|
By now you’ve had the chance to put in routines for weekly planning, end-of-week tidy-up, and weekend cleaning. You’ve diarised your long-term plans, and made a start on them, yes? Now, here’s your next Every: Every month you should check-in on those long-term plans, and write a new Monthly Plan. Let’s do one for August! Monthly Review & Planning 1. Review progress against your Quarterly Plan (Reminder 1) to prioritise this month’s to-dos. 2. Break the tasks down into slightly more detail to give 4 weeks of progress. 3. Diarise these tasks. 4. Add other intentions & expectations for August. 5. Make space for these by maintaining other Everies learnt so far, beginning with Weekly Cleaning 1. Reward yourself for July’s progress.
Set a nice treat to look forward to for carrying out your August Plan :-) Heidi
0 Comments
I trust you are keeping up with your Thursday Weekly Plan & the Friday Wrap? If you were also able to fit in the odd-jobs so far, look around -- is your home a little brighter, a little sharper 'round the edges? Great! Here’s the second round of weekend cleaning: Weekly Cleaning 2
The trick with these Everies is to know when to Stop. Because some are too easy, you might be tempted to keep going ‘til you’re worn out. Then what happens tomorrow? Nothing!
Just thoroughly do the given Everies, diarise their recurrence so they become routine, then get on with life. That way, you can benefit from those repeated feelings of completion which permit you the time, interest and energy to cope with everyday demands yet still work on your own Quarterly Plan. (And don’t worry – I’ll give you plenty more to do along the way.) Cleaning Odd-Jobs
You can do odd-jobs while having conversations, mulling over a problem, or to kill time during TV ad breaks ;-) Here are a couple of ideas to get you started: 1. Dust ceilings and walls - see any interesting spider webs? 2. Clean door frames and handles. Diarise when to do any maintenance needs you noticed along the way, such as paint touch-ups. If you solved a problem or got a bright idea while doing such odd-jobs, write that in your diary, too! If you are very busy, break your routine housework up over 2 weeks. This way it is fast & there is no excuse not to squeeze it in. Over the long term it has other benefits, which you’ll discover once you try it. Weekly Cleaning 1
Want to reduce your housework even further? This common trick reduces overall dirt levels more than you’d think: Create a mini-mudroom where you can take your shoes off at the door – front and back. It can be as simple as a shoe rack & large mat, with slippers nearby; or thongs, as we use in Australia. I like the recycled rubber knobbly ones that ease foot-aches like magic. Wait, not those kinds of thongs – these ones:
Here’s a great way to keep warm on these bitter July evenings. (At least that’s how they are in this part of the world right now.)
Declutter for Fire Safety
Declutter All Exit Routes
One of the first actions to take in embarking on a decluttering program is to make your environment safer. Therefore, during the first month or so of these reminders, you can expect to be given tasks to do just that. First up, thoroughly clear away all obstacles & hazards from:
Don’t search first – get up and start decluttering right away. As you go, make a list of problem areas to research after you've done your best to clear all exit routes. Now that you've had enough of writing and thinking, put your Quarterly & Monthly Plans in a handy place so that you will refer to them often, then get active again:
Weekly Wrap-up Do this fast tidying routine any day for a once-over that makes a big difference. Doing the wrap-up on Friday nights is especially good because it’s an easy way to put the work week behind you & reclaim your home.
When you wake up to a tidy living area on Saturday morning, you’ll feel better able to relax into the weekend, despite more chores ahead ;-) Hopefully you were able to spend some time on the weekend getting started on your Quarterly Plan steps. Or did they move vaguely into the background of life already? Either way, the next thing to do is to break your Quarterly Plan down into monthly actions, in the form of a Monthly Plan.
Then break those steps down into Weekly Plans! Isn't that fun? I know it seems tedious to do all that writing -- that's why I gave you a break to dream about the bigger plans just happening by themselves for a few days :-) However, when they're done, you'll find those plans make it easy to diarise everything you need to do to make things happen the way you want. I've put together a simple diary to help with goals-setting and everyday obligations. It's especially priced for testing the first quarter only. You can check it out on my Goods page. Feel free to ask questions, either here or via the Contact Form. And remember to put your diarised steps into action through the week! |
In using this blog, please Note:
|
RSS Feed