Organization // Monthly Planning Session

Wow, it’s been a busy couple weeks! I’ve been planning events and keeping people organized…loving every minute of it. But I am happy for a lull in my schedule.

 Whenever my work has me busy with special events, I usually end up making sacrifices in other areas. I allow myself to do this for a short season of time, but if I’m not careful I can get out of balance and develop some bad habits. Things that may suffer include cleaning, exercise, seeing friends, communication with my husband and my spiritual life.  I’ve learned to let the less important things slip first (cleaning can wait - God and my husband cannot).

Thankfully, this time I didn’t end up in too much of a whirlwind, but God was definitely calling me to refocus. And perfect timing too; a new month begins in just a few hours…

That brings me to the real topic of this post: Developing a Monthly Planning Session.

I found it is so much easier to stay on top of my priorities, goals, to-do’s…everything…when I sit down at the beginning of the month and think through it all. One thing that helps me is my home management binder where I can keep all my lists together. Here is what’s inside:

Organization // Time Management // Follow-Up: My Day

Yesterday I posted some tips on List-Making to help with Time Management. If you missed it, check it out HERE.

Today you get a glimpse into my life to see some of those tips in action. Please keep in mind that when you apply any type of time management skills to your life, it will look different than everyone else’s. You may have more/less kids, a larger/smaller house, live closer/farther distances from shopping, a different level of fitness and so on.

So what I hope you learn from the example below is how to think through and accomplish your to-do list, not how much you can get done compared to me.

Ready?

Organization // Time Management // List-Making

People are often amazed, curious or weirded-out by my gift of organization. Truthfully, I am not THAT organized…there is room for improvement in many areas. However,  overall I am good at it, I make it a priority and I LOVE it. I guess that’s what makes it a gift.  J

If you feel you are always falling short on organization, I want to encourage you that you can learn ways to improve. Being organized may come more naturally for me, but the basics can definitely be learned and added into your life. Hopefully I can give you some tips to help you out. And for those of you who are more organized than me (I know you are out there) please feel free to share so I can learn too!

We will start off by discussing one of the basics of time management: List-Making...