ROUTINE AND TO DO LISTS

How do you stay organized and get everything done? It’s a question that people ask me all the time and I tell them – if you were married to my husband, you’d be insanely organized too. Only part of that statement is true. DH is very organized. Insanely organized. At work and with sports. Not so much at home. The man can’t find the hamper with his eyes wide open and all the lights on. Hell, he couldn’t find the hamper if he were standing in it. But, he does send me a color coded calendar on a weekly basis that has my schedule, his schedule, and our kids schedule.

One sure fire way to make you organized is let your kids get involved in Travel Hockey. All three of mine play and on any given weekend, we could be in three different places spread across two countries. We average 170 games a season. And if each kid practices a minimum of 2x a week, and I have three, you can imagine how much time we spend at the rink…. Can anyone say multitasking? This is where I got the reputation for being antisocial because I tend to bring my computer to the rink and write. Hey, if it’s the only time I get, and I’m stuck there for a double practice for like 4 hours, well, I write. Or read. Or now that my kids are older, I do other things, like shopping. I really hate to shop, so I really hate spending a good day when the kids are at school and I could be writing, shopping. So I do those things then. Banking. Post Office. Whatever. That way, I stay organized.

So, how do I really stay organized? Routine and to do lists.

I am a firm believer in routine. If you want something to become a habit, do it every day, at the same time, for a few weeks and it will become routine. I can’t write until my house is picked up. I just can’t. So, the first thing I do every night, is do the once over, and in the morning, I do the once over again. At night, it is simply making sure dishes are in the dishwasher, the kids have done their chores, and things are picked up. In the morning, its different every day. I actually have a schedule. Like Monday’s is strip beds day. I vacuum on another day.

So as I'm writing this I'm realizing I'm very rigid. Or am I just really organized? I mean, being organized isn't a bad thing, if you ask me, but rigid? Not so sure if that is a good thing. Sigh, don't think I could function if I flew by the seat of my pants. I know I can't write by the seat of my pants. Have to plot, and plan, and figure out characters, plot points, extra before I even sit down to write. Of course, the house has to be clean before I do that... sigh...