Rocking a To-Do List: Making Small Changes

Hi friends! We’re on Day 29 of Making Small Changes and I’m so excited to have my “real life” friend Fabia guest posting today. Fabia is one of the most organized people I know, and a lot of that organization boils down to her “list” that she is known for. 🙂 

I’m excited about implementing something like this in my life. Without further ado, here’s Fabia. Also when you’re done reading this, be sure to check out Fabia’s blog.

Hello Readers of Eat Pray Read Love!

My name is Fabia Hill, and I’m a real-life friend of Kelli’s. I love her online work too, but I just mean to say that I knew her in real life first. I just searched for my name on her blog, and it turns out that I’m mostly mentioned in connection with food. 🙂 But I think I may also be “the friend with the on-going list” from her post 10 {Simple} Tips for Organizing: Tips #1 and 2. Right Kelli?  (Yep!)

A good list:

• is a permanent friend in a predictable, accessible, yet safe place
• doesn’t tie you to a particular schedule (no time slots)
• helps you be more efficient
• has room for notes to help with its successor, the next week’s list
• gives you peace of mind, but only if you take the time to make a good one!
• Is not your diary, so no adding things just to cross them off (note from Kelli: I’m guilty of this!)

So without further ado, here’s a picture of my list in action. 

 

 

As you can see, my list is taped inside a cabinet door, at eye level, in a cabinet that I open a bazillion times a day, to get out plates and to check the list. It is not in danger of getting thrown away, or attract more papers. You know about paper attracting paper, right? No pile gets started here! And I keep pens handy and no one steals them to do their homework.

Here’s how I MAKE the list: I have two word documents called the latest plan and the always plan. The “latest plan” is your last list (the first time you do this it will be a blank document of course). The “always plan” contains a skeleton of a week, basically a list of weekly recurring things too dull and cumbersome to put in a calendar, like laundry, reminding kids to take instruments to school, plant watering, work, extracurricular activities, cleaning, playgroup, bible study and so on. And list making. Ok now that I typed out the fact that I have list making on my To Do List, I do feel like an OCD lunatic! Too late, I already told Kelli I’d write this post……

This is what I call my “always plan”- things I do every week. (It’s normally on one page but I had to make the font bigger to make it readable- K)

Green items are things that need to be done (or started) before we leave for school
*Items followed by a star are out-and-about errands, for easier planning
Orange items are done on the computer
Jamberry related work is purple
__________ need to be filled in at the time of list making

On Friday I plan my week and add in things specific to the week on the to-do list. You can do this any day, but allow a couple of days between the day your “always plan” starts and the day you a making the new list. Actually you don’t make a new list, you just edit your latest plan (you can see mine for this week below)

All you do is you open your “always plan” and copy the entire left hand side and then you paste it into the appropriate place in your latest plan. Delete the days that have passed in the latest plan. This is also when you take your current printed list down and add all the notes to your calendar or the new list.

And last but certainly not least, this is when you need to look at your calendar (paper or electronic) and add everything in it to your “latest plan”. Then print it and hang it in its special place!

Thank you so much Fabia! I think most of us could handle a little more organization in our lives and having tutorials like this is a great help!

How do you stay organized? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!