more effectively when we preplan routines that keep our lives humming. We have a feeling of security when we know what to expect. You can simplify your time by creating a chart of those chores that now plague you. Then eliminate worry and guilt by completing each chore on the designated day.
Weekly Home Routines
Jackie and Bill decided they didn’t like letting grocery shopping, laundry, yard work and errands fill every Saturday. So they developed a system that allowed them to get the errands out of the way during the week, leaving more time for golf or snow skiing on the weekends.
Jackie and Bill’s Routine
(Please see the wired version of this article on HousekeepingChannel.com to access this chart.)
Chore Planning Chart | |
| Monday | Pay bills with online banking. Stay home. |
| Tuesday | Grocery shop. |
| Wednesday | Shop for other needed items or free night. |
| Thursday | Do errands: banking, post office and returns. |
| Friday | Cut grass, do laundry, and clean up house. |
| Saturday | Yard work, golf or skiing. |
Jackie and Bill started to expand their social network once their home and personal chores were under control.
A New Way to Keep Up
Instead of burdening your mind with reminders, such as “I need to sew on a button,” or “I wish I had time to pick up a few plants,” create a dependable schedule on paper or your computer — somewhere you can see it and refer to it. Reviewing to-do-lists from the last few weeks may help you see a pattern of general categories that need your attention.3 Steps to Your Customized Schedule
Take a moment now to walk through the following three steps:
- Identify the regular tasks you are not currently finishing. Pick one area to focus on for the next two months until you have a comfortable schedule that works.
- Post a Monday-Saturday or -Sunday chart. Simply draw a chart on an index card and fill in with pencil what you think will work.
- Post the chart where you’ll be able to see it and act on it. For example, tape your personal chart to your bathroom mirror, and place your home chart by your kitchen sink. Keep the pencil and eraser nearby so you can adjust the chart as you live it.
Once you’ve established a predictable rhythm, you can toss the chart. Now you have one more way to start living with extra time savings.
Excerpted and condensed from Marcia Ramsland's: Simplify Your Time: Stop Running & Start Living! ©2006, W. Publishing Group, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. Copying or using this material without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited and in direct violation of copyright law.
Marcia Ramsland is well known as "The Organizing Pro" for her practical skills and tips to manage busy lives. As a national speaker, author and consultant since 1985, Marcia delights her audiences from New York to California with tips and secrets to organize their time, home, paperwork and life. Her tips have been in Woman’s Day and other national magazines, radio interviews and TV. She can be reached through her Web site 
