My Weekly Planner

I’m getting organised! Or better organised, I should really say. Now, I am a naturally organised person. The type with a family organiser calendar (and the type who is really happy to receive said organiser as a Christmas gift..!), where it has reminders such as ‘worm dog’, ‘wash Dyson filter’, ‘descale washing machine’ every few months on it – I kid you not. And I’m aware I run the risk of losing readers by sharing this level of sadness with you. But it’s me, so the truth will out!

I enjoy being organised. It offers me some control and perhaps, after a career where I was managing so many people and juggling so many responsibilities, this control gives me purpose. Yep, our little hound being wormed on time is much the same as that.

Anyhow, with Little Man getting more independent (he’s fully weaned so I needn’t be so near to breastfeed him, I don’t mean he’s off with his own social calendar!), my thoughts turn to increasing the hours I can put into my business, along with wanting to increase time spent on various quality activities with the children, wanting to get back into meal planning so that we’re eating healthier and waste less money, build in time for my blogs and new ‘pursuits’. There’s not quite enough hours in the day, though I have created solutions to that one – I now stay up an hour later every day. I’m tired, but I’m ‘creating’ an extra hour that I can do stuff in.

So what have I done? I have dug out my weekly planner. And I love it! I’m writing this at the end of my first week of using it, and I can honestly say that I’ve achieved so much more this week, yet feel more relaxed as it hasn’t felt stressful.

Here is my planner (I sell them, so it was pretty easy to just go & get one!)

It has several columns with blank headers, so I have ‘Plans’, ‘Meals’, ‘Activities’, ‘Work’ & ‘To Do’.  On this pad, I do my meal planning, which has meant a cheaper weekly shopping bill, an activity to do with the kids such as a new idea for creative play from blogs I read or my Pinterest board, my work column ensures that all of those things I need to do & are adding up in my notes section on my phone have been broken down into a few manageable chunks daily, and have all been done.  The ‘to do’s are little reminders such as paying credit card bill, booking vets appt, wrapping ‘x’ birthday gift and so on. Oh, and my blogging’s built in!
I’m enjoying this new level of planning. There’s still plenty of room for spontaneity and inbuilt flexibility, because for all my love of being organised, I do like to be able to go with the flow and react to what the children want each day, and actually, this has improved that, too. As I know what I should be doing, I get it done faster and so have more time freed up for having fun with them each day.

Work has advanced, food has been healthier and tastier (and my cooking confidence has increased as my repertoire grows), money has been saved through proper planning, more blog posts have been written on both blogs and we’ve had more play time fun.

I love my weekly planner 🙂

(I’ve a few organiser products in my shop now)

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