Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Monthly Mission – Home Filing System
-Check Out These Pages! – Relevant pages and new site additions
-Decluttering Our Minds - Part 1

Introduction

How is everyone doing? Did anyone go check out Flylady? I pulled out my old book of routines which definitely needed to be updated. My morning routine included pumping milk for my baby, who is turning 10 in a few days! I revamped my daily routines to suit my current situation and schedule and have those to guide me through what needs to be done daily to keep things mostly clean and tidy. There is always room for tweaking and there are always things that need deeper cleaning when time permits, but it’s a start! Besides, we don’t do “perfect” around here. I also receive Flylady’s daily “Lite” email of reminders.

Getting our house organized is only the physical part of our world. What about organizing our minds? We are so bombarded with information and demands for our attention these days it can be overwhelming. Organizing one part of our lives will definitely enhance the other part as well. Read more below.

Click the logo above to learn more!

In the U.S, it’s tax season! Don’t forget to file your taxes by April 15th. But no matter where you are, you probably have a constant flow of papers coming into your home, from mail, school papers, etc. What should you do with it all? To read more about April’s monthly mission, click here.

If you’re in a hurry to put some order back into your home, perhaps Mimi Tanner's unique method will give you that jumpstart. Check out her method at Declutter Fast: How To Get Your Home In Order Almost Immediately.

Here are some pertinent pages on the website you may have missed along with any new pages.

Organize Your Cleaning Supplies - Get your cleaning supplies sorted and organized so you are ready to clean when the moment strikes you (or not).

Garage Organizing - Take advantage of the spring weather to get outside and clean out your garage! Declutter the excess stuff and put everything else in its place.

Home Filing System - Get your papers in order with these guidelines for a home filing system. Know what to keep and what to let go.

Morning routine - Make your morning go smoother by planning ahead for your day.

Meal Planning - Plan ahead for meals to reduce trips to the grocery store and save time.

Time Savers - To help streamline your life, here are some daily time savers.

Decluttering Our Minds – Part 1

I have been feeling quite overwhelmed and have realized that it’s not the order of my house, but it’s the clutter in my mind. I am pretty organized in the sense that bills are paid on time, appointments are on the calendar and we show up on time, library books are turned in on time, etc. So it’s not about that.

Rather, it’s the other stuff that’s floating around in my head, of things I think I need to do someday. I have a list of things I want to do in my mind, that may not all be written down on a list somewhere, or that first I need to complete X before I can do Y. I have a stack of books I want to read, recipes I want to try, hobbies I want to do, and life improvements for health I want to implement. I have a huge stack of books I’ve started to read, but didn’t finish, and audio courses I’ve started working through, but never finished. There is just SO many things I want to do, that I often feel like a deer in the headlights not knowing what to do next, and often getting sidetracked from whatever I do end up doing. Plus, there are only so many hours in the day. This feeling of being unable to do all the things I desire leads me to frustration and leaving things incomplete. This is where my overwhelm is coming from and I really dislike it.

Here’s a perfect example… over a year ago, I bought the most beautiful fabric to make a really pretty spring blouse. I have yet to get around to making it. It would likely only take me a few short hours. But you see, because I am in the mindset that I need to have X, Y, Z done before I can allocate time to something that’s fun, and there is so much X, Y and Z on the to do list, the blouse never gets sewn. Which is also sad because we all know that doing things that makes us feel happy are important for our physical and mental health in the long run.

Funny too how the fun enjoyable things that contribute to our joy and happiness never get scheduled into our daily schedules. I think this needs to change. Yes, our chores, work and errands must get done, but we must also enjoy some personal time doing things we like.

Here’s my plan for the next couple of months, if you’d like to learn along with me. I’m going to start with these areas:

• Do a mind dump
• Remove distractions
• Learn better time management

Doing A Mind Dump

I believe I have written about this in the past. About a year ago I started following a program based on the book by David Allen called "Getting Things Done". One of the things they recommend doing is a mind dump. Just get all that stuff floating around in your head out and onto paper so that it doesn’t get forgotten and lost, and so that you don’t continue to ruminate over it again and again. I definitely need to do a new mind dump!

Write down everything you need to do or want to do, such as:

• Schedule doctor appointments
• Call for appliance repair
• Change the light bulb in the laundry room
• Buy new socks
• Read books X, Y, Z etc.
• Sew new blouse
• Repair the leaky sprinklers
• Write a blog post
• Paint family room
• Recipes to try
• Buy present for xxx
• Find a business class

This list could go on for pages, but it’s just an example to get you started. This way, instead of while you’re walking through the house you say “oh, I still need to change that light bulb” and then forget about it until the next time you walk by, it’s on “the list”.

Set aside some quiet time to empty your mind onto paper. Get it all out. You can always add more things to it later as well. Be sure to list all the fun things you want to do as well. This is not just a list of chores!!

What Now?

David Allen has an entire process for dealing with these items. However, for now, skim through your list. Is there anything urgent you need to do today? This week? Pull those out and put them on your current to do list for this week. Is there anything you can do that will take 2 min. or less? Then do it right now.

Be sure to keep the master list handy so you can tackle those other items after you finish these first.

I’m off now to go do my mind dump! I will keep you posted. Share your thoughts with me as well. You can find me on Facebook at Plan and Organize Life on Facebook


Until next time, happy organizing!

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com