If you aren't familiar with the organizing system found here, then please go back and look at it. The system I use for my planner is the same one I describe in my Organization Station Section. The only difference is that everything from my card file is consolidated and condensed into my Section 6 divider in my planner. You need to at least have your "Master Task Lists" completed. You will also need yellow, blue, white and pink 3X5 index cards, and 4 floppy-disk holders (I use Dayrunner).
Step Two
Put your floppy-disk holders behind your Master Task Lists. (You will need your lists out where you can see them for the moment.) Make cards as described in this lesson. With your disk holder on the right side, put your "Daily Essentials" card in the top slot facing you. Put your "Kitchen Upkeep" card in the bottom slot. Then, behind the "Daily Essentials" card put the "Bathroom Upkeep" card facing away from you. Repeat with your "Evening Routine" card behind the "Kitchen Upkeep" card. When you turn the page you should have "Bathroom Upkeep" and "Evening Routine" on the left where you can see them. If you have not done these cards you will need to do them. As you write tasks on cards, try to write them in the order that you will do them. Each card will already have a "built in" priority code since you will do tasks in a predecided order. At this point EVERY daily or every other day activity from ALL your lists should be accounted for on a yellow card somewhere. If you have stragglers you can add them to a card, or make a new daily card. There is plenty of room in the disk holders.
Step Three
Now we are going to repeat the same process for EVERY weekly or every other week activity. Take a blue card and write across the top the day of the week (Monday through Saturday) and an area. (Look right here for an example of a weekly card.) Take your activity sheet for a room and list all the weekly activities on the card. Do this for each area. You only have 5 or 6 days of the week to work on, so you will have 5 or 6 cards for ALL of your weekly work. Everything must be spread between those days. You should not have any activities unaccounted for with a weekly frequency. They all go on a card somewhere. Put your blue cards in the disk holder pockets in order like you did the daily cards.
Step Four
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Guess what's next. Chances are you are correct - it's those Station tasks. You will need one card for each Station. Stations are explained in this lesson. You will have 5 or 6 white Station cards depending on how often you want to rotate your work. I have 6 Station cards so my monthly chores are done every 6 weeks (not monthly as it sounds). Take your activity sheet and list every activity that has a monthly, seasonal, or yearly frequency on one white card. Repeat this for all your lists. When you are done with this you should not have a single activity that is not written on either a daily-yellow, weekly-blue, or Station-white card. ALL of your tasks should be accounted for. Add your white cards to the floppy pockets.
Step Five
I think I told you about Green Cards before. Green cards are special projects or activities I want to have organized. I make these for decorating projects or sewing projects. You may want to have these special projects in a file or special section of your planner, but small ones work great on green cards. I just file them in the empty floppy pockets and look at them. I usually get to these when my other work is done.
Step Six
All that's left is for you to understand how I work these cards into my dayplanner. At the beginning of everyday at my planning time I always write "daily essentials", "kitchen upkeep", "bathroom upkeep", "evening routine", "weeklies", and "Station work". These get prioritized right along with everything else. (They are always done in the order I wrote them.) When I begin working I look at my planner and see that the first thing to do is "daily essentials". I open my planner to the card, do it, then go back and check it off of my daily page. Then I do the same for the rest of my daily cards. Then I turn to the blue card for whatever day it is and do the weekly chores. After this, I make a note of what Station I am in and take a look at my card. If it is Monday, I can do any number of things, but if it is Wednesday, many will be finished. It helps me to look at my Station card in my quiet time and write the activities on my daily page as single activities. Sometimes they are large and need a block of time.
The next page isn't done, but it will be on the financial section.
I have been so fortunate to find such a great group of graphics. Thank you, Amreta, for the use of this adorable set. Please visit her well-done website for some beautiful artwork. Just click on the graphic link below.
Chore Organizing Section
