OrganizingNeeds hints and tips on organizing your house? Are you a clutterbug or do you pile things instead of filing things? Help out where you have succeeded or ask for help from this great group of friends!
Are you a listmaker or do it as you think of it (or have time) type person?
I am a listmaker but sometimes I have to remind myself I am ONE person when I get carried away with my list and there is absolutely no way I could ever get everything done that I write down. And when I can't get everything done, I get discouraged.
I am very organized in my MIND but sometimes I think my mind thinks I am Superwoman!! NOT!!! My mind also forgets that I need a lot of sleep!!!
Location: Originally from the Home of the only 6 times Super Bowl Champs!
Posts: 12,099
Re: organizational lists......
Quote:
Originally posted by trainlady
I am very organized in my MIND but sometimes I think my mind thinks I am Superwoman!! NOT!!! My mind also forgets that I need a lot of sleep!!!
You have described me perfectly!! Im very organized in my mind but a lot of the times it just doesnt make it past there, LOL!
Don't you just hate when you beat yourself up for not getting EVERYTHING done on your list ( OR, the list in your mind!!!) when , in fact, you really HAVE accomplished a lot on any given day!! I just don't give myself enough credit!! And I really DO need a lot of sleep. I think that comes from not having any children and just being used to sleeping long hours. I have all my life.
Maybe you and I need to get rid of our "To Do" lists and start a "What We Did" list!!"
I am SO glad to know there are others who do lists. My family has teased me for years about my lists ~ when it gets really bad, I get teased about having "a list of the lists." Everything I do is by lists, including a running daily list that stretches out sometimes to a month ahead. I even have a notebook for my lists with divider sections that probably borders on the edge of compulsive.
That being said, I find my lists a comfort. Everything is on that list, and although I don't get them all done, I can move them to another day or even another week. Very little sneaks by me and I rarely come up short on anything I am in charge of or need to head up to get done.
Listmakers, know that you are the one who organizes everyone else in your family! Family members who need to know where something is or recall some obscure fact ~ they will come to you! Those of us who maintain lists are, for the most part, very organized, multi-taking people who rarely lose anything or forget something.
I definitely feel that my list-making habits keep me organized! As soon as I think of something that I need to remember, I'm looking for a piece of paper to write it down on. If I don't, I'll forget it then it bothers me greatly because I know there was something I was supposed to remember....but just can't.
It may be a habit, or borderline compulsion...but it is useful! And I look at it as a checklist--I cross off things as I get them done and it makes me feel that I'm really accomplishing something.
I keep a clip board on the dining room table and my hubby and I both add to it whenever we think of something that needs to get done or bought when we go to the city. We live 30 miles from any shopping and 60 from the BIG CITY so we only make the trip about every two weeks. Having that lists is important since we have so far to go. It also helps us remember what we want to get done. My husband has dementia so his memory isn't always good so it is very important for him and I just sort of learned that it helps me too! If we get a page full and we don't finish I just rewrite the "undone" things on a new page and we start over. SO YEAH for lists! We couldn't get by without them!
I have been keeping lists and relying on my calendar for everything the last few years. I couldn't function without them!
I make a list every evening for the next day in a note book. I have one section for things that NEED to be done that day, list of groceries and errands I need to do ( I even have to write down why I am going somewhere- or I sometimes wonder why I went to the store!!!)
Another section of for stuff that needs to get done, but don't worry if I don't do it all today.
The calendar keeps me posted on current events.
I think I sometimes have tooo much on my plate, but believe it or not, I think that is what keeps me sane. Idle minds are depressed minds. hehhe
One nice thing to do for yourself, is find those rare days on the calendar that you are not compelled to leave home and circle that space. I tell me kids, see, that is my stay home day. I find only 4 of those a month but they help make the margin that keeps us all sane.
If we are stay at home moms, why aren't we ever home???
A friend has 2 of 4 kids working with no other drivers - yet. She has found that very little homeschooling can get done when you are constantly driving in circles. (And she teases me about my lists.)
Oh - a tragedy - my date book was soaked in a long story that I won't tell here. But I felt my brain was soggy for 2 week while I waited for all the papers to dry. I use a 3 ring binder to keep all the lists for all the family members and the 4H club and all that. Much less the wet calendar and permission and entry forms. The binder is fine but the colored tab dividers are sad and wrinkly despite the pile of books on top while they dried.
Claim your quiet spaces and travel at a slower pace on those days. Even half days of 'open choice' let you breathe more calmly.
He has a list for everything!
I am VERY good at this! LOL!
Lists are sanity savers! 
