As you know I’m not a big fan of lateness. I think this in part is down to an obsessive need to keep my life organised. I don’t like mess or clutter. I’m not great with spontaneity. Basically I like to feel in control. I’m sure at this point my readers are slowly backing away from the weird uptight blogger, so let me explain.
I have a messy head For example: when I try to follow a train of thought it usually goes like this …. Right must get milk today,milk, OK brain-milk, gosh isn’t it cold. Cold enough for snow? Perhaps we will have snow, brilliant! Snowmen, sledging, oh! hot chocolate, mmm chocolate, now then what was I supposed to remember??
So you see, I need to be in control of things or my children would have been left in the park and I would be sat in the bath knitting.
To organise my life I have a whiteboard. The purpose of this post is to share the Secrets of the Whiteboard (gosh sounds like maybe this is going to turn into a religious order, the Monks of the Whiteboard?). Hopefully this will help other people (who like me spend large chunks of their day thinking about pixies) to not lose their children or their knitting.
So here is the whiteboard. It is not pretty but it is functional.
The first step in the ‘organise your life with a whiteboard’ plan is obviously to buy a whiteboard. For me the bigger the better, but then I need a lot of organising. Ok so I divide my whiteboard into five sections at the moment (the beauty is you can change it to suit whatever you need organising)
First in section one I have written the days of the week. This is my Weeks Calendar. I use Google calendar on my PC, phone and iPad. The problem is that I don’t necessarily remember to look at my cyber calendar.So on my board I write the current Weeks Calendar, for my whole family. Then I don’t forget any appointments for anyone. I also include jobs like laundry, and cleaning on the Daily Planner, as otherwise I really wouldn’t remember to do them.
Secondly I have a Meal Plan. I seriously love meal planning, it saves me from having to think about what to cook every day when I’m tired and uninspired. It also saves me from buying food I don’t need. I plan for five days of the week, leaving two days for spontaneity (and this is as ‘rock n roll’ as it gets in my home).
Thirdly and finally a Long Term Jobs list and a To Do Today list. The division of these lists is purely for self gratification ( I love a bit of self gratification!) So you could just have one to do list if you would prefer. I like to move jobs across to the To Do Today list because I like the satisfaction of a finished to do list, which would never happen otherwise.
Now I seriously doubt anyone is considering adopting my Whiteboard of Organisation at this point, probably anyone still reading is just giggling at my insanity. If anyone is though, you can basically customise your whiteboard however you want, with whatever lists suit your life. So go forth with multicoloured wipe clean pens and organise your life.
I love it! I am so getting a whiteboard. Must remember to keep it out of reach of the kids though. It would be just my luck to miss a really important appointment because one of the kids had rubbed it out!
That’s brilliant, I would love a whiteboard. Actually I had a small one once, but it wasn’t very good and the pen didn’t wipe off very well so I didn’t use it. We are moving soon, perhaps I will try and find a place for one in my new kitchen. I love to do lists and I also love crossing things off. I do agree that it would need to be kept well out of reach of the kids though!
Fantastic! You sound a lot like me! I am not keen on mess or spontaneity either! I like to be organised and I drive people around me mad. But I also have the worst memory, so I have to be organised and write everything down. Anal? Yes! Organised? Yes! And don’t get me started on meal planning …
I love stationery so any excuse I have to buy more has won me! I’m dreaming of all the pretty colour-coding I could do! Looks like you’ve got a good system going.
See, I told you it was a good idea!! I’m so jealous, I’m rubbish at organising and my whiteboard would be covered in takeaway menus and doodles of willies in a matter of days. Kudos to you, you’ve found a way of getting through the days with the minimum of fuss. Love it!
Phew good to see no one thinks I’m a nutter (or your all being really nice and using gentle voices in case I proper lose it). Thanks for all the comments.
I’m not keen on mess either but seem to be forever mired in it. I like spontaneity though, just don’t get enough of it with 4 kids!
My brain works a lot like yours, so I wonder if a whiteboard might work for us. In fact I think I saw one in the garage somewhere. Garage- I need to get someone to look at the door, it isn’t opening easily. Oh and the paint is peeling off. Damn, I forgot to peel DD3’s apple for her. Now she won’t eat it, so I must remember to fish it out before half term. This one time, at half-term, I forgot to check and left a banana. That wasn’t a pleasant for a morning we were rushing to get to school.
Wait, what was thinking about again?
I so need to get myself a white board! My brain is exactly the same as that! I walked into town today to pay a cheque in and realised when I got home that I had forgotten to do it! I have a diary but I don’t even look in it so it’s pointless! Fab idea x
Your mind is the same as mine but how I ask are you more organised?!!!
My board would end up with pretty pictures and then my kids would come along and do more pretty pictures and eventually it would be just one pretty mess! Somewhat like my life can be.
So perhaps the whiteboard idea is for after all 🙂
It takes discipline and I have to admit the occasional flower or pixie picture does make it onto the whiteboard.
I totally need to get myself a whiteboard! I have downloaded several different apps onto my phone to try and get myself organised but I never remember to look at them, I have also used the old fashioned paper and pencil method but I always lose the piece of paper. A whiteboard would be perfect.
The extra ‘To Do Today’ list is also a great idea. That way you actually get the satisfaction of ticking things off! As things on my general to-do list tend to stay there for a looooong time (due to the problems mentioned above!)
Great idea! I have started a household notebook but a whiteboard is a fab idea!
What a fab idea. I’m a complete control freak myself. Its so good having it visibly in front of you instead of having to open a diary, log on or log in.
What a good idea! I’m the same – quite disorganised. For example, I must take that bouncer upstairs. I finally did it after 5 months! I just keep forgetting. Think I might adopt your whiteboard strategy. It would definitely help!