When I was growing up, my mom kept a FlyLady notebook full of routines, menu plans, and other housekeeping information. I expanded this idea, and now have an old blue binder that I use for life planning and household management. Keeping goals, plans and records all in one place makes it easier to evaluate progress. Having phone numbers and other important information on paper is great for when the internet doesn't work. This kind of notebook is easy to make.
Find a three-ring binder and some lined notebook paper. Find a three-ring hole punch to use on printed pages. I have dividers for the following sections:
Personal
I keep the following information in the first half of my notebook.
1. Household Information: phone numbers, birthdays & anniversaries, routines and/or to-do lists.
2. Dreams & Goals: long-term goals (5-year, 10-year, someday), my ideal day, and short-term goals (yearly, quarterly, monthly).
3. Personal Development: people skills, productivity, and personality type info. I keep a summary of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and a summary of Getting Things Done in this section.
4. Money/Finance: monthly budget. You can also keep your financial goals, investment ideas or other money-related information in this section.
5. Health & Fitness: nutrition information, workout plans, fitness goals and health records. Each month I try to take some measurements, weight and body fat percentage and write it in this section. It takes about 5 minutes. You can also keep a log of exercise and/or weight lifting records here. Keeping records will tell you if you're making any progress and help you keep on track to meeting your fitness goals.
Homemaking
I keep the following sections in the last half of my notebook.
1. Cleaning: Daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual cleaning check-list.
2. Gardening: garden plans, seed inventory, dried herb inventory, quarterly canning checklist, planting instructions, garden records from previous year, other gardening information.
3. Cooking: recipes (only complicated ones too big to fit on a recipe card), freezer inventory, pantry inventory, other cooking information.
4. Decorating: home decorating information, pictures of homes that I like (a physical Pinterest board).
5. Relationships: mostly notes from marriage books that Hubs and I have read together. You could also include date ideas here.
6. Foraging: information on identifying plants and trees in your area.
7. Goats/Animals: breeding and other care records, information on hoof trimming and other husbandry.
And that's all folks! It's good to review your notebook once a month, or at least once quarterly. Sometimes I make copies of this information and put it in other places: menu plan gets posted inside a kitchen cabinet, phone numbers should be beside the phone, cleaning checklists by the cleaning cart, etc. Most of my recipes are in a recipe card holder in the kitchen.
In addition to this notebook, I also have a small monthly planner from the dollar store. I use this to scribble "unofficial" records in- things like when the maple sap is running or how long it took for the tomato seeds to sprout. This way I don't have to get out my big notebook if I want to make a quick note of something. Later I transfer the scribbles into the appropriate sections if necessary.
Another thing you may want to keep is a calendar of events. Hubs and I don't have very many events to write down, but this may be helpful if you have children.
How do you plan and keep organized?
Find a three-ring binder and some lined notebook paper. Find a three-ring hole punch to use on printed pages. I have dividers for the following sections:
Personal
I keep the following information in the first half of my notebook.
1. Household Information: phone numbers, birthdays & anniversaries, routines and/or to-do lists.
2. Dreams & Goals: long-term goals (5-year, 10-year, someday), my ideal day, and short-term goals (yearly, quarterly, monthly).
3. Personal Development: people skills, productivity, and personality type info. I keep a summary of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and a summary of Getting Things Done in this section.
4. Money/Finance: monthly budget. You can also keep your financial goals, investment ideas or other money-related information in this section.
5. Health & Fitness: nutrition information, workout plans, fitness goals and health records. Each month I try to take some measurements, weight and body fat percentage and write it in this section. It takes about 5 minutes. You can also keep a log of exercise and/or weight lifting records here. Keeping records will tell you if you're making any progress and help you keep on track to meeting your fitness goals.
Homemaking
I keep the following sections in the last half of my notebook.
1. Cleaning: Daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual cleaning check-list.
2. Gardening: garden plans, seed inventory, dried herb inventory, quarterly canning checklist, planting instructions, garden records from previous year, other gardening information.
3. Cooking: recipes (only complicated ones too big to fit on a recipe card), freezer inventory, pantry inventory, other cooking information.
4. Decorating: home decorating information, pictures of homes that I like (a physical Pinterest board).
5. Relationships: mostly notes from marriage books that Hubs and I have read together. You could also include date ideas here.
6. Foraging: information on identifying plants and trees in your area.
7. Goats/Animals: breeding and other care records, information on hoof trimming and other husbandry.
And that's all folks! It's good to review your notebook once a month, or at least once quarterly. Sometimes I make copies of this information and put it in other places: menu plan gets posted inside a kitchen cabinet, phone numbers should be beside the phone, cleaning checklists by the cleaning cart, etc. Most of my recipes are in a recipe card holder in the kitchen.
In addition to this notebook, I also have a small monthly planner from the dollar store. I use this to scribble "unofficial" records in- things like when the maple sap is running or how long it took for the tomato seeds to sprout. This way I don't have to get out my big notebook if I want to make a quick note of something. Later I transfer the scribbles into the appropriate sections if necessary.
Another thing you may want to keep is a calendar of events. Hubs and I don't have very many events to write down, but this may be helpful if you have children.
How do you plan and keep organized?
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