I received the email below from Women Only Connected.com and it made me think about what I tend to do. How do I manage to keep an eye on everything that needs to be done and still make time for myself and my family as well as getting all the work done? First, here is the email I received. My answer can be found below:
Plan ahead, clarify your priorities and stay focused!
Ladies,
We are so busy juggling family and work commitments, just getting through each day can be a struggle!
But, to make the best use of time we need to plan ahead, clarify our priorities and stay focused!
Not quite so easy when the sun is shining and our only focus is enjoying every moment of it!
Can YOU help?
Do you have a BLOG, VIDEO, EVENT, any ideas and suggestions as to how we can make more effective use of our time, still enjoy our relaxation, have less stress but achieve our goals?
Log in to WomenOnlyConnected.com and share YOUR expertise!
We CAN have it all with careful planning.
If you have friends who have expertise to share or need inspiration on how to stay focused on their Business, invite them to join us. There is always a warm welcome for everyone.
Don’t forget it’s FREE to promote YOUR Business, raise your Profile and share your expertise with thousands of amazing women ‘getting through each day’ just like you!
Jenny www.WomenOnlyConnected.com
Okay, I admit it. I suffer from a bit of OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder if you wish.
Instead of letting this rule my life, I use it to be in charge of my life. Over the years I have learned to put it to work for me rather than against me.
So, how do I do that?
I have a bit of a need for order and structure (okay, okay, it perhaps is more than a bit) and I am someone who makes use of lists a lot.
I have an app on my Kindle, Informant v.4.05.00, which is a calendar and task app. It works very well for me and over time I have put a schedule in it to work to my advantage.
· Every repetitive task has been added to this schedule (cleaning the bathrooms, the kitchen, changing the beds, doing the laundry, folding, ironing, etc).
· They have all been added with a day and time of when they are due (and how frequently they are to be repeated).
· Even my writing, editing, showering, the garden and other tasks have been added to this schedule.
· Although this has been organised rather tightly, I do allow myself a little bit of room there. After all, I am human and sometimes I just don’t feel like doing everything I had put on the schedule for that day. Every now and then I will skip cleaning the bathrooms for a day.
So, what does a typical day for me look like?
04.30: Get up and get dressed, go to the kitchen to start the day.
04.50: Put the bowls on the worktop, measure the ingredients for the fresh bread.
04.55: Mix the ingredients and knead the dough for the first time. Put the oven on.
05.05: Leave the dough to rest and in the meantime empty the dishwasher and put everything away.
05.20: Knead the dough for the second time, leave it to rest again.
05.25: Do any dishes by hand and clean the worktop, start folding the laundry.
05.35: Form the dough into bread rolls and leave them to rest if time or otherwise put them in the oven.
05.40: Put the bread rolls in the oven to bake. Continue the folding and ironing. Tidy the kitchen a little.
06.00: Get the bread out of the oven and leave it to cool for a short while, then make lunch for the other half.
06.05: Read for a short period while waiting for the other half to wake up and get ready.
06.20: Return upstairs with lunch for the other half and the laundry. Tidy the laundry away and hand lunch to hubby.
06.30: Wish my other half a good day at work and go back to the kitchen to replace the washing basket and get a bucket and mop to clean the bathrooms. Clean the bathrooms.
06.50: Clean the washing machine and the bin, mop the kitchen floor. Put the laundry in the machine and turn it on.
07.00: Start doing a bit of gardening and water the plants.
08.30: Have a shower after the sweaty work.
09.00: Start going through my emails and check my to-do list for the day. (I also have Eclipse manager to help keep track of other tasks)
Once all that is done, I have the rest of the day for writing, editing and dealing with everything that is related to CRAFT Challenge. Yes, on top of being a housewife (recently retired career woman), wife, mother and author, I am also the Design Team leader for CRAFT Challenge, a crafting blog. This also includes a lot of organising like arranging sponsors and sending them reminders, ordering images for the design team to work with and making sure the members of the team receive them. Chasing them up to make sure that all the projects are in on time to have them included in the challenge post. Answering any emails related to the challenge blog and deal with the winners of the challenge and forwarding their emails to the sponsor to claim their prize.
Yes, I kind of have a rather busy life. Still, I have time to deal with family life and all the jobs that need to get done. Still, I don’t go crazy.
Why not? Because I use my OCD to my advantage and rather than it controlling my life, I control it to keep in charge of my life. Yes, it is an annoying characteristic as my hubby keeps reminding me. He does not see the need to have the herbs and spices in alphabetical order. He does not see that it makes it so much easier to know where to find the one I want. And yes, sometimes it is annoying to me as well. Especially when one of my kids wants to help out and does it in an order that is different from mine, thereby upsetting my schedule and making me a little irritable.
I never said I was completely in control of my OCD. 😃😉😉
Maybe you will be able to use a little bit of OCD to help you keep in charge of your life as well.
Love,
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