What Are You Doing Today?

Published on by Kim

Sometimes the days get away from us. Sometimes we take a few minutes at the start to think about what we need to do. In those few minutes, it is good to think about whether we have covered all the bases.

Generally speaking, we all have three sets of stuff to do. These need to be addressed for our time to be used well. That can be tricky! But if all three are reflected in the daily or weekly plan, it’s off to a good start.

Scheduled Commitments
The dentist. The practices. The work. The school days. These are things that are commitments at certain times on specific days. You don’t just stop into the dentist’s office when you are driving by; it’s a date and time. If you can’t make it as planned, you re-schedule, but it continues to be a specific date and time.

  • Work schedule
  • School schedule
  • Medical appointments
  • Sports schedule

These are the things that should — and often do — go on the calendar first. They are the non-negotiables. It’s not that you can’t reschedule, but for the moment they are fixed. You have to work around these entries.

Priorities
What are your priorities? We all have them. Some are assigned to us, and some we take on ourselves. Either way, if they are truly priorities, they will show up in our use of time. So as we manage our time, we block out space on our calendars to focus on what is most important. If we don’t, these are the things that tend to continually be put off for another day, and that is a dangerous trap.

  • Do you have regular time for devotions?
  • Do you have time marked to just enjoy your friends or children or family?
  • Do you set aside 20 minutes to read on a regular basis?

Tasks
The long to-do list. So much to do, but have you scheduled time to do it all? If your day is full of commitments and focused priorities, without a minute to breathe, those tasks will not get done. Tasks are the little things: errands, dishes, laundry, bank, birthday cards, etc. They do also reflect priorities, but they are the 5-to-15-minute items.

There is no need to schedule time for each task on our calendars, but it can be helpful to schedule an hour or two a day (whatever time fits each the current need) to knock out tasks.

  • Run errands (dry cleaning, bank, pharmacy)
  • Housework (hall closet, bathrooms, vacuum)
  • Bills and correspondence

That way, time is there to address them, and you can tackle the list effectively during that time without distraction.

If all three types of activities show up on the radar, we know priorities aren’t lost in tasks or appointments won’t overrun laundry. It’s a great first step in managing time and tasks!

Refresh: All That Stuff

Published on by Kim

My home contains a lot of stuff. A LOT. OF STUFF. Can you relate at all? If you choose not to be minimalist (or minimalist in spirit but not practice), you end up having to find a place for all that stuff. Once your closets are full, or if you don’t have many closets, we often end up looking at cabinets or shelves for the rest. And that is a good option for items we use often, like shelf-stable food or cookie sheets or toiletries. But the option will hurt more than help if it’s not sufficiently organized.

It helps to be able to find what you need AND cut down on visual clutter. Shelving is great because it is easy to access. It can be a problem, though, if it’s just more layers of unknown piles stacking to the ceiling. If what you need is buried, you can’t get it and you are oppressing your brain in the process!

Sort. Sort. Sort. Put like items together. Make it easy to see where things are in a split-second glance. Which items are often used together? Plastic food storage containers can be in the section next to the plastic bags for post-dinner clean-up.

Fit the items to the shelf size. Big shelf, big stuff. Push the little things to the smaller shelves. The less you have stacked, the easier it is to put your hand on it when needed. Keep the big, tall books on the taller shelves and the short paperbacks on the more narrow shelves. It will fill the space better and look neat.

Put what you use most where it is easiest to reach. The heavier, less frequently used stuff can go on the very bottom shelf. The lighter items can go on the top shelf. You will see and reach for the middle shelves the most, so save yourself a few inches.

IMG_4225Hide in plain sight. Just as in closets, this is for shelving in a room. Using baskets or bins or banker’s boxes covered in contact paper will help cut down on the clutter in the room. It is there, but you don’t have to look at it until you need it. Using a neutral color for the bins will make the shapes blend into the background — or you can take the opportunity to add a pop of color to the room.

Mix up your shelving. You can use the same set of shelves for books, a few boxes, a vase with flowers, a few picture frames, and toy storage. It looks decorative, just like in catalogs! This will also help relieve some of the pressure to fill the shelf. Keep what you need and is meaningful. If you only need enough books, toys and pictures to fill one shelving unit — excellent. If it eventually expands to two, no problem, but don’t expand just to fill space.