daily.docket

Ok, so I pretty much came to the conclusion that I needed to get a bit more organized with my time. This past fall went well with home schooling, but I was realizing more and more that I needed to get as much done as usual PLUS squeeze in a couple of hours of school. Some days were overwhelming and some not so much.

So, what to do? Well, I was reading the Simple Mom blog (which I love), and she was talking about her daily dockets. I was pretty sure that this was something I could use. After all, it's a list, and I love lists!!! I mean I really, really love them.

This is a copy of one of Simple Mom's daily dockets (the way that she would fill it out). In her "blog" box, I list my business stuff. And, if you download her dockets (which are free), the second page leaves the blog box blank for you to fill in the way that you want! Perfect....I just print the second page. (Sorry that you can't see it better...if you click here you can see a better picture of it.)

I have a couple of favorite parts to this daily docket. My first favorite part is the "MIT" section. These are your 3 Most Important Things to get done for the day. If you do these 3 things, you'll at least feel like you got something accomplished for the day! It feels sooooo good to check those MIT's off the list.

Next, I love the "what's for dinner" part because it makes me think ahead (the night before) about what we're going to have for dinner. That way if it's a crock pot meal...I can put it in the crock pot in the morning, instead of remembering at 2:30 that I wanted a crock pot meal for dinner. Or, if there is some prep work that I can do at lunch to get ready for dinner, it makes the whole dinner prep go faster.

I cannot tell you how much better my day goes when I follow this docket! I put it together the night before, and I wake up with a plan for the day. No more meaningless time spent surfing, browsing, twiddling away. I actually put blogging and web surfing on my "to do" list some days. That way, I plan for it. That's the beauty of it...if you plan for it (and watch your clock), you don't go over because you've planned 30 minutes to do it and then you're going to be done! You have other things to do.

Here's the key (especially if you have little ones who like to throw your schedule off!)...you only schedule 1 or 2 things per hour. Here is an example of what would be on my daily docket time schedule:

8:00 Breakfast, check email
9:00 Breakfast for girls, unload dishwasher
10:00 School
11:00 School
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Laundry
2:00 PM school
3:00 girls rest time, read, blog
4:00 snack for girls, daily cleaning
5:00 prep dinner
6:00 dinner
7:00 prep bedtime, read to girls
8:00 girls in bed, laundry
9:00 sew
10:00 business stuff
11:00 bed

See, I never feel guilty about sewing or blogging or other "fun" stuff because I know that I planned in time to do my laundry and do my daily cleaning! It's liberating!! Really. I used to have these thoughts all day about...well I should be doing this or that...not anymore.

I only put one/maybe two things on my list because I never know that to expect from Amelia. She might wake up at 7:30 or 9:00. This gives me some flexibility to catch up now and then if I only have one thing on my list for that hour. Our afternoon school often allows me to get something else done. We're usually coloring, painting, or doing play-doh, or the girls are playing a game of some kind. If I take 15 minutes and get them going, they'll play for an hour. I can get caught up or get ahead during these times!

Here's the challenge...try the daily docket for 2 weeks and see if you like it! I'm guessing that you'll see an improvement in your time management. These are great if you're home all day or just in the evenings...even evenings need to be planned out to be well managed!