Flylady Control Journals

[DomesticGoddess]

I've been working on mine, trying to get it "perfect" so I will use it. Today I set it up and I have it in this order:

Emergency contact list
My goals (these are goals I want to improve on throughout the year)

Then I have these colored see-thru pocket dividers that in the pockets I have put the detailed cleaning lists for each zone in, and then after the divider I have my daily to do lists for each day of the week so I can mark off each day my various tasks. So I have 5 dividers and 5 zones.

After all that, I have some blank daily plan forms to use if I ever decide to use them and a worksheet I printed off the flylady site for FACEing your bank blance.

[DomesticGoddess]

Since flylady is going back and helping us create our control journals, I thought I would do this in my yahoo group too so that we can discuss it together etc. I posted the first 4 steps this morning there (not verbatim) with my own commentary and I just thought I would share. I am going to go ahead and post the first 4 here too.

Flylady is going thru the basics of creating a control journal, so I thought
maybe those of us who have or want one could follow this thread. Just look for
the creating your control journal subject line.

1. Get your control journal out, if you have one already started or bought.

2. Create a before bed routine. Label the top of the sheet "My Before Bed
Routine" and label numbers down the page 1-5. Flylady has specific things
for 1-3, like shine sink, lay out clothes (which I never do, I don't like to do that
at night), and brush your teeth. The shine sink thing is a good reminder for
me. I always TRY to run the dishwasher of a night before I go to bed or when I
go to bed, so in the morning I have a clean load to unload and it is ready to be
filled up again. I don't list things like brush teeth because they are already
habit for me. That still leaves 4 and 5. Don't worry about them yet. At the
bottom of the page, she wants us to write "Go to bed at a decent hour". Again,
not really a problem for me. NORMALLY I do go to bed at a decent hour. If you
have a sheet protector, put it in it. If you don't, don't worry about it, you can
grab some the next time you are out.

3. The next step is creating a morning routine. Even after we make our
routine, flylady does not expect us to go through it the first day. Get a fresh
sheet of paper and write at the top "Morning Routine". She has us numbering
the paper 1-11. Some things she has listed are "Get up and hit the ground
FLYing, make bed, dress to shoes, while in bathroom swish toilet, wipe down
counters and put things away. This is called a "Swish and Swipe". I kinda like
that. Empty the dishwasher (I use this one) and check calendar (I use this one
too!) She also wants us to write "What a way to start my day" at the bottom of
the page. If you want, you can just write Michelle Rocks or something of that
nature _ Then put the morning routine on the BACK side of the evening
routine._ This is going to be a section called DAILY ROUTINES.

Some helpful things she recommends as we start our new journey flying is to
put posty notes up in the bathroom to remind us to swish and swipe, to check
our calendars, and to check our control journals. If you already have a
morning routine, this is a good time to look it over and see if there are things
you can remove or move to another area, or if there are things you need to
add.

4. Now we are working on the After work/After school/Afternoon Routine,
depending on what you do. The After school routine is recommended for the
children and you could have both if there are hours in between a couple. She
has us numbering the page 1-5 and leaving room in between the numbers.
The numbered items she lists are things like change clothes, start dinner,
drink some water (hey, she must have heard about our water diet!!) and set
the table. Now is a good time to also start on before bed routines. We don't
have to wait until we are ready to crash to start them.

If you want more details then you need to subscribe to the flylady mentor's
yahoo group email list so you can get them. This is a brief overview with my
comments inserted and none of this is copied word by word LOL This is all
she has sent out so far, so when she sends out some more, I will be sharing it
here to help us get our control journals under_ control.

[barbszy]

Thanks, Michelle!
I have all the best intentions in the world, but I have trouble with the follow-through!

Off to shine my sink I skipped it when I did the dishes just now....

I think I will spend a week building each routine. This week it will be my Evening Routine.
Here it is:
Kitchen cleanup (includes dishes, floor, & shiny sink)
Brush teeth (already a habit)
Set out clothes for next morning
Night prayers

Instead of a paper control journal (more clutter on my desk) I am going to put my routines into my computer. They'll pop up on my daily calendar.

[bsktbug2]

Yeah my two favorite websites come together!!!

I have been flying for a month now. I move a little slower in my baby steps, but my living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom are under control. For now, I choose to shut bedroom doors and deal with the public areas first.

My dh and I live out of the control journal we have established. We check our calendars every night, as both of us work crazy hours and odd schedules pop up all the time.

We subscribed to Leanne's Menu Mailer and couldn't be more pleased. We put the week's menu/recipes right in the control journal, in the order we need them for the week. Not only do we not have to worry about what is for dinner, we know we have everything needed, either one of us can start dinner if we are home first, and we are saving $50-70 per week while eating healthy!

I'm really enjoying Flying!

What areas have you found most helpful?