If you are a typical woman, working outside the home or not, I bet you have a lot of plates to keep spinning and a lot of different hats to wear, YES? So, how do you keep track of all those “plates and hats?” I guess that answer is different for each of us, but I will share with you what works for me!
First of all, I try to write down as much as possible. I keep a small notebook in my purse for writing down ideas or “to-do’s.” That way I will actually remember them in all the chaos going on around me. Otherwise I find myself later thinking, “what was I going to remember?” I like to keep a pen and paper next to my bed, too, so I don’t lay in bed with something on my mind keeping me up at night. Write it out, get it out, so you can deal with the task at hand.
Some of my current “tasks at hand” are : Homeschooling my three boys, getting our new business up and running, keeping up with general household tasks (especially laundry!) and maintaining a healthy relationship with my husband and kids. I am sure we all have these and MANY more to add to the list!
And second, I am a very “out of sight, out of mind” type person, so in order to stay on task and remember my priorities I like to write it all out and display it where I can see it all day, everyday. And now is a great time to find tools like these in stores as the back to school items are still available! I found these dry erase boards at Wal-mart recently.
What works for me is to assign a color to each person or event to be on the calender. That makes it easy to recognize quickly and from a distance. Being that it is a dry erase board, that also makes it easy to add or rearrange when things don’t go as expected. This particular board is magnetic, as well, and I found some dry erase markers with magnets on the caps to keep everything in one place.
I was excited to find these chore charts for the boys, too! Two of my boys are not readers yet, so I use pictures to display their chores. Even young children can take part in daily chores. Start them early so helping out around the house becomes a habit.
This journey of life has many things to keep us occupied and we can lose our focus in all the busy-ness! Being busy doesn’t always mean we are getting a lot accomplished. Weed out the fluff and focus on your biggest priorities! What helps you to keep track of all your “plates and hats?”