Organization

Once, at a play date I had a new friend ask me how I stay so organized.  The question took me off guard and I had to laugh out loud and then when I told my husband that night he almost fell out of his chair laughing. Obviously she didn't know me too well and hadn't ever seen my office.  This is how my computer desk looks on a regular basis. (yeah, not too proud of that but it's the real me!)

Although I can't claim to be an organizational queen I do have a few tricks up my sleeve that help me stay sane.  Probably my most important tool is my white board in my office.  On it I have things written out so I can see it daily, what's going on and what I need to do.  It helps me keep focused.

I start with daily goals.  Where I write down six, usually small, things that I'm going to get done that day.  I started this when I first had a baby I felt like all I did is take care of him and that I never got anything accomplished.  With the daily goals I can see what I am getting done even if it's small.  I can go to bed now with the house in chaos but feeling good because I met my goals for the day. I always try to have a goal on there that's going to make me feel better about life, such as exercising or calling a friend to talk.  And of course I don't always get them done, life happens and sometimes it just doesn't work out.  If I don't get it done then I usually leave them up for the next day and try again.

Next is weekly goals.  These are bigger projects that I want to get done.  I try to pull something off my big to do list and put it on here.  Then in my six daily goals I set up smaller goals to help me get the weekly one done.  For example, one of my weekly goals is to organize the office then I wrote down file for 15 minutes on my daily goal list.

The rest is pretty much self explanatory.  I have the big to do list, which always seems super long.  I find if I write it down I'm much less likely to forget and it's more likely to get done.  I'm one of those people who loves to cross things off a list.  Then there's a don't forget column so I don't forget a birthday party or upcoming event.  A column for people I need to email and one for people I need to call.  I'm one of those people who often listens to a message but can't call the person back right then and then I forget it all together.  This just helps me remember.

This white board isn't a magical answer to all my organizational problems but it sure helps.  It helps me keep my head on straight and more importantly it helps me feel like I actually do get something done each day.